Phile

For the suffix -phile see philia.

Philes commonly refer to files about hacking in the days of BBSs. Ph may have been originally used as homage to the phone phreak.

Other common abstractions of the word are t-files (shorthand for textfiles) and g-files. The use of ph in lieu of f is arbitrary.

Their contects could vary from actual hacking and phone phreaking, sex, humour, technical information, down to Subversion (political) or so-called anarchist material about controversial topics such as poison, explosives, suggestions for making harmful pranks, urban terrorism tactics , building homemade weapons and other similar information of doubtful reliabilty, e.g. instructions for making a nuclear reactor out of a plastic barrel to keep in one s garden.

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=External links=

[http://www.textfiles.com Textfiles.com, an online collection of famous BBS-era philes of all categories]