Common Jargon

The Dreamwidth project has some jargon in common use that may not be familiar to the general public. While these are not official terms that you should know, or necessarily Dreamwidth-specific, general explanations or definitions may be helpful.

Words

BNF

Big Name Fan. All the conflicting definitions seem to boil down to "a fan who is (very) famous within fandom". (From Western science fiction/fantasy book & media fandom.)

cat macros

Images of cats with funny captions. Sometimes used as a form of protest and/or mockery. (From the internet.)

earworm

a song that gets stuck in your head. See earworm and earwormhole.

fandom

A general term for a community of people who are fans of things, such as "sports fandom", or "Star Trek fandom". When used without qualification, it often (but not always) refers to Western science fiction and fantasy book and media fandom, or a certain subset of same.

fisting

A sexual practice that gets mentioned a lot in IRC. Probably more information on it than you wanted. (Inherited habit from LJ Support IRC. burr86 may be to blame.)

hivemind

Sharing the same brain or thoughts, usually expressed by saying the same thing at the same time. Commonly caused by spending too much time in IRC. (General term, popularized in IRC. That'll get you bees.)

nipplegate

A controversial LiveJournal event. (From LiveJournal.)

NSFW/NWS

Not Safe For Work / Not Work-Safe. Content that the average boss/mother-in-law might not appreciate. You can mark an entry as NSFW by setting the Age Restriction to Viewer Discretion Advised, and get warned about NSFW entries by setting your Viewing Adult Content setting to Content Should Be Viewed with Discretion. (FAQ not yet available; link to it when it is.) (From the internet.)

pumpkin time

The time after which one will turn into a pumpkin. Generally a departure time or a bedtime. (Used in IRC, a reference to the Cinderella story.)

slash

Fanfiction involving same-sex attraction, sex, or romance. The most restrictive definition would apply this only to sex/romance between two men who are straight or unspecificed in the source text. N00bs sometimes use it to refer to any sexually explicit fanfiction. (From the fanfictiony parts of fandom.)

snowflake, special snowflake

Someone who demands special treatment based on their unique circumstances, particularly when their circumstances are not unique, or when they believe themselves to be in an extreme circumstance and are unaware that others have surpassed their record. Urban Dictionary definition

spoons

Finite physical/mental/emotional resources to handle daily tasks. More: WTF Spoons. (From disability advocacy.)

strikethrough

A controversial LiveJournal event. (From LiveJournal.)

zilch

An addictive dice-rolling game, with a computer that cheats. Can be found in IRC, in #zilch. For all mentions of Zilch, developers take 1d6 hit to productivity.

Abbreviations

afaik

As Far As I Know

afk

Away From Keyboard

ffs

For F-ck's Sake

iawtc

I Agree With This Comment

idk

I Don't Know

iirc

If I Recall Correctly

RTE

Rich Text Editor. See Technical for more information.

tl,dr

Too Long, Didn't Read. Usually said as either a joke or an insult. Sometimes "written out" or pronounced as Teal Deer.

wtf

Often "What the F***"; on Dreamwidth, also "Watch-Trust-Friend"; see Technical

ymmv

Your Mileage May Vary; this is my experience or general experience, but yours may be different. ("your mileage may vary" is a disclaimer from auto commercials)

Technical

Beta

Contrary to the precedent set by things like Gmail, "beta" actually means "we expect that stuff is going to be broken, that's why it's not out of beta yet". (From geek jargon.)

Bikeshed(ding)

Descending into increasingly-fine hair-splitting and world-ending pro/con over an issue that's rather small in the grander scheme of the project, particularly in a "push" environment such as e-mail. See Bikeshed. (From the Open Source technical community.)

Blocking Launch

A priority classification status for Dreamwidth bugs. Items that must be fixed before Dreamwidth can be launched/considered out of beta. Features that are listed as blocking launch will not be artificially delayed until the time of launch, but launch cannot happen until all of these are fixed/in place.

Cacti

A network graphing tool that Mark uses a lot.

ESN

Event-Subscription-Notification, the original development name for what eventually became the inbox/notification system. (From LiveJournal developers.)

Nagios

A monitoring system used to advise Mark (and IRC) about whether Dreamwidth is functioning properly. See the Support/IRC section for further info.

OpenID

A way for a website to know that you totally are who you claim to be from that other website over there. An informal explanation. Dreamwidth OpenID FAQ (From LiveJournal; Brad developed it!)

RTE

Rich Text Editor, something that lets you add formatting to text as well as just do plain text. Contrast with HTML editor (plain text, although you can type in HTML formatting manually). LJ's RTE gathered a lot of dislike from LJ volunteers. (From internet in general & LiveJournal.)

WTF/Project WTF

Rather than "What The F---", this is Watch-Trust-Friend(s), the project of splitting LiveJournal's original Friends into Watch/Trust (this eventually became Read/Access). (From LiveJournal development and then Dreamwidth development.)

People

Mark

Mark Smith is one half of the founding team of Dreamwidth. He is also known as xb95.

Denise

Denise Paolucci is one half of the founding team of the site. She is known as Rahaeli or rah on IRC. She is also known as D and synecdochic.

Staff Page

Brad

Brad Fitzpatrick is the original creator of LiveJournal. While he is not affiliated with the Dreamwidth project, if someone name-drops "Brad", it's probably him. (However, brad is not him.)

Support/IRC-Specific

Alton Brown anal nachos

Alton Brown's perhaps unnecessarily fussy recipe for nachos. (From IRC. You really had to be there.)

Anna

Usually a reference to the Basshunter song "Boten Anna", about an IRC bot named Anna. LJ Support IRC has a support-bot named Anna.

bananas

Make like a banana in the presence of ice cream. Peace out!

butterfinger

A candy bar or a finger that is buttered. Mark branched out into fanfiction. (From IRC.)

Cat

Short for Support Category. (From LiveJournal support.)

chemla, the

a dance. Not to be confused with Chemla, who is ChemicalLace the volunteer.

clocktower

If someone in IRC has 'clocktower' after their name, it means they're pretty mad about something. (From LJ Support IRC, an irreverent reference to crazed campus shooters.)

coed(s), invite coed(s)

A deliberate misspelling of 'code', as in 'invite code(s)'. (From LiveJournal.)

Goat

Usually a reference to a legacy LiveJournal Support bot of that name.

Green

a technical support question without an answer (or without an answer that has been reviewed and approved by senior support). (From LiveJournal support.)

jdn

twopointoh & jdn. Fictional character, sometimes shows up in IRC (as jdn). Not to be confused with jd, who is in IRC as JD.

Kitten

a support category that has very few requests in it. Wordplay. Support Category = Category = Cat; cat that is very small = kitten. (From LiveJournal support.)

MrsJ

Mark, Rah, Sarah, and Janine; the Dreamwidth owners and their spice. (DW Support shorthand.)

nagios

In IRC, nick nagios is the monitoring bot. Various people will change their nicks to _nagios_ or similar variations to make jokes about the bot. History of the HEY MARK HEY MARK HEY MARK jokes See Technical for more information.

 !pleh

'Help!' spelled backwards. (From LiveJournal Support.)

twix

A candy bar, or a play on words involving "twixt". Mark branched out into fanfiction. (From IRC.)

Other Resources

Jargon File

Many words from a gentler, more precise era of technology, although some are still in use today.

Urban Dictionary

Let the reader beware.