We use cookies to understand how the site is used and to improve it. You can accept them, or carry on with them switched off.
Also known as: cancel bot
A program that scans the article stream for posts matching a spam pattern and issues cancel messages against them automatically. Cancelbots appeared in response to the 1994 green card spam and were run by individual volunteers, not by any authority. Their power to delete other people's articles, and the ease of forging cancels, kept them controversial; most servers now ignore third-party cancels entirely.
Browse all terms in Culture & History, or see the full Usenet glossary.