"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive, difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it."
-- Gene (spaf) Spafford (1992)
This was before the www was widely known, when Usenet was the most common use of the Internet. I kind of think it applies to the web too...