Eternal September
Eternal September or September that never ended are Usenet slang expressions for the period of time beginning September 1993. The use of these expressions implies the belief that standards of discourse and behavior on Usenet have declined since 1993 due to an unending influx of new users.
Usenet originated among universities. Every year, in September, a large number of new university students got access to Usenet, and took some time to acclimate themselves to the network's standards of conduct and netiquette. September, thus, represented the network's largest regular influx of newbies. After a month or so, the new users would (it is supposed) learn to comport themselves as normal Usenet users.
In 1993, the online service America Online began offering Usenet access to its tens of thousands (now millions) of users. To many old-timers, these "AOLers" were far less prepared to learn netiquette than university freshmen, and their sheer numbers dwarfed the ability of the network's culture to assimilate new users.
Since that time, the dramatic rise in the popularity of the Internet has led to a constant stream of new users — in some people's view, drowning out the old Usenet community. Thus, from the point of view of the pre-1993 Usenet user, the regular "September" newbie influx never ended.
Software programs exist which display the date in accordance with this reckoning — for instance, September 3840, 1993 for the date March 6, 2004.
The gag is at times extended — for instance, the notional future date at which Usenet discourse will become sensible, mature, and educated has been called "October 1, 1993".
