http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meow_Wars

"It began when some Harvard students, who had "colonised" an abandoned newsgroup, alt.fan.karl-malden.nose, and were using it as a community newsgroup for such posts as "who wants lunch at 1.00pm", decided "invading" another group, in this case alt.tv.beavis-n-butthead, would be a good idea. One of the students - who was actually using a Boston University address, since he was an alumnus - announced the plan on Usenet on January 9, 1996. The original Meowers were denizens of the alt.tv.beavis-n-butthead newsgroup, who responded to the "invasion" by adopting a "scorched earth" policy of rendering the alt.fan.karl-malden.nose newsgroup unusable."