The Internet became one big joke when the story about a man who nuked his entire company with a computer code turned out to be a hoax.
The web of lies began when a certain Marco Masala, who reportedly owned a hosting company, posted a question in Server Fault, an online community for experts and administrators of servers.
He had a major problem. He ran an rm-rf code that proved to be disastrous for his and his clients' businesses. It deleted everything in his computer, wiping out his entire business, and unless he had a backup, he'll never get them back again, server experts expressed with great regret.
In other words, he should have been wishing he'd never made the mistake and seriously thinking of filing for a bankruptcy. He should also have been calling up lawyers because most probably his clients will be after him with lawsuits.
But that's not what happened, and there's probably no way that's going to since he already admitted that not only was his story untrue, he might have just trolled everyone - yes, including us.
Inspired by an article he found in a newspaper a long time ago, he just wanted to test these server experts and that the command he posted in the forum was "harmless, but it seems almost no one has noticed," he said [in Italian].
It was also a shot at viral marketing, which, obviously, he successfully did. He was trying to advertise his startup business that specializes in outsourced server management. He's also planning to write a book based on the "inaccuracies" he found in the forum's comments.
Clearly not happy, Stack Overflow, who runs Server Fault, has already deleted the question after it learned of the truth, but it's currently getting suggestions from its members as removing it "will rob the kind people that took the time to answer him of the rep points they earned for this," the site explained.
Although not all rm-rf cases are fake - remember Pixar's tragedy? - perhaps this story strongly reminds us that the trolls are winning.
The best way to deal with this is to remember our mom's sage advice: never trust strangers, especially those who you simply met in the Internet.
