Multi-user dungeon

Yeah, yeah.

But, uh, but it was, you know, it was, you know, before then there was the, you know, uh, you know, there was, there were MUDs and...

Whoa.

[laughs] I-

In the early days, they were usually text-based, but essentially real-time multi-person environments, shared worlds where users can chat, move around, and interact with locations and objects.

Modern MUD successors include EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and The Sims Online.

But even back in those early days, some MUDders just wanted to annoy people.

According to one player back in nineteen ninety, Andrew Plotkin, digital spam refers to a Monty Python skit where Vikings sing Spam at a lady who floats down from the ceiling in a restaurant where they serve Spam with everything.

Yes, the skit is as absurd as it sounds, and for Monty Python fans, it's hilarious.

According to Plotkin, the verb to spam would be to send lots and lots of useless information, in particular the word spam repeated over and over again to MUDders in the game.

Today, some marketers use digital spam, not the scientifically processed animal matter, to advertise their products, but these messages can also be malicious.

Threat actors use spam to distribute phishing links and malware en masse.