5/16/2026 at 7:15:40 PM
by turadg
5/16/2026 at 9:02:04 PM
Maybe the drunken sysadmin had a more classical or historical education than most.by gerikson
5/17/2026 at 5:32:56 AM
Then, since it’s about publishing (emails), they should have pickede-mprimatur
(⌐⊙_⊙)
by catoc
5/16/2026 at 10:41:20 PM
hell is round the corner where i shelter, isms and schismsi really enjoyed Crusader Kings 2, for 3 you need a mod to antipope
by The_Blade
5/16/2026 at 7:29:54 PM
I'm having a Mandela Effect moment. I could have sworn it was a typo for "antipode" instead, but that must be a false memory I picked up somewhere.by Procrastes
5/18/2026 at 1:04:29 AM
You mean a mandala effect. A lot of people thought it was Mandela Effect, but it's been the mandala effect all along.by wlonkly
5/16/2026 at 7:40:39 PM
A Mandela effect is when it happens to a large group of people. I’m afraid you’re alone in this.by neksn
5/16/2026 at 7:45:27 PM
Only when large group of people die and have to be switched to another timeline via quantum immortality.This person died independently. Welcome to our timeline!
by tgrowazay
5/16/2026 at 7:35:04 PM
Not on my timeline, this has been the name the whole time.by shwaj
5/16/2026 at 7:37:53 PM
what does that even meanby h3t08
5/16/2026 at 7:41:05 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory#Mandela_effectby andyjohnson0
5/16/2026 at 7:39:43 PM
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own."by thenewwazoo
5/16/2026 at 7:41:27 PM
They retconned it as a typo for antipode in their headcanon.by stavros
5/16/2026 at 10:49:24 PM
It means you were only interested in apartheid when it was on TV a lot, you completely missed the ending (and all news involving South Africa for the next 30 years), then you get all mystical about it because you think you're psychic. "I'm not dumb, actually reality changed..."Meanwhile, a bunch of other people who also don't pay attention to world events refer to this woman's ignorance as if it means something because the name that the psychic made up to describe it sounds scientifiky.
by pessimizer
5/16/2026 at 7:34:26 PM
Some reference to Les Technopères by writer Alejandro Jodorowsky?by richardfey
5/16/2026 at 8:02:28 PM
Calling him a writer is somewhat underselling his talent. Jodorowsky was a world-class clown and mime (yes, really) before becoming an award-winning filmmaker, visual artist, and comic book writer.by pavlov
5/16/2026 at 7:50:03 PM
What does AutoPope mean though? The author glosses over this implying it means to pontificate- however- I have not seen this definition anywhere.by jmercouris
5/16/2026 at 7:54:39 PM
Automatic Pope, presumably. Offering pontifications (opinions) via technology (automated). “Pontiff” is another word for pope.by AdamH12113
5/16/2026 at 7:55:31 PM
“Pontifications by email” makes it clear enough. Email is an automated message delivery system, and the pope delivers messages from above, soooo…Such are many of the names coined by creative minds using the early internet.
by d-us-vb
5/16/2026 at 7:55:12 PM
Pontificate in its original sense literally means to perform the duties of a pope or priest (a pontiff). The auto part I guess because it’s email? That part is shakierby hammock
5/16/2026 at 8:02:34 PM
"to speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way" is I think the intention.by beardyw
5/16/2026 at 10:30:05 PM
Yes. I didn’t bother to mention that part, only the polysemous connection to pope.by hammock
5/16/2026 at 7:58:29 PM
Pontoon pontification - bridge building.by bombcar
5/16/2026 at 8:25:13 PM
Auto as in you get it automatically in your mailbox. No need to ask for it or otherwise seek it out. It's just sent to you.ETA: other meanings likely don't fit. It's not about self pontificating (well maybe only from Charlie's point of view), and the motorcar related to the Pope is already called the Popemobile.
by dfxm12
5/16/2026 at 9:04:32 PM
Clearly it means self-pontification.by layer8
5/16/2026 at 7:55:14 PM
look up the word pontiffby geor9e
5/16/2026 at 7:46:30 PM
Disappointed it isn’t to do with Robert Rankin. Oh well.by darrenf
5/17/2026 at 10:34:47 AM
I'd always assumed it was. I loved that book.by drcongo
5/16/2026 at 8:24:48 PM
I'm disappointed that it isn't to do with Zlad! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxxhAS16vB0>by Findecanor
5/16/2026 at 9:09:56 PM
Like the center of a cantelope...by wormius
5/16/2026 at 7:38:28 PM
Typo when it was created.by ineedasername
5/16/2026 at 9:13:46 PM
Not at all sure why this is downvoted, since this is essentially a five-word tl;dr of the article.by PeterWhittaker
5/16/2026 at 8:28:37 PM
[dead]by once-in-a-while
5/16/2026 at 7:39:16 PM
[flagged]by nephihaha
5/16/2026 at 7:54:39 PM
Why read the link when you can just make something up and put it on the internet?by jrochkind1
5/16/2026 at 10:58:06 PM
What would be the point of making up such a story? There isn't one. I live in the same neck of the woods as Charles Stross and see him around occasionally, as well as a few folk that know him. I'm not sure what the big deal with that is? I used to run into Ken MacLeod too sometimes, who is/was a friend of Stross', and in my view a more enjoyable writer. (I've never got into Stross' novels.)by nephihaha
5/16/2026 at 8:07:35 PM
I don’t get it. You’re suggesting that the article is untruthful?by sevg
5/17/2026 at 12:33:32 AM
Not exactly.by nephihaha
5/16/2026 at 7:57:53 PM
You know you could just read the linked page and it'll tell you exactly why it's called that, right?by ErroneousBosh
5/16/2026 at 8:49:57 PM
You know that I used to know one of his close friends and she had Antipope in her email address? Kind of worth mentioning. I never got on with her particularly and her email caused an incident I remember VERY well.by nephihaha
5/17/2026 at 10:21:57 AM
I didn't know that but I think we know the same person, and I remember the incident.All I'll say is it's a good job they didn't live in South Lanarkshire.
by ErroneousBosh
5/16/2026 at 8:00:34 PM
We don't do that here.by krapp
5/16/2026 at 7:34:52 PM
I just assumed he was against the pope and nonsense like that.by Mistletoe
5/16/2026 at 7:40:42 PM
Charlie explains why his site is named this, but the word "Antipope" does mean something already and it means specifically a person who says they are the Pope, but you recognise somebody else as Pope instead.It's thus sometimes unclear which people are "really" Antipopes until some time passes and you're like OK, Steve was an Antipope, the Roman Catholic Church still exists, the Pope is now this Dave guy, so his predecessor Geoff was also Pope, and Geoff's rival Steve's group died out, so Steve was an Antipope, even though for a few years my church said Steve was Pope, I now know that was wrong because God wouldn't let the One True Church vanish and once Steve died his whole church went back to Geoff.
by tialaramex
5/16/2026 at 7:48:44 PM
I think it is a reference to the song by the Damned, but given Stross has lived in central Scotland for decades, you'd think he'd realise by now that it sounds more like someone from the Orange Order (Protestant supremacists) in these parts. There is historically a major issue with the Orange Order and Loyalists in the areas in and around Edinburgh and Glasgow, and they organise anti-Catholic marches in many working class communities as well as violence at football matches. I have met him and doubt this is what he is after, but it comes over like this.by nephihaha
5/16/2026 at 7:38:16 PM
Which is a terrible assumption given an antipope is just a self-declared popeby mcmcmc
5/16/2026 at 7:44:11 PM
Charles Stross has lived in Edinburgh for years and you would think by now that something like "Antipope" comes off as Protestant supremacist rather than secularist in central Scotland. One of his close friends has a similar background and she had antipope as part of her email back in the nineties when I was acquainted with her... It caused a lot of issues when she was emailing someone who was Catholic, because they thought it was some kind of Orange/loyalist account.by nephihaha
5/16/2026 at 7:52:36 PM
"Automatic pope." WATby orliesaurus