EDB

EDB is not a 6502 instruction.

An administrator /msg'd me, claiming to have retired EDB months ago. The following discussion remains for historical purposes.

Avoiding EDB

According to E2 FAQ: Chatterbox, "endless arguments, personal attacks, excessive profanity, or general dumbosity" in the Chatterbox will get you muzzled, or "borged" in E2 slang. Here are some more detailed tips on how not to be kicked from the catbox. They may be true, or they may be false, but they are derived from what I have experienced:

Be Cool

• Do not insult noders, especially gods.
• Don't argue without being able to solidly defend your position. Debate is good; SHOUTING isn't.
• If you have something to discuss related to politics or the law, take it to the room Political Asylum.

Taste

• Don't use profanity. There is no official list of banned words, but consider sexual slang off-limits. Keep it at the level of a PG family comedy if you can.
• If an E2 user has died in the past week, do not tell any jokes that are even remotely related. (This has happened to me; see my writeup in September 11, 2001.)

Trolling

• Don't troll. Don't feed trolls. In fact, don't respond to anything that might remotely be a troll, as EDB tends to eat both trolls and those who feed them. I have witnessed this.
• In that vein, don't report sexually explicit or otherwise potentially offensive nodeshells out loud. If you want it filled, put it on your homenode. Otherwise, report it in your next batch of Nodeshells Marked for Destruction. I have witnessed this.
• Don't joke about creating users with funny nicks. "EDB has swallowed Cum" may be funny to you, but it's not that amusing to the rest of us.

<yerricde> Hey, somebody go create a new user named Cum so EDB can swallow cum
ansate laughs so hard she chokes
EDB has swallowed yerricde yerricde was tasty!

And don't create users (such as "zot-fot-pig") whose names look like E2 regulars' names. The management tried this; it wasn't well liked.
• Don't say anything without verifying its accuracy. Yes, I know that this conflicts with the real-time nature of the Chatterbox, but jasonm told me that dem bones "borged me last night for not knowing that a song was by the Beatles, and not Pink Floyd. There should be a warning to new noders that the borg is also used indiscriminately by certain gods, and you just have to live with it."

Talking about EDB

• Don't provoke EDB. EDB is mostly under control of the administration, but it has some scripted (i.e. automatic) actions.
• You can talk about EDB casually, but don't go meta: talking about talking about EDB is considered bragging, and JayBonci might choose to F with you. Once, after the system accidentally cursed renderer for -30 XP, I mentioned the "supercurse" section of this writeup. Then this happened:

  <TheChronicler> Just a question... how explicitly do you have to mention a certain D34th B0r9 in order to invoke its wrath?
  <yerricde> Chronicler: I mention EDB all the time and very little bad happens
  EDB has swallowed yerricde. moist noder flesh
  <ueni> be careful what you brag about, yerric
  <yerricde> ueni: Sometimes EDB just nibbles and doesn't really swallow.
  <ueni> i know what you mean, yerricde... he nibles on my hair quite often

Etc.

• If there's a specific topic at the top of the Other Users nodelet, don't stray too far from it.
• Don't try tricks like these too often:
  [ |who]needsa[ |19]character[ |hard]limiton[ |word]length? producing whoneedsa19characterhardlimitonwordlength?

□ dem bones says When a user asks what the highest rep'd writeup is LIE.
[In that case, make it obvious that you're lying: say it's some writeup in Pinocchio.]
□ Gritchka says Mainly I go on gut feelings of courtesy: good taste, not shouting or trolling.
□ jaubertmoniker says Um, damn near all of your info on "what gets people borged" is incorrect
[Does that make E2 more a game of Mao than anything else?]

---

<ariels> Make sure someone else is more annoying than you are is what I usually do...

Once you are borged:

Reading Wikipedia helps, and it may give you ideas for new writeups.

How long?

There are rumors floating that it's possible to be permanently borged if you mouth off in Chatterbox too much. Some versions claim the limit is three strikes you're out, as in baseball. A god has reassured me that this is not the case, although kenata has come close. In fact, the current algorithm (as disclosed by dem bones in March 2003) is (5 + (2 * x)) minutes for a user who has been borged x times.

== A Mighty Fortress Is Our Borg ==