Internet Jargon

Spinner and Rayzer's Guide to Internet Jargon

"So what is jargon?" Spinner asked Rayzer. She was visiting her friend because it was too cold where Spinner lived and worked. They sat outside on the porch. He was reading a book, she was reading a web page.

Rayzer looked up from his book. "Jargon, that's when you use words that have special meaning to a group of people."

"Like Spanish and English?" Spinner asked. If I were to say "Hablo Espanol?" then I would be talking in jargon?"

"Not quite," Rayzer replied. "Spanish and English are languages. They have their own grammer. Jargon usually don't have grammer, just words. A language also applies to a nation or group of regional people. But jargon applies to a group of professionals, like legal jargon for lawyers, or Internet jargon for Internet users." He cleared his throat and assumed a theatrical pose. "I received a flamebait from some lurker on RinerMOO who had a nick of Easter Bunny." Rayzer relaxed and grinned at Spinner. "Did you understand what I just said?" "Of course," Spinner replied. "You said you received an e-mail that upset you or that required an immediate and hostile response. It was sent by someone called Easter Bunny. That person reads messages in RinerMOO rarely says anything. He's a wall flower."

"Exactly," Rayzer said. "See, you already know Internet Jargon."

"How about that," Spinner thought, pleased with herself. She let Rayzer get back to his reading. She had lost interest in the web page, and she gazed westward into the sunset. It was nice like this, sitting here with her friend at the end of a busy day.

cruft -- data that is neither needed nor wanted. "I removed the cruft that had filled the /tmp directory."
flame -- A angry and often witty response to someone's post (sometimes personal); Any type of junk mail you send to companies because they posted on a newsgroup. "Perhaps if you had a brain you would know that..."
flamebait -- An article that someone post to draw flames. While often brutal, flames are sometimes amusing. Or, any type of advertisement posted to a newsgroup.
flavor -- different version of software/hardware. " BSD and system V are two flavors of UNIX."
foo, bar, baz -- Often used to help detail a situation while keeping the discussion abstract. "O.K. Lets say you have a file called foo. You have another file called bar. The way you merge the two togther into a third , lets call it baz, is by using the ..."
lurker -- someone who listens but does not contribute (post messages) to a newsgroup or a list-erv.
nick -- short for nickname. The name a user uses on a CHAT channel.
net potato -- someone who spends a great deal of time surfing the net. You might even know one.
ops or operator -- on a chat channel, the person who controls a channel and has the power to kick a user off of the channel.
newbie -- A new participant of a newsgroup or the internet. "listen you newbie, read the FAQ before you post..."
spam, SPAM -- SPAM - "Stupid Persons' AdvertiseMent ; Unasked for advertisments sent to a user or newsgroup. The common response is to reply with a "no thanks" letter. " If I wanted your products I could search on the Web and find them. No more spam thanks, I am full.
snail mail -- reference to the relative speed of postal mail .
surfing the net -- The action of traveling the World Wide Web for ones own self interest.
techie -- romeone who knows about and is interested in the technology of the Internet.
vanilla -- something that is plain.
webmaster -- the manager of web pages and data at a web site.
wizard -- in a MUD, someone who has power over others, such as to kick a user off the MUD or discipline him ot hrt.