balloonian variable = B = banana label

bamf /bamf/

1. [from X-Men comics; originally "bampf"] interj. Notional sound made by a person or object teleporting in or out of the hearer's vicinity. Often used in virtual reality (esp. MUD) electronic fora when a character wishes to make a dramatic entrance or exit. 2. The sound of magical transformation, used in virtual reality fora like MUDs. 3. In MUD circles, "bamf" is also used to refer to the act by which a MUD server sends a special notification to the MUD client to switch its connection to another server ("I'll set up the old site to just bamf people over to our new location."). 4. Used by MUDders on occasion in a more general sense related to sense 3, to refer to directing someone to another location or resource ("A user was asking about some technobabble so I bamfed them to http://www.tuxedo.org/jargon/".)

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

"bamf" is referred to in the C functions of most MUD codebases. "bamfin" and "bamfout" are strings contained in a character's player file that detail what immortals look like when they appear in a room using the commands "goto" or "teleport".

When an immortal character (one of the players that are involved in the administration of a MUD, also referred to as gods) teleports themselves somewhere in a MUD, the players in the room get a message that describes how the immortal enters. This message can be funny, twisted, downright frightening (within the context of the MUD itself), in character, or just plain boring, depending on the imm's personality.

"Epsilon appears in a swirling mist."
- is an example of a bamfin. It's the default one for most MUDs. It can be changed via the "poofin" command to fit whatever you desire. An example of this is:
"poofin A blinding light shines from a rip in the space-time continuum. A small orange kitten hops out of it, followed by Epsilon, who trips, falls flat on his face, scrambles to his feet, and starts chasing after the kitten again."
The command is designed so that it's not necessary to put your name first, like an emote requires, but your character's name -is- required. The poofout command works in a manner similar to poofin, except it is used when you are leaving the room, once again by using the goto or teleport commands.

Some MUD codebases actually use the bamfin/bamfout commands instead of poofin/poofout, and some will accept either.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.