R.I.P. TheMeth • gone way too soon
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Released Thanksgiving 1995
The original AOTurkey was a legendary and fake America Online "proggie" created by TheMeth, SAiNT, and UNi. It was released on Thanksgiving day, 1995. A trojan horse using the AOTurkey name and released as AOTurkey version 3.0 lingers to this day.
AOTurkey and the low-budget online marketing campaign surrounding it were designed to mock the ever-present AOL "warez" scene. In opinion of the creators, this mid-1990s scene primarily consisted of young online "thugs" who typed in alternating text and bragged of "essentially unimpressive exploits". These “prepubescent misfits” often used applications (typically coded in Visual Basic) like the infamous AOHell to perform tasks such as phishing, IM bombing, etc.
In the weeks leading up to AOTurkey's release, much hype was generated about the application. The creators boasted (in jest) about essentially impossible features the software was to have, such as the ability to create any AOL keyword and the ability to make any account Overhead. In reality, AOTurkey was nothing more than a hex-edited version of "Ghost Tools" (a popular mid-1990s Windows application that scrolled a given user-created macro) that contained several macros. The primary macro was a gigantic ASCII turkey, considered the mascot of the software (it was this ASCII turkey that provided the initial inspiration for the program). Other macros included a "M4M Verifier" and the "Rump Session". The majority of the remaining macros made fun of "AdminMike", a fellow member of the AOL underground.
Several "warez kids" were upset to find the application provided none of the advertised features. AOTurkey was attacked by members of the warez community as a "fake proggie". The creators of AOTurkey took no offense: mocking the scene the naysayers frequented was the specific intent of the software, and as such, backlash was expected. A small online protest was lodged by various members of said scene.
Doug's notorious "aoturkey.escape.com" was online as recently as 2003. Sequels to the application include AOTurkey version 2.0 (which featured new and improved macros), AOTurkey version 3.0 (a trojan horse) and AOTurkey XP, a visual model of the original that was coded, somewhat ironically, by AdminMike himself.
When TheMeth was given then America Online CEO Steve Case's password by Red Ryder, the ASCII AOTurkey mascot was proudly scrolled in the senior Overhead lounge (an area of America Online only available to high-tier staff). This accessing of Case's account was documented in an AP press release that ran in early September, 1996.
http://www.tenebril.com/src/info.php?id=104534226
http://www.aolwatch.org/postday2.htm
http://home8.inet.tele.dk/t-b/hpalinks.htm
http://www.econsultant.com/spyware-database/a/aoturkey.html
http://www.angelfire.com/il2/hellzfire/links.html
Text provided by June 1, 2012 archival version of The Full Wiki: AOTurkey
R.I.P. TheMeth • gone way too soon