John Titor - Time Traveler (or amazing internet troll)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titorhttp://johntitor.com/http://johntitor.strategicbrains.com/http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A6345407http://www.anomalies.net/object/johntitor.htmlhttp://www.squidoo.com/johntitorSeveral times between 2000 and 2001 a poster called 'John Titor' started to post on several messageboards across the internet, claiming to be a 'Time Traveler' from 2036. If anyone tried that now, they'd be MEME'd into oblivion, and only the super niave would believe. However, 2000/2001, in some respects, were early days for the internet, and who wouldn't want to believe that a Time Traveler would use the internet to tell his story - after all THE INTERNET IS AWESOME!
He claimed to be a Military Time Traveler, and went into detail about events that would change the world; starting with an American Civil War that would begin in 2004. This would eventually lead to 'global nuclear war in 2015 that will destroy most of the major cities in the United States and many around the world'. Originally Titor had been sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer which he said was needed to "debug" various legacy computer programs in 2036; a reference to the UNIX 2038 problem.
With the year being 2011, and most (if not all) of his predictions not baring fruit, you'd think John Titor's legacy would have faded away... however...
People still want to believe that a Time Traveler from 2036 came back to 1970, to retrieve and old IBM computer, to debug its programming; stopped off in 2000 to meet his family, and in the process of THAT; sign up to several internet messageboards to discuss time travel and future events.
His predictions were generally vague, as predictions often are, and over the years people have linked them to several events as they see fit.
Predictions2004 - Second American Civil War
2015 - "Russia launches a nuclear strike against the major cities in the United States (which is the "other side" of the civil war from my perspective), China, and Europe. The United States counter attacks. The US cities are destroyed along with the AFE (American Federal Empire)...thus we (in the country) won. The European Union and China were also destroyed"
Elaborate marketing excercise? Bored student's prank that grew out of control? Or a pointless use of time travel?