On the Internet, no one knows you're a (dyslexic dead) dog

The expression "on the Internet, no one knows you're a dog" has become a cliche. But now, we see that in reality, on the Internet, no one knows you're a dyslexic dead dog!

What do I mean by that?

There have been a number of messages floating around about the death of a hacker known as rgod. But someone who claims to be rgod says "Thank you for your kind words. I am pleased to inform you that I am not dead. I have been the subject of a horrendous and difficult joke. Some hackers unknown to me have compromised my web server and email accounts making it impossible for me to access my site. They are falsely stating that I have died. Please ignore this statement until my services can be fixed."

So how do you prove, as someone who's known by a pseudonym, that you're not dead?

[Added 30Apr08: It appears that in fact rgod may be dead, but it's hard to tell for sure. One Bugtraq posting noted "But, if isnt dead, why he use a computer based translator to translate, from english, something that he can write in correct italian ? I'm italian and i garantee that is not italian", to which another responded "Yes, someone else told me already in private that the 'I'm not dead site' was a hoax. I did not know rgod and I don't know if he's dead or not - I just wanted bugtraq to know, that there's something else going on here - without taking sides. The decision which website to trust (or, more generally, (how) to trust online information at all) is left to the bugtraq readers." [emphasis added]. I won't continue to update this posting, as I think the current uncertainty adequately summarizes the problem!]