http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=11102746

The story of paco, as many experienced monks know, has long been an enigma in the Monastery, a source of ongoing curiosity and speculation (click through for more).

Today, the speculation grew curiouser, as newly-discovered evidence seemed deepen the mystery:

  1. Begin by visiting the venerable's home node and noting the date of last visit.

  2. Next, note the post date of this node and then note its Approval nodelet values.

Miracle? Impersonation? Gallifreyan shenanigans? Something else entirely?

Who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So...it remains a right mystery suitable for a lazy Friday hobnob over cherry pies.

--f

Update: Update links to nodes to help play the legend forward.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: The on-going riddle wrapped in a mystery...
by marto (Cardinal) on Jul 12, 2019 at 18:19 UTC

    The kind of playful shenanigans which has tye written all over them. Thanks for posting. Hopefully one day he will return.

Re: The on-going riddle wrapped in a mystery...
by LanX (Saint) on Jul 12, 2019 at 18:02 UTC
    It's possible to login in "cloaked mode".

    AFAIK you'll only decloak and update "last-here" if you post or chat.

    This is meant to prevent conflicts with your boss when browsing at work time.

    Anyway I've always thought that Paco was just a test user who became an inside joke for some admins.

    Especially if a post about "self front-paging/approving" gets moderated by just him...

    That's quite tye'ish.;)

    Cheers Rolf
    (addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
    Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice

      I agree with you and marto. Most likely (imho), tye approved his own post by using divine powers to do it through paco's account.

      I did some digging using my own godly powers, and have assembled the following timeline:

      • 1999-10-26: paco created his account, and posted his sole writeup.
      • 2000-05-25: he uploaded a package from Everything Development. See Hint Information. (It was never used here.)
      • 2000-08-28: he seems to have made an appearance.
      • 2002-06-11: seems to have approved and frontpaged that post by tye
      • 2002-06-11: levelchange - directly from 1 to 5! which is not normally possible.
      • 2002-07-02: homenode.lastedit
      • 2004-01-23: homenode.lastupdate
      • 2004-06-02: scratchpad created
      • 2005-08-15: homenode.nodeupdated

      I suspect that tye was being more ironic than nefarious, given that his post was specifically about this:

      the ability to approve or front-page your own nodes has been taken away
      He had taken away the ability to FP his own node, so wore paco as a sock-puppet to do that deed; and had to jack up paco's level in order to do so easily. :-)

      I reckon we are the only monastery ever to have a dungeon stuffed with 16,000 zombies.
        > See Hint Information. (It was never used here.)

        I "don't have access to Hint Information." :)

        But if he uploaded a package he's not a simple user.

        So he's either an alternate personality of a god-like monk, or a god-like monk took over his account.

        Can you tell when his profile's pic was updated?

        BTW: Fictitious joke personalities are not uncommon, German parliament has one on the website, Czechs enjoy a mythical super genius.

        Cheers Rolf
        (addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
        Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice

Re: The on-going riddle wrapped in a mystery...
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Jul 13, 2019 at 10:30 UTC

    paco exists all right, perhaps as a ghost floating through cyberspace, for He not only haunts Perl monks, but everything, where we're privileged to learn what He likes:

    Whales, really cold cheap american beer, Macintosh, The Toyota LandCrusier

    The similarly mysterious sgtbaker also haunts everything where we can rapturously gaze at his photo (which proves he's a real person - not supernatural, like paco).

Re: The on-going riddle wrapped in a mystery...
by GrandFather (Saint) on Jul 13, 2019 at 08:04 UTC

    Gods have, well, God like power.

    Optimising for fewest key strokes only makes sense transmitting to Pluto or beyond
Re: The on-going riddle wrapped in a mystery...
by Fletch (Bishop) on Jul 12, 2019 at 17:58 UTC

    I'm not saying it was . . .

    The cake is a lie.
    The cake is a lie.
    The cake is a lie.

Re: The on-going riddle wrapped in a mystery...
by Anonymous Monk on Jul 13, 2019 at 02:06 UTC
    eat pacos!