OK then. I am sorry.

Apology accepted.

Well the most damage the empegbot could have done was make a sh*tload of posts

Right. I think it might have been a little extreme to compare your program to that first Morris worm, I don't think it could have done that kind of damage. If you chose to let it run rampant, though, it could have made the BBS a complete, unavigable mess.

Here's another analogy that might help...

A friend of mine once said that, as a prank, instead of TP'ing someone's house, it was better just to leave the roll of toilet paper on their front porch. Indicating that if you'd wanted to, you COULD have TP'd the house, but you didn't.

Although you probably didn't mean it as a threat of vandalism, the impression that the bot gave was the same as leaving the roll of TP on the front porch. That's why everyone is so upset about it.

I get the feeling that you're beginning to understand what's going on here and why we're so protective over this online community.

Hey, I have an idea...

One of the reasons that people online feel that they can get away with pissing other people off is anonymity. If someone can hide behind a screen name, without people knowing who they really are, they're more likely to behave in an antisocial fashion. This is one of the reasons Usenet is filled with so much crap and flame wars these days.

What would you say to actually filling out your BBS profile? Real name, real email address (spam-proofed of course), ICQ number, everything. I'm not asking you to enter your address and phone number, but just enough information so that people could reach you outside of the BBS if they had to.

What do you say?