Internets Service Team
The Internets Service Team (IST) is a group of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) users dedicated to bringing you, the user, the best in Internets Experience.
The IST technically existed as early as the mid-1990's, when the present-day "members" had each individually discovered the internet and its myriad wonders. Eventually coalescing within a specific unnamed EFNet channel, the group consisted of mostly unproductive teenagers with more talent than the kids they knew in everyday life. General boredom, extensive late-night IRC use, an interest in website development, and the desire to make a buck off of the internet are the common bonds shared by those even remotely aligned with the IST concept today.
History
The name "Internets Service Team" was coined after it was discovered that frequent sightings of an IRC client with the nickname carl_
and a dynamic-appearing host matching *.internetsserviceteam.com
were actually visitations from a honeypot -- a bot which was intended to catch spam and virus spreading bots -- set up by the xs4all network. An eventual curious whois lookup revealed that the bot had actually been given a hostname with a domain that did not exist. Max then registered it, and from this action the concept of an IST was born. It is reasonable to assume that Max regrets this no less than having created YTMND itself.
Projects
Since approximately 1995, the IST have birthed several one-hit wonders and projects, almost all of which are considered spectacular failures by someone or another. The projects are generally developed by a single person with little or no outside help, but there have been occasions where another "member" will assist in development (and quite possibly break something). clay is well established as a source of inspiration for all.
You're the Man Now, Dog!, YTMND-O-MATIC and YTMND, disgu.st and the disgu.st weblog, dustindiamond.com and the pr0n-o-matic, are the creations of Max. He owns the internetsserviceteam.com domain, on which an official corporate web page[1] can be found.
Other projects include dickcream.com by sodae, the troll database by mef, a now-defunct quote database and the thread-is-dead killer vB plugin by jon.
Membership
The group is essentially a social network, at best. There is no formal membership.