What Went Down in an NUS “Free Buffet Food” Chat Group
A tale of food, sex stickers and werewolves.
Gather round, students, and come hear the whimsical tale of an NUS chat group...
Legend has it that on the 20th of January, a group was born. And not just any group at that - it was a SUPERGROUP.
For the uninformed, a supergroup on Telegram is a chat group that can hold up to 5000 members.
Sounds kinda cool right? Might be why even ISIS uses it.
Some students created the chat group so that food from unfinished buffets at NUS events can go to students instead of being thrown away. And we must say, that’s a pretty genius idea. One of the admins quickly pinned a message informing members about the purpose of the group, as well as some rules:
TLDR; basically, if you know there’s leftover food from an event somewhere and the event organisers are cool with students grabbing some, then post some pictures and let everyone know where they can go to get some free food.
You get the idea.
The pinned post also contained an invitation link, which allows anyone with the link to join the group. And naturally, since everyone loves free food, more and more people gained access to the chat. As of this post, there were 921 members. And what could possibly go wrong when you have a couple of hundred students in a chat group?
One fateful Friday, the 24th of February, tragedy struck.
We’re guessing most people joined because they heard about free food, and weren’t too interested in reading and obeying the rules, so there were quite a number of people saying hi to each other:
Guys you’re breaking the rules
And they didn’t stop there. One member (she shall not be named, and yes it was a she) sent a series of stickers that were… shall we say, not so appropriate:
We leave the rest up to your imagination.
This elicited some interesting responses from other members:
Good one.
And though we didn’t manage to get a screenshot, someone did mention, “she’s now $20 richer”, hinting that it might have been a dare.
Unsurprisingly, the fun didn’t stop there.
About an hour later, another member invited two bots into the group - ‘Werewolf’ and ‘Werewolf Moderator’- allowing people in the chat to play the popular party game, werewolf (or murderer, as some of us might know it), together. Party time!
Who let the dogs out
The member then brazenly declared, “WEREWOLF LETS GO”, calling for a game of werewolf to be played in a group of about 700 people. And a game was initiated, albeit not actually played as most members weren’t too keen on being spammed. Sadly, the game ended with only three people having joined it.
If you’re wondering why there aren’t any screenshots of this part, it’s due to the swiftness and responsiveness of this group admin:
She’d clearly had enough.
She then proceeded to display another great function of Telegram, deleting the spam messages, slew of obscene stickers and even kicking one of the two werewolf bots (the other one is still lurking somewhere in the group). Talk about efficient crisis management.
The one who was kicked.
And the luckier of the two, still in the group; we’ll see if it comes for some free buffet leftovers
It was fun while it lasted but alas, all mischief must give in to bureaucracy and discipline (a sobering reflection of our society at large). With that gentle warning by the admin, the members were whipped into line, and the group was silent ever since.
And thus goes the tale of the NUS Buffet Response Team chat group.
If you’ve always wanted to be a vulture and would like to get in on free buffet leftovers in NUS, here’s the Telegram invitation link: tinyurl.com/NUSBRT
