What the heck is a "blurf"?

Recently, I wrote a blog post about certain n00b questions. I used the term "blurf" without 1. thinking that not everyone knew this term in the same way that did, and 2. Checking urban dictionary first to see if it had become some salacious innuendo :)

Please accept my humble apology for my presumptuousness. 

It really is nothing more than a generic placeholder. I picked up this word from one of the earliest woodworking forums from way back. At that time when you set up a forum, one of the main things put in place would be your FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions list. People were directed to read the FAQ as a requirement of entry to the forum. And, most veteran forum members would abuse you to no end if you dared to ask a question that was already answered in the FAQ. A nice response might be "That was already addressed in the FAQ." More often would be something more terse such as "Read the FAQ!" Sometimes that would come with an expletive at the end of a generally insulting name which I will leave to your imagination. If you asked a question that resulted in several really good answers, perhaps a list of two, and some good references to other resources (like ftp, archie, and gopher references because there was no web, and these were the equivalent of such things as web links) then you were responsible for collating the responses into a well formatted, clear and cogent entry for the FAQ. Unfortunately, that no longer seems to be the case.

Anyway, there were a few common "which saw/plane/chisel etc." requests that got all genericised into "Which blurf ...". I always liked the sound of the word, and it became a part of my vernacular much like doohickey, thingamajig, whatchamacallit, and so forth, but when I used it, it referred to a tool of some sort. 

I am not sure who originally coined the term or I would try to give credit. But alas, that forum is long gone.