Anybody heard of it? The first time you run into it, you'll be extremely confused. The community themissinghat on livejournal has a short FAQ that explains the phenomenon, but it can still be very confusing. Project Upstream is basicly a bot that randomly selects two AIM users, and connects them with an IM. The bot choses these users from those who have recently updated their livejournal, deviantart, or a few other websites. There may be a bot that connects users via MSN or other instant messaging provider, but the only one I know of that it uses is AIM. Most people call the Project Upstream bot the salmonbot. Apparently there used to be a hatbot and tacobot, but those two seem to have ceased to exist. It is possible that you will never run into this bot at anytime in your life, no matter how much you update your livejournal and such. But if you wish to be connected to another user randomly, you can go to the following website and enter you AIM user name in order to recieve a random IM from the bot, thus connecting you to another AIM user:
http://project-upstream.awardspace.com/
When you submit your username, the bot will choose another user to connect you with, and then send both of you an IM. The first post in the IM will be a randomly chosen entry posted by the bot, but it will appear as if the other person involed in the IM has sent it to you. They will recieve the same IM, and it will appear as if you sent it to them. You will see not their actual screen name, but a randomly generated sn containing the word "salmon". The other user will also see a randomly generated sn with "salmon" in it, and it may or may not be the same as the one you see. Chances are that they've never run into this bot before, and they will be very confused. You can either confuse the heck out of them even more, strike up a conversation, or you can explain the bot to them. I myself have never run into the bot without submiting my screen name. I find it to be great fun to use this bot. But some people may be annoyed by it, or may make for quite boring converation. The few conversations I have had by using the bot have been quite interesting. I reccomend trying out the bot sometime. You never know what might happen...
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I've been hit by the bot on and off for years now- at least ten times. It took me until a few days ago to realize what it really was. I thought I was being trolled. Incidentally, every time I've been hit was on Yahoo messenger.
I've been "hatted" before a couple years ago and now IMed by a bot from Project Upstream... I know what triggers it... it depends on the content of your post, I think the word "lonely" or "loneliness" does it. And I'm thinking the connections between people aren't completely random, but based on some similarities. Cool project. Coders doing justice for society, most likely.
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