Breidbart Index

Breidbart Index
 /bri:d'bart ind@ks/

   A measurement of the severity of spam invented by long-time hacker
   Seth Breidbart, used for programming cancelbots. The Breidbart Index
   takes into account the fact that excessive multi-posting {EMP} is
   worse than excessive cross-posting {ECP}. The Breidbart Index is
   computed as follows: For each article in a spam, take the square-root
   of the number of newsgroups to which the article is posted. The
   Breidbart Index is the sum of the square roots of all of the posts in
   the spam. For example, one article posted to nine newsgroups and again
   to sixteen would have BI = sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) = 7. It is generally
   agreed that a spam is cancelable if the Breidbart Index exceeds 20.

   The Breidbart Index accumulates over a 45-day window. Ten articles
   yesterday and ten articles today and ten articles tomorrow add up to a
   30-article spam. Spam fighters will often reset the count if you can
   convince them that the spam was accidental and/or you have seen the
   error of your ways and won't repeat it. Breidbart Index can accumulate
   over multiple authors. For example, the "Make Money Fast" pyramid
   scheme exceeded a BI of 20 a long time ago, and is now considered
   "cancel on sight".