26 lines
3.6 KiB
HTML
26 lines
3.6 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>ARMM</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../A.html" title="A"/><link rel="previous" href="arg.html" title="arg"/><link rel="next" href="armor-plated.html" title="armor-plated"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">ARMM</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="arg.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">A</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="armor-plated.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="ARMM"/><dt xmlns="" id="ARMM"><b>ARMM</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [acronym, ‘Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation’] A
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Usenet <a href="../C/cancelbot.html"><i class="glossterm">cancelbot</i></a> created by Dick Depew of Munroe
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Falls, Ohio. ARMM was intended to automatically cancel posts from
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anonymous-posting sites. Unfortunately, the robot's recognizer for
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anonymous postings triggered on its own automatically-generated control
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messages! Transformed by this stroke of programming ineptitude into a
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monster of Frankensteinian proportions, it broke loose on the night of
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March 30, 1993 and proceeded to <a href="../S/spam.html"><i class="glossterm">spam</i></a> <tt class="systemitem">news.admin.policy</tt> with a recursive explosion
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of over 200 messages.</p><p>ARMM's bug produced a recursive <a href="../C/cascade.html"><i class="glossterm">cascade</i></a> of
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messages each of which mechanically added text to the ID and Subject and
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some other headers of its parent. This produced a flood of messages in
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which each header took up several screens and each message ID and subject
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line got longer and longer and longer.</p><p>Reactions varied from amusement to outrage. The pathological
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messages crashed at least one mail system, and upset people paying line
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charges for their Usenet feeds. One poster described the ARMM debacle as
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“<span class="quote">instant Usenet history</span>” (also establishing the term
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<a href="../D/despew.html"><i class="glossterm">despew</i></a>), and it has since been widely cited as a
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cautionary example of the havoc the combination of good intentions and
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incompetence can wreak on a network. The Usenet thread on the subject is
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<a href="http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=tweekC4qM0A.H3q%40netcom.com" target="_top">
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archived here</a>. Compare <a href="../G/Great-Worm.html"><i class="glossterm">Great Worm</i></a>;
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<a href="../S/sorcerers-apprentice-mode.html"><i class="glossterm">sorcerer's apprentice mode</i></a>. See also
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<a href="../S/software-laser.html"><i class="glossterm">software laser</i></a>,
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<a href="../N/network-meltdown.html"><i class="glossterm">network meltdown</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="arg.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../A.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="armor-plated.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">arg </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> armor-plated</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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