Well, by request, I'm going to start a glossary. Leaving this thread open, so anyone who has a new word or abbreviation they want defined, let us know. Please note that I am not defining all names and characters that appear on LOST, we have an
Index with several hundred files that does that!
AFK: Short for "Away from keyboard". Commonly used in chat.
ARG: Short for "Alternate Reality Game", such as the webmaze.
A/S/L: Short for "Age/Sex/Location". Commonly used in chat as a general introduction question. Frowned upon by some as being overly superficial and netspeakish (see below).
Avatar: The picture under your name, that shows up whenever you post. To figure out how to insert one, click on
Profile at the top.
Bagua:
Symbol used in Taoism & the I Ching, which is the basis for the DHARMA Initiative symbol.
BBL: Short for "Be back later". Commonly used in chat.
Benry: Nickname given by some LOST fans for Ben, who once lied about his name being Henry Gale ("Fake-Henry").
Blog: Short for weblog, where a webmaster can post regularly updated entries in an online journal format, such as seen in the front page of this site.
BRB: Short for "Be right back". Commonly used in chat.
BTW: Short for "By the way".
Bump: Bring up a thread to the top of a forum list (after it has fallen down the list from inactivity) with a new post.
Cap: Short for screen capture. To take a still photo from a moving image file for the purpose of looking at details more closely, such as used in the
Investigations section of this site.
Child Boards: No, it's not just a board for children.
A child board is like a subforum within a larger heading; for example, in the Season 2 Episode Discussion forums, there are all the episode subforums.
D/L: Short for download (as in a file or program).
Epi: Short for episode.
ETA: Short for "Edited to add" (when a post is modified by the original poster or a moderator).
Fenry: Nickname given by some LOST fans for Ben, who once lied about his name being Henry Gale ("Fake-Henry").
Flame: To insult someone over the internet, especially in a gratuitous way just to be argumentative.
Foiler: A fake spoiler. There have been cases in the past where the LOST production team has deliberately encouraged the spreading of a foiler rumor, to lead speculation away from a real spoiler.
Fuselage, The: This is a
forum set up by J.J. Abrams (the director of LOST), and occasionally frequented by members of the writing team. It is named after the part of the plane where the survivors came from.
GMTA: Short for "Great minds think alike".
Hatchmonkey: An online program Sledge has written which simulates the countdown clock, allowing users to enter the Numbers every 108 minutes; no longer active.
Hunt, The: An online game Sledge has written for this site.
IMHO: Short for "In my humble opinion".
Jate: Nickname given by fans who want to see a romantic pairing between Jack and Kate.
J/K: Short for "Just kidding".
Jump the Shark: A term to describe the point at which a TV show goes too far and starts introducing ridiculous plotlines and gimmicks to try and revive its popularity. It is a term first popularized by the show "Happy Days", in which Fonzie jumped a shark literally, while in a leather jacket and on waterskis.
LMAO: Short for "Laughing my @ss off".
LOL: Short for "Laughing out loud".
Lurker: A member who reads a lot on a forum, but doesn't always post and show his or her presence.
Mod: Short for moderator. We help Sledge keep order on the forum.
Netspeak or N375p34k: A pseudolanguage popularized online by a process of shortening words and replacing letters with different letters and/or symbols to supposedly make the typing process shorter ("ur" for "your", "LOL" for laughing, "1337" for "elite"). Often lacks proper punctuation and grammar, and when overused, can serve to annoy others, and may in some communities mark the user as a n00b (see below). Many of the terms in this glossary can be considered netspeak, but fairly common and purposeful versions of it.
Newbie or
N00b: A new poster, or a poster who acts like one.
OMG: Short for "Oh my God!".
PM: Short for "Private message". All users have a PM box within this forum structure, and can send other users nonpublic messages that way. Click on
My Messages at the top to use this function.
PMSL: Short for "P*ss myself laughing", apparently netspeak which is trademarked by PurpleLostPrincess.
PostWh0re: Someone who posts a lot on a forum, like yours truly.
Redshirt: A term first popularized for LOST during "All the Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" when Boone tells Locke that on "Star Trek", the crew members that wore the red shirts (as opposed to blue/gold uniforms of the more major characters like Kirk & Spock) rarely returned to the ship and were often killed. Now used to describe background 815 survivor characters such as Arzt, Joanna, Scott, Steve and Neil the Frogurt man (see
Profiles Index).
ROTFL: Short for "Rolling on the floor, laughing".
S#E##: Shorthand way of denoting a LOST episode, by S(eason) # and E(pisode) ##. Another format is #x## (1x05 would be "White Rabbit", for example).
Sceve: Nickname given by some LOST fans for Scott & Steve, two redshirts that are frequently confused on the show, a running gag.
Screencap: Short for screen capture. To take a still photo from a moving image file for the purpose of looking at details more closely, such as used in the
Investigations section of this site.
Sledglings: What we, followers and fans of this site, have come to informally call ourselves.
Skate: Nickname given by fans who want to see a romantic pairing between Sawyer and Kate.
SMF: Short for "Simple Machines Forums", the
site which powers these forums.
Smokie: Nickname given to The Monster when it appears in the form of a black smoke like cloud.
Spam: Unsolicited email or forum posts with annoying, self-promotional ads. Spam on forums should be reported and deleted.
Spoiler: Something that gives away information about future episodes of the show that have not yet been aired. Please do not post spoilers outside the two designated forums, unless they are in spoiler tags (see Help,
Hints & Other Useful Info section for more on how to do this).
Sticky: A post that is pinned to the top of a forum by a moderator, such as this one.
SWLS: This site. Short for "Sledgeweb's Lost Stuff".
THF: Short for "The Hanso Foundation". Also refers to the site
www.thehansofoundation.org of the webmaze.
Thread: A topic started by a post, such as this one, and all the replies that follow.
Threadjack: To hijack the subject of a thread, or take it off-topic.
TLE: Short for "The Lost Experience". ABC-sponsored webmaze 'experience' running in 2006. See
here for the complete walkthrough.
TPTB: Short for "The Powers That Be". The writing and production team behind LOST, that determines what the plot will be.
Troll: A troll is someone who comes into an established community such as an online discussion forum, and posts inflammatory, rude or offensive messages designed to annoy and antagonize the existing members or disrupt the flow of discussion (Wikipedia definition). If you see these types of posts, the best course of action is to PM one of the mods (OTHERS) or Sledge (HIM), and we will handle it, possibly with a ban. Do not continue the cycle by flaming them back with rebuke and offensive language, as this usually feeds the fire, and makes things worse; it's also the kind of reaction they are looking for. Trolls love attention, and usually go away eventually when ignored.
WB: Short for "Welcome back". Commonly used in chat.
Webmaze: An online game where a series of clues are given and lead to more hints and clues about a mystery. The one currently promoted by ABC is "The Lost Experience", and potentially ties into the mysteries of the show.
WTF: Short for "What the f---". Please don't use the uncontracted version.
