[MUD-Dev] Re: Ugh, IS Diablo a mud?

[J C Lawrence]

On Tue, 22 Sep 1998 17:16:00 -0700 
Ryan Prince<jynx_ryn at mindless.com> wrote:

> First of all, I'd like to clear any arguments of symantics. Note
> that this is not my opinoin, just a factual disection of the term
> MUD. 

Which reminds me that the list charter contains the text
(http://www.kanga.nu/~petidomo/lists/mud-dev/#mud):

--<cut>--

What is a "MUD" 

As the list owner wrote:

I'm not about to attempt a point by point definition of MUD. I see
the definition of MUD being rather like a blob of black ink,
recently dropped into a bucket of still water. You can definitely
see where the black blob is, but as you move away from there, well,
its still inky, but less so. Just where does the ink stop and the
water begin (especially seeing as the Ink is a water suspension)?

Its moot. Its a multi-dimentional sliding scale. The centre is
undoubtedly a MUD.  The definition of where the exact centre is is
questionable. The definition of whether any point not on the centre
is a MUD or not is more or less questionable, and I'm not about to
start arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a virtual pin
coded in LPC/ColdC/etc.

I'm content with: DOOM, Diablo, Duke Nukem etc are not
MUDs. Nightmare, LP, DIKU, MOO, Tiny-*, ColdC etc are MUDs. Between
the two sets there be dragons.

There has also been considerable debate over the use of the terms,
"MUD", "mud", "MUA", "MUG", "MU*", and others, with various valid
arguments forwarded on all sides. Suffice to say that this debate is
defined as off-topic for the list and that any of the above terms or
others may be freely used on the list.

J C Lawrence, MUD-Dev list owner.

--<cut>--

As such this thread strays very close to being officially off-topic.
However, (writing as list owner for this sentence only) I'll allow
it as long as the signal remains as high as it has and the thread
refrains from "Yes it is!"/"No it is not!" noise.  I see value in
defining what the critical (or even salient) portions of the
definition of "MUD" are.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                               Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------(*)                     Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...