takes 1 arg, but the arc-tangent function can take either 1 or 2
args." Compare [590]param, [591]parm, [592]var.
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Node:ARMM, Next:[593]armor-plated, Previous:[594]arg, Up:[595]= A =

ARMM n.

[acronym, `Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation'] A Usenet
[596]cancelbot created by Dick Depew of Munroe Falls, Ohio. ARMM was
intended to automatically cancel posts from anonymous-posting sites.
Unfortunately, the robot's recognizer 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 March 31,
1993 and proceeded to [597]spam news.admin.policy with a recursive
explosion of over 200 messages.

ARMM's bug produced a recursive [598]cascade of messages each of which
mechanically added text to the ID and Subject and some other headers
of its parent. This produced a flood of messages in which each header
took up several screens and each message ID and subject line got
longer and longer and longer.

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 [599]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