"Spamming" is intentionally sending an excessive volume of messages or commands to the MUD over a short time. It is always against the rules, whether it is part of an attempt to gain skill, money or equipment, to annoy people, or, as a worst case, to cause lag or a crash. Punishment varies by severity and intent. A player spamming channels or tell messages can expect to be silenced, while a player using spam to gain skill or equipment can expect, at a minimum, to have their character killed and to lose anything gained through the exercise. Any player found to be intentionally spamming the MUD in order to crash it or slow it down can expect to be permanently banned. Spam can potentially be very harmful to the MUD, the files any online creators may be working on, and the MUD's hardware, as well as to other players. Even if it does not put excessive load on the MUD itself, spamming is very annoying, as well as extremely bad roleplay.