Things That Suck

How to Have a Rotten Time: a Guide for the Determined

Every system that offers itself unto the Internet is asking for trouble in some way; people have bad days, get dumped by lovers, step in Dog Waste or otherwise get in a rotten mood. During these rotten moods, they sometimes turn to a place of love and laughter, like, oh, say, TinyTIM, and attempt to happily pound us into the ground to cheer up. Or, users connect to TinyTIM, learn our commands and MUSH language (via our witty and educational HELP System) and proceed to devise complicated ways to break us in two. Hey, we know where you're coming from. It's a tough world out there and we don't fight back as much.

Also, while TIM doesn't implement that horrible, satanic "E-mail/phone/blood-type character registration" that many places use as a matter of course, and we take advantage of our large disk space and power for free building, we also enforce the simple credo of "Have fun, and don't ruin others' fun." Now, this leaves open the definition of what "Ruining other peoples' fun" is. And, we'd like to inform you of some of what that is. There's lots of other ways too, but we thought we'd list some of the really rotten ones. Here, then, are some Things That Suck.

Building Stuff That Makes A Lot More Of Itself Automatically, Nonstop.

We hate this. If you make one of these things by mistake, Halt the object by typing @HALT <Object>. If you do it on purpose, we will have to kill you. Sorry! Doing something like this fills up TinyTIM's database and causes all sorts of problems. Don't do it. It Sucks.

Attempting To Act Like Other People To Annoy Or Incriminate Them.

It is possible to program things on TinyTIM to make yourself look like other Players, and therefore to say things and possibly convince others that you are that Player. This is not a good thing to do, since it tends to cause trouble for the Player being impersonated, or "Spoofed". Don't do it. It Sucks.

Picking Up, Sacrificing, Or Deeply Disturbing New Players.

Think back to when you were new to the TinyTIM world. You weren't sure of yourself, perhaps you hadn't learned how to @LOCK yourself, maybe you didn't have your telnet protocol working correctly or were still attempting to learn all the commands. How frustrated and alienated would you have felt, if someone picked you up and passed you around, or took you to the Temple and sacrificed you? Don't do it. It Sucks.

Abusing The Tinytim Temple For Money.

Yes, it's easy to sacrifice crap over and over and over and over and over to get billions of pennies for your mad schemes, but it slows TIM down, and is completely redundant, since wizards will usually give you all the money you need. Sacrificing is fine sometimes, but 200 times is foolish. Don't do it. It sucks.

Playing The Time-Honored Game Of "What Can I Get Away With Saying In The Nexus Before Someone Who's Got A Brain Comes And Turns Me Into Goo"

Avoid it. It Sucks.

Making One Of These Famous Mush Experiments And Using It:

Building some of these takes a lot of hard work and forethought, but even if they're really well built and clever, they still suck.

Deciding That Someone Who Doesn't Want To Talk To You Is Being Coy.

Yes, even though that special someone had a two line description to die for, and you just feel the Magic In The Air, if they say "Stop Talking to Me", generally you should stop talking to them. Making someone else's TinyTIM experience a new and exciting adventure in Being Harassed isn't just a bad idea, It Sucks.

Having A Bad Experience On Tim And Making Sure Everyone Else Has One Too.

Now, just because you had a run-in with someone over a thing that you'll probably sleep on and forget, you don't have to Protest by creating 10 gazillion New Characters and making them come into the Nexus and be Cheeze-Whiz Incarnate. It's sure not a cathartic experience for anyone, including yourself, and it wastes everyone's time. Truly, this Doth Suck.
Now, what happens if you do something that Sucks? Well, that's something that's left up to the individual wizard that stumbles upon it. We tend to try and reason with you first, and then, depending on how much of a unfun-bent person you are, we Judge Accordingly. Trust us, we usually Do the Right Thing. And don't treat us like the Cops; we're regular people who like to play this sort of game and we care about it a lot. Except Sketch, who uses it to get babes.

So, remember that TIM was created and is maintained with the idea of a lot of really cool people from all over the world to get together and have a wonderful time together, communicating and screwing with the Clock on the Wall. We want you to be a part of it too. So don't Suck.

Text by Sketch the Art Cow. HTML aid provided by Empedocles the Ash Ock.