Wheeling Jesuit University/Groups/COSBI
COSBI is the Internet division of the Churchill Society, Wheeling. COSBI operated mostly from the 2003-2004 academic year. COSBI stands for "Cardinal-On-Line Social Board Intelligentsia", and also serves as a homage to Bill Cosby, the legendary activist for racial equality. COSBI was opposed by Billy Cabra, Overlord of ITS, until his humiliation in 2004.
History[edit]
Prior to 2002, the Cardinal-On-Line boards, the official message boards of Wheeling Jesuit University, were mostly bereft of any meaningful content. COSBI did not change any of that - in fact, some suggest that COSBI made it worse. Whatever the case, prior to 2002, minor flame wars were the most exciting thing that one could ever expect to happen on the boards.
In 2002, several members of the then-uncreated Churchill Society discovered the largely unused message boards. Instead of posting meaningful content, most of the members were satisfied in starting bigger flame wars, culminating in a threatened IP-ban from ITS. Activity quietened down a little after that.
Early in 2003, however, one keen-eyed Churchill Society member discovered that there was a board for the WJU Civitan, an organisation that had been disbanded some months earlier. Would-be COSBI members flooded the Civitan board with all manner of ridiculous things, ranging from Choose Your Own Adventure topics to zombie stories. It was at this time also that the WJU Saga was created.
COSBI reached its speak at this time, with more than a dozen active members. Unfortunately, neither ITS nor Student Government saw the humour in invading an empty board, so they shut the Civitan board down. Furious, COSBI members then proceeded to invade the main board and the Clubs forum, demanding that they be given a place to do what they want. In desperation, ITS caved in and created the Social Board, essentially giving COSBI a free reign. It was at this glorious moment of victory that the name "COSBI" was selected.
All went well for many months until COSBI began to discover certain holes in the boards' coding. At first, exploits were harmless annoyances - blank topics, blank posts, green text, large text, sideways scrolling, etc. Then, they took a quantum leap with the posting of media - images and sound clips. The picture files slowly began to push the boundaries of good taste, barely toeing the line until Harlequin Fetus was posted and, subsequently, a direct-linked picture of Limecat turned into Tubgirl overnight, scarring some poor soul for all eternity. Additionally, it was discovered that table breaks could ruin the board permanently.
Several board members were banned as a result. A spin-off forum was created, which was very popular for a time.
Unfortunately, COSBI no longer operates in an official capacity, as many of its members have gone on from WJU. However, their days of glory live on the hearts of those who were there, first hand, to witness their rise to infamy.
Characteristics and Membership[edit]
All COSBI members are bat fuck insane, and almost all also belong to the Churchill Society. Female membership is slightly higher in COSBI, probably due to anonymity and not having to actually deal with them face-to-face. COSBI probably had 15-20 active members at its peak, and several not-so-active members as well. James Cobb attempted membership at one point, but was rejected due to pure stupidity on his part.
Notable Topics[edit]
Two topics that will forever be remembered:
- WJU Saga - more can be found by following the link.
- PETA is the Devil - in response to a PETA poster found on campus, a PETA topic was created and spawned a massive flame war worth hundreds of posts and several walls of text.