This article is about The Madness in 2 A.T. (2015 C.E.) For other Madnessen, see The Madness
The Madness is an annual event where the the mods go mad and the forum becomes weird for a few days.
In 2015, it was announced on the Timeversary, 25 March.
The filtering started on the 5th of April, during newpix 17921.
The filtering stopped on the 8th of April, during newpix 17998.
Pre-Existing Filters[]
These filters existed prior to the announcement of the Madness:
| Original Text | Filters to |
|---|---|
| Chuck Norris | Bruce Schneier |
| feminine wiles | **misogyny not found** |
| lost the game | lost twenty dollars and my self respect |
| Obamacare | The Affordable Care Act |
| OMFG | Oh me yarm Oh |
| OMG | Oh me yarm |
| Pizzashark | Some Asshole |
| political correctness | Basic Human Decency |
| politically correct | Basically Decent |
| shrill | justified |
| shrilly | justifiably |
| tweak | twerk |
| tweaked | twerked |
| tweaking | twerking |
New Filters in 2 A.T.[]
Filters that were in effect for this year's Madness
Note: all punctuation filters apply only when the marks are in isolation, not when next to words.
| Original Text | Filters to | Inactive as of: |
|---|---|---|
| ' | apostrophe | |
| ) | closed bracket | |
| : | colon | |
| , | comma | |
| \ | forward slash | |
| . | Full stop | |
| - | hyphen | |
| ( | open bracket | |
| ? | question mark | 2015-04-08 |
| " | quotation mark | |
| ; | semi colon | |
| _ | underscore | |
| !!!!! | (five exclamation marks, a sure sign of an insane mind) | |
| *que* | ++What Not Found. Reinstall FTB. Whaaaaaaaaa++ | |
| *sin* | ++Piety Not Found, Reinstall Universe++ | |
| 1190: "Time" | She doesn't wear trousers | |
| 20th century | century of the fruitbat | |
| 21st century | century of the rat | |
| 3 | many | |
| 4 | lots | |
| 5 | lots | |
| a | the | 2014-04-08 |
| a | Thee | |
| a black hole | a bookshop that hasn't learnt to read | |
| a bookshop | a bookshop (A good bookshop is just a genteel somewhere in the library that knows how to read.) | |
| a Christian | an Omnian | |
| a forum | a soapbox | |
| a law | some lore | |
| a million | lots | |
| a miracle | (Just because you can explain it doesn't mean it's not still) a miracle. | |
| a movie | a click | |
| a week | juste 7 dayes | |
| Actual Important Announcement | PROCLAMATION FROM THE SOAPBOX IN SATOR SQUARE | |
| Adelaide | Didjabringabeeralong | |
| admin | Assassin | |
| administrators | Assassin's Guild | |
| admins | Assassins | |
| Africa | Klatch | |
| am | are | 2015-04-08 |
| am | being | |
| ambicioso | Something in Genoan? | |
| AMD | Ant Manipulation Drive | |
| an | then | |
| an airplane | a broomstick | |
| android | golem | |
| Angua | Constable Igor | |
| are | being | |
| Asia | Counterweight Continent | |
| Australia | XXXX | |
| Australian | Ecksian | |
| automatic | pseudothaumatic | |
| automatically | pseudothaumatically | |
| autumn | Back to School | |
| awesome | awethome | |
| Azrael | DEATH | |
| BASIC | Basiceros | |
| BFF* | Cable Street Particulars | |
| bigger | not-as-wee | |
| black hole | somewhere in the library | |
| black holes | bookshops that haven't learnt to read | |
| Blind quartets | Millennium hand and shrimp | |
| broken | broken (but possibly mended) | |
| C++ | Cephalotes | |
| C# | Centromyrmex | |
| cheesed | cheesed (like creamed, but takes longer) | |
| Christ | Grandson Richard, 39 | |
| COBOL | Colobostruma | |
| Cockney | Dimwell | |
| cocktails | stories about chickens | |
| coding | technomancy | 2015-04-06 |
| coding | ant farming | |
| confusing | confuthing | |
| course | courthe | |
| count to | count two | |
| count up | If you can count two two, you can count two anything | |
| crossword | Miss Grace Speaker is devilishly good at making these | |
| cyborg | golem | |
| day | Opened time | |
| dentist | dentisht | |
| dentistry | dentishtry | |
| dentures | denturesh | |
| despised | dethpithed | |
| devil | Prices Slashed | |
| Did you know? | Did ye ken? | |
| digging downward | Going to give an elephant a nasty shock | |
| Discworld | Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | |
| double post | inappropriately frivolous buggers | |
| duck | what duck? | |
| earth | Disc | 2015-04-07 |
| earth | thith Bromeliad | |
| Easter | Soul Cake | |
| economical | echo-gnomical | |
| economics | echo gnome-ics | |
| economy | echo gnomy | |
| Egypt | Djelibeybi | |
| clacks | ||
| clacks | ||
| especially | ethpecially | |
| evangelize | smite the unbelievers with explanatory pamphlets | |
| evening | closing time | |
| FaiD | the Shades | |
| fax | clacks | |
| filter | thing that changes a thing to another thing | 2015-04-07 |
| filter | thing what changes a thing to another thing | |
| filters | filterth | 2015-04-05 |
| filters | things that change things to other things | 2015-04-07 |
| filters | things what change things to other things | |
| five | lots | |
| FleetingThoughts | FleetingThoughtth | 2015-04-06 |
| FleetingThoughts | Hit by inspiration particles. Can use a tinfoil hat to help prevent | |
| for | was | |
| Fortran | Formica | |
| four | lots | |
| free as in destitute | Ankh-Morpork | |
| from | beside | |
| fuck | - | |
| fun | !!FUN!! | |
| funny | inappropriately frivolous | |
| gloom | glom | |
| God | Glod | 2015-04-07 |
| God | Arnold Bros (est. 1905) | |
| Greece | Ephebe | |
| gun | gonne | |
| happy | happy as a cat full of sixpences | |
| Haskell | Harpegnathos | |
| heaven | the heavens | |
| Hell | The Boiler room | |
| hilarious | inappropriately frivolous | |
| hot dog | sausage-inna-bun | |
| how | Who | |
| how high | what colour | |
| humour | inappropriate frivolity | |
| humor | inappropriate frivolity | |
| I | we | |
| Intel | Anthill | |
| intro thread | You there! It was you what done it, wasn't it? Tell us your name! | |
| is | was | |
| Java | Iridomyrmex | |
| JavaScript | Iberoformica | |
| Jesus | Grandson Richard, 39 | |
| justice | just ice | |
| kippers | plates-of-meat | |
| laws | parts of the lore | |
| lawyer | lorist | |
| lawyers | lorists | |
| lettuce | turtle-food | |
| lexicon | Necrotelicomnicon | |
| light speed | slightly faster than the speed of sound | |
| lisp | lithp | |
| m | re | |
| mad | contradictory to the democratic view of reality | |
| Madness | Madnethth | |
| magistrates | Cable Street Particulars | |
| Mary | Bargains Galore | |
| master | marthter | |
| masturbate | have a date with Rosie Palms | |
| masturbating | having a date with Rosie Palms | |
| masturbatory | date with Rosie Palms | |
| me | us | |
| millions | lots | |
| mine | ours | |
| mission | mission from Glod | |
| moderators | Night Watch | 2015-04-07 |
| moderators | Closed time Watch | |
| mods | The Watch | |
| morning | opening time | |
| my | our | |
| myself | ourselves | |
| NASA | Maker of Clouds | |
| New York | The Big Wahoonie | |
| night | nit | |
| NSP | NTHP | |
| OCaml | Octostruma | |
| of | about | |
| Olympus | Dunmanifestin | |
| operating systems | beehives | |
| opposition | oppothition | |
| outstanding | outthtanding | |
| particle | itty bitty bit | |
| pastry | figgin | |
| pavement | cobbles | |
| Pavlovian | pavlovian (will, at the ringing of a bell, eat a strawberry meringue) | |
| PD | Unmentionables | |
| people | things | |
| Perl | Perissomyrmex | |
| philosophy | throwing on a silly dress and getting piss-drunk | 2015-04-05 |
| philosophy | throwing on a inappropriately frivolous dress and getting piss-drunk | |
| phlip | Sergent Haddock | |
| php | Pheidologeton | 2015-04-05 |
| physics | high-energy magic | |
| pink | empinkened | |
| Poker | Cripple Mister Onion | 2015-04-07 |
| poster | large piece of paper that is for looking at | |
| Pratchett | Tolkein | |
| programming | ant farming | |
| Prolog | Proceratium | |
| pun | pune, or a play on words | |
| Python | Prolasius | |
| rain | Sprinklers | |
| Randall | Vetinari | |
| report for duty | When I say jump, you say WHAT COLOUR! | |
| robot | golem | |
| Ruby | Royidris | |
| Santa | the Hogfather | |
| sausage | sausage-inna-bun | |
| Scheme | Simopelta | |
| science | magic that we just don't understand yet | |
| scientific | magical (but with more words) | |
| seconds | thecondth | |
| Second Talon | Cheery Littlebottom | |
| SecondTalon | CheeryLittlebottom | |
| seems | theemth | |
| seven | a little less than eight | |
| silly | inappropriately frivolous | |
| small | wee | |
| smartphone | Dis-Organizer | |
| soup | shoop | |
| special | thpecial | |
| splendid | thplendid | |
| spring | Spring Sales | |
| ST | CL | |
| stick figure | anatomically-correct and photorealistic | |
| strange | particularly peculiar | |
| substitute | thubthtitute | |
| substitution | thubthtitution | |
| summer | Summer Clearance | |
| super | thuper | |
| support | shupport | |
| surgery | thurgery | |
| surgical | thurgical | |
| sweet | thweet | |
| Sydney | Bugarup | |
| teatime | teatime (pronounced "Teh-ah-time-eh") | |
| telephone | clacks | |
| Terry Pratchett | Neil Gaiman | |
| the | Thee | |
| the black hole | the bookshop that hasn't learnt to read | |
| the earth | Roundworld | |
| the fora | The Disc | |
| the forum | The Disc | |
| the forums | The Disc | |
| the internet | L-space | |
| the law | the lore | |
| the movies | the clicks | |
| the north | the hub | |
| the south | the rim | |
| the speed of light | really not very fast at all | |
| things | thingth | |
| think | ponder | |
| this | thith | |
| thread | threat | |
| three | many | |
| to | beside | |
| trolly problem | Ly Tin Wheedle is going to need another drink for this one | |
| tug-o-war | with Captain Carrot (wub wub wub) | |
| Upside-Down Map | Looking at the Disc from the other edge | |
| uranium | uselessium | |
| VB | Vitsika | |
| veterinarian | dog-botherer | |
| weiner | sausage-inna-bun | |
| what | Why | |
| when | whence | |
| where | When | |
| wiener | sausage-inna-bun | |
| wig | prunes | |
| wind | Air Conditioning | |
| winter | Christmas Fayre | |
| wizard | wizzard | |
| Woman thread | Lady Sybil's thread, here there be dragons | |
| word | phrase | |
| wordfilter | thing that changes a word to another word | 2015-04-07 |
| wordfilter | thing what changes a word to another word | |
| wordfilters | thingth that change words to other words | 2015-04-07 |
| wordfilters | things what change words to other words | |
| xkcloud | xkWatchOutForThoseRocks |
Contractions/Abbreviations[]
This year the letters "i" and "m" were each filtered separately. Since the fora software regards a contraction as two separate words split by punctuation, sometimes the results were unexpected. Three days into the Madness, several small articles and prepositions were added to the list including the letter "a".
| Original Text | Filters to | Inactive as of: |
|---|---|---|
| A.M. | A.re. | 2015-04-08 |
| A.M. | the.re | 2015-04-08 |
| A.M. | Thee.re | |
| I'd | we'd | |
| i.e. | we.e. | |
| I'll | we'll | |
| I'm | we're | |
| I've | we've | |
| ma'am | ma're | 2015-04-08 |
| ma'am | ma'being | |
| N/A | N/Thee | |
| P.M. | P.re. | |
| U.S.A. | U.S.Thee. | |
| we'm | we're |
Post-Madness Filters[]
These filters remained in effect after the Madness:
| Original Text | Filters to |
|---|---|
| Chuck Norris | Bruce Schneier |
| feminine wiles | **misogyny not found** |
| lost the game | lost twenty dollars and my self respect |
| Obamacare | The Affordable Care Act |
| OMFG | Oh me yarm Oh |
| OMG | Oh me yarm |
| Pizzashark | Some Asshole |
| political correctness | Basic Human Decency |
| politically correct | Basically Decent |
| shrill | justified |
| shrilly | justifiably |
| tweak | twerk |
| tweaked | twerked |
| tweaking | twerking |
Other Madness Effects[]
The Empinkening[]
In previous years, one could apply to the group FF00BF BFFs before the Madness hit and experience special effects of the Madness, most notably username turning a hot pink color. This year, that group became known as The Wee Free Men (characters that appear in Terry Prachett's books) and started "recruiting" all active members of the fora, using a thread in Forum Games to keep score.
While many OTTers adopted the shared avatar of The Wee Free Men, some chose to empinken their own avatars. (Expand to view.)
| BlitzGirl | ergman | karhell | Link |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Marsh'n | mrob27 (v1) | mrob27 (v2) | mrob27 (v3) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Neil_Boekend | slinches | svenman | ucim |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Raptorcat Attacks[]
The default avatar of the FF00BF BFFs (Wee Free Men) during the Madness.
After three rounds of recruiting new members to the empinkened Wee Free Men, the game changed to posting pictures of raptorcats (called "certainly-not-panthers" in the game thread) immediately after a poster who had been empinkened but had not adopted the standard group avatar. One raptorcat was required for every thousand posts the target had, and the attacker gained points equivalent to the post total of the target.
++Symbol Not Found++[]
A particularly mustardy filter this Madness was one that changed any word containing the letter Q, X, Y, or Z into the phrase ++Symbol Not Found++. It made the fora nigh-unreadable for about an hour on April 8th (np17994 to np17995). Because of the letter Q it affected all quote tags on the fora, including those in signatures. Because of the letter X it affected every mention of xkcd. And because of the letter Y the filter became recursive, turning ++Symbol Not Found++ into ++++Symbol Not Found++ Not Found++ and so on.
The Librarian and other HODOResque pranks[]
Screenshot of effects of "GNU Terry Pratchett" wild card filtering occurring at np18022
Similar to the wild card character (*) prank from two years ago that changed everything to HODOR (see The Madness, 0 A.T. ), wild cards were used to affect all words on the fora several times beginning on the second day of the Madness. Usually the span of each change would last only a minute or two. Occurrences of this continued even after the general filters were switched off at np17998.
The ooks and eeks are in reference to the Librarian in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, who after being turned into an orangutan spoke mostly in ooks and eeks. The phrase GNU Terry Pratchett at the conclusion of the filtering was in honor of his memory.
| Wild card input | Newpix |
|---|---|
| ook | 17942 |
| ooooook | 17943 |
| ook ook ook OOOK OOK EEK OOK | 17944 |
| 'k | 17945 |
| Woof Woof bloody woof | 17946 |
| SQUEAK | 17951 |
| +++Error. Redo From Start.+++ | 17963 |
| +++MELON MELON MELON+++ | 17969 |
| +++Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++ | 17971 |
| HO | 17977 |
| bark bark give that little doggie a biscuit bark | 17987 |
| Ook? Oook. | 17988 |
| Gold | 17993 |
| +++Universe Reinitialising, Please Stand By+++ | 17998 |
| GNU Terry Pratchett | 17998 |
| Gold | 18016 |
| GNU Terry Pratchett | 18022 |
| GNU Terry Pratchett | 18039 |
Reactions to the Madness[]
The "Wee Free Men" Game[]
Post-Madness, the empinkening and raptorcat attacks done by the FF00BF BFFs, and the thread run by Azrael, were generally regarded as a positive way to encourage inter-fora participation (particularly when contrasted to the thread lock in the Madness before). During the Madness, the group name "FF00BF BFFs" was changed by a wordfilter to "The Wee Free Men". To play the game, an FF00BF or "captured" forumite would usually have to search for "recruits" or "victims" in several different fora, and post to capture them in places they might not otherwise have posted. A newly "captured" forumite needed to figure out some of the rules, and during part of the game needed to have a suitable avatar (typically empinkened and with the Wee Free Men theme) to be able to "capture" another.
The Great Enlimening[]
When the pink usernames were finally removed from the Wee Free Men, mrob27 encouraged OTTers to "en-lyme-ify" Newpage 2287 since the empinkening had finished; the encouragement was repeated on Newpage 2288. Manips, icons, and OTTercomics were posted in response, and again OTTers changed their avatars to match the new theme.
Here are some examples (expand to view):
| balthasar_s | BlitzGirl | ergman | Eternal Density |
 |
 |
 |
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| ggh | karhell | mrob27 | svenman |
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