September that never ended All time since September 1993. One of the
   seasonal rhythms of the Usenet used to be the annual September influx of
   clueless newbies who, lacking any sense of {netiquette}, made a general
   nuisance of themselves. This coincided with people starting college,
   getting their first internet accounts, and plunging in without bothering
   to learn what was acceptable. These relatively small drafts of newbies
   could be assimilated within a few months. But in September 1993, AOL
   users became able to post to Usenet, nearly overwhelming the old-timers'
   capacity to acculturate them; to those who nostalgically recall the
   period before hand, this triggered an inexorable decline in the quality
   of discussions on newsgroups. See also {AOL!}.


Source: The Jargon File