ARMM ==>
Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation
<messaging> (ARMM) A Usenet robot created by Dick Depew of Munroe Falls,
Ohio. ARMM was intended to automatically cancel posts from anonymous-posting
sites. Unfortunately, the robot's recogniser for anonymous postings triggered on
its own automatically-generated control messages! Transformed by this stroke of
programming ineptitude into a monster of Frankensteinian proportions, it broke
loose on the night of 1993-03-31 and proceeded to spam news.admin.policy with a
recursive explosion of over 200 messages.
Reactions varied from amusement to outrage. The pathological messages crashed at
least one mail system, and upset people paying line charges for their Usenet
feeds. One poster described the ARMM debacle as "instant Usenet history" (also
establishing the term despew), and it has since been widely cited as a
cautionary example of the havoc the combination of good intentions and
incompetence can wreak on a network.
Compare Great Worm; sorcerer's apprentice mode. See also software laser, network
meltdown.
(1996-01-08)
Nearby terms:
automata theory « Automated Engineering Design «
AUTOmated GRouPing system « Automated Retroactive
Minimal Moderation » automated testing »
AUTOMATH » Automatically Programmed Tools
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