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.

Dreamwidth-Specific

Dreamwidth-Originated

circle, encircle

v. To add someone to your circle (subscription, access, or both).

Deewee, DW, Dth

Abbreviations for Dreamwidth. (Disambiguation: DW is also in common use to refer to the BBC television show Doctor Who.)

dreamsheep

The unofficial mascot of Dreamwidth, a small sleeping cartoon sheep with a thought bubble. There are icons. Also see dreamsheep

Dreamwidth

Coined by denise and mark, a portmanteau of "dream" + "bandwidth". Note that it is a single word, with an initial capital and no internal capital. (The font in the logo is fanciful and switches mid-word, but the canonical capitalization is one single capital to start with and lower-case the rest of the way.)

droll

Reading page. A contraction of the portmanteau "Dreamroll", formed from "blogroll". Compare LiveJournal's "flist".

DW

Abbreviation for Dreamwidth. Also used as an abbreviation for the Doctor Who TV show. Disambiguation may be required in some contexts.

dweebs

Dreamwidth people: people who are friends with you, on Dreamwidth: or Dreamwidth peeps. As you can see, it was a word that started with "dw".

dweeps

Dreamwidth people; Dreamwidth users who are friendly with each other.

dwenizens

A portmanteau of "dw" + "denizens".

unlock

Common: "unlock [an entry]": to change the security of an entry from a more restrictive to less restrictive security setting, most often from Access to Public. Rare: "unlock to [a person]": To grant access to a person.

Old Terms from LiveJournal

This is not intended to collect all of the terms in current common use at LJ, but to collect the terms still in use on DW and their application on DW, particularly for those who are unfamiliar with the original LJ terms and environment. For a list of terms likely to be in use at LJ, try the LJ Support wiki list.

flist

Friends list. (Used, variously, of one's reading page, the members of one's access list, and everyone who has you on their reading pages.)

flock

Friends-lock. To lock to one's access list.

Words

accessible, accessibility

Making things (websites, buildings, et cetera) able to be accessed by anyone, including but not limited to people in wheelchairs, people with visual impairments, people with hearing impairments, people with cognitive impairments, and more. The goal here is to make Dreamwidth as accessible as possible. Developers are encouraged to check out dw_accessibility and the Accessibility Wishlist.

bingo

the game. Also a way of organizing the perennial invalid arguments/distraction tactics that come up against a divisive topic. See: porny presentation bingo, racism bingo, anti-feminist bingo.

cat macros

Images of cats with funny captions. Sometimes used as a form of protest and/or mockery. Also referred to as LOLcats. (From the internet.) See I Can Has Cheezburger.

derailing

The conscious or unconscious process of destroying and confusing a conversation about productive but uncomfortable topics. Derailing for Dummies

earworm

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

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, EDS

A group of inherited connective tissue disorders. Also, why people in IRC tend not to freak out too badly when Rahaeli announces she's got another dislocated joint again. Mayo Clinic. Wikipedia.

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.

fandom_wank, f_w

fandom_wank is an internet community, currently hosted on JournalFen.net, that collects and discusses reports of "wank" in the greater fandom community. "Wank" includes social trainwrecks and more, and the discussion allows anonymous commenting. Caveat lector: this community discusses social catastrophes anonymously.

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.)

game, the

The only winning move is not to play. If you click the link, you may start playing.

going to the wiki

If you visit http://wiki.dwscoalition.org you see this message before it redirects to http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/Main_Page. It has therefore become customary to announce "Going to the wiki!" in varying stages of capslock upon going to the wiki (to look up something or edit). (Popularized on IRC.)

hit points

A means of measuring someone's ability to withstand damage/attack or perform tasks. Notional "hit points" can be regained readily/predictably by a generally-able-bodied/mentally healthy person. Contrast 'spoons'. (By analogy from hit points in gaming.)

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.)

Kaycee-Nicole

a notable internet hoax involving illness and death.

mouse, mice

An anonymous user or users. (A-nonny-mouse.)

nipplegate

A controversial LiveJournal event involving exposed nipples in default userpics. (From LiveJournal.) This is not the Open Source Boob Project.

Open Source Boob Project

Charitably put, a convention social experiment that rather notably did not scale well when proposed to be taken outside of the environment at that particular convention with those particular people. This is not nipplegate. [On the Geek Feminism wiki]

ping

To briefly contact someone, generally on their preferred form of short-form contact. This is usually to get their attention prior to longer discussion, or to bring a matter that needs their attention to their attention. In general use in technical circles; this is definition 3 from the Jargon File.

mark has a highlight set up for 'xb95' in IRC. denise prefers AIM, and tends to run silent (invisible status). Department head contact information viewable to other department heads.

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.)

Razz

A variant of poker. According to Rah, "Razz is the reason why poker players drink." Rah plays Razz too often.

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

spice

"I think so, Brain, but if the plural of mouse is mice, wouldn't the plural of spouse be spice?" From a Pinky and the Brain segment.

spoons

Finite physical/mental/emotional resources, at a level significantly below average ability levels, to handle daily tasks. More: WTF Spoons. (From disability advocacy; term originated from an article on But You Don't Look Sick?.) Compare 'hit points'.

strikethrough

A controversial LiveJournal event, involving the mass-suspension of a number of accounts, and the later unsuspension of most of them. (From LiveJournal.)

wank

Aside from the obvious slang term, this also means any number of social upsets, generally of the sort that generate gossip and upsetness perhaps out of proportion with the actual problem. ("Did you hear about what Bit did to Figment?" "Yeah, talk about wank!")

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

Common Abbreviations

afaik

As Far As I Know

afk

Away From Keyboard

AO3, AOOO

Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works, the other known majority-female Free Open Source Software project besides Dreamwidth.

BBB

Support shorthand for the Big Blue Box, also known as the Known Issues box. It can be found on the left-hand side of the main DW Support page. Inherited from LiveJournal Support.

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.)

FFF

In the context of IRC, usually Fey (foxfirefey), rather than the similar emphatic minced oath, which can repeat the letter any number of times, usually from three on up.

ffs

For Fuck's Sake

iawtc

I Agree With This Comment

idk

I Don't Know. Sometimes followed by "my bff jill?" in reference to a TV commercial that aired in the US at one point.

iirc

If I Recall Correctly

ikr, inorite

I know, right? Often said by members of the Support Triumvirate when expressing agreement.

imo, imho, imao

In My Opinion, In My Humble Opinion, In My Arrogant (or other suitable A-word) Opinion

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 (From the internet.)

OP

Original Poster. Usually the author of the entry; used in long comment threads. From message board slang.

OTW

Rather than Off The Wall or On The Way, this is likely to mean the Organization for Transformative Works when used in the context of Dreamwidth. They make the Archive of Our Own.

While the OTW's logo, a red arrow bent into a capital O, pointing counter-clockwise, enclosed in a red circle, can at a casual glance and small resolutions be confused with the simplified version of Dreamwidth's logo (a red line spiraling counterclockwise inward), the organizations are separate, with separate operations and leadership. There is some incidental overlap between OTW and Dreamwidth developers and technical support.

PC

In the context of comment threads, this is usually Parent Commenter rather than Personal Computer. From message board slang.

PWP

A type of fanfiction. Originally, this stood for "Plot? What Plot?", used of short mood pieces, smut without any attempt at a framing plot, or short action sequences without lead-in or resolution. As it is largely used for context-free smut, some readers have back-formed the acronym to stand for "Porn Without Plot".

RFC

Request For Comment. See Technical for more information.

RTE

Rich Text Editor. See Technical for more information.

tl;dr, tl,dr

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

WIP

Work-In-Progress. Often said of a piece of fanfiction that is still being written (especially a piece of fanfiction that is being posted serially as it is being written), but also applies to other projects.

wtf

Often "What the Fuck"; 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)

Other Resources

very large Webopedia list of abbreviations

also very large Netlingo list of abbreviations

Abbreviations.com list of abbreviations

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.) (OMG, Gmail is out of beta now!! WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO!?)

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.

CARP

Cross-site Authenticated Reading Page. (It's planned, but how to do it? This is the mechanism by which one would get locked entries from one's friends on other sites.) Discussion.

Clone

An exact copy, or a copy that is identical in most major respects. In the context of the Dreamwidth project, this is generally used to refer to other journaling sites based on the LiveJournal code that have not made significant functional alterations to the code. Dreamwidth is not, strictly speaking, a clone of LiveJournal. See: Fork, LJ-based_Services.

Debian

Debian is a free operating system that uses the Linux kernel and some GNU operating system tools.

While Debian's logo, a spattered red line spiraling clockwise inward, reminiscent of the Fibonacci spiral, can at a casual glance and small resolutions be confused with the simplified version of Dreamwidth's logo (a smooth red line spiraling counterclockwise inward in a roughly circular shape, derived from Dreamwidth's stylized lower-case D), the organizations are separate. It is unknown how many Dreamwidth-affiliated developers and users prefer or use Debian.

Edges

Data that makes foxfirefey very happy. See Data_Sources.

ESN

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

FCKEditor, FCKEd, CKEditor

FCKEditor is the open-source WYSIWYG editor used by Dreamwidth and LiveJournal, more familiarly known as the Rich Text Editor, or RTE. The FCKEditor is named for its creator, Frederico Caldeira Knabben. With version 3.0, it was renamed the CKEditor.

Fork, code fork

Like a fork in a road, code that has been taken in a different developmental direction from the main project. In the context of Dreamwidth development, this generally is used to refer to Dreamwidth's relationship to LiveJournal, as Dreamwidth has active development in other directions. Colorful explanation.

Gearman

An asynchronous job scheduling engine, of the type "do this somewhere else". Benefits: somewhere else, fast. Flaws: currently if it dies jobs are lost (apparently the team that manages it is working on that). Name is an anagram of "manager"; from LiveJournal days. IRC log with history/discussion Gearman on Dreamwidth gearman.org

JAWS

a screenreader (assistive software for the visually impaired). homepage

MogileFS

Mogile FileSystem, the system that runs behind the userpics, is an anagram of OMG FILES. From LiveJournal development.

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!)

PubSubHubbub

A way to make syndicated stuff update like greased lightning. From Google (and Brad!); the implementation is courtesy of our good friends in the LJ dev department. Sometimes also called Fred for short.

replicate, cannot replicate, replication

Dreamwidth has two master databases that are supposed to be identical copies of each other. Nagios freaks out when one copy is lagging behind the other. Nagios also cheerfully informs everyone when things are back to normal.

RFC

Request For Comment. An invitation for constructive and thorough criticism of the proposed concept. In general use in certain technical communities. Also, one of the founding documents describing standards that the internet attempts to abide by. Examples: RFC 3330 RFC 2324

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. It is built based on the open source FCKEditor. The LiveJournal and Dreamwidth implementations have a reputation for being (pick your favorite) delicate, buggy, or broken. (From internet in general & LiveJournal.)

screenreader

an item of assistive technology used primarily by visually impaired users. Screenreaders read text on web pages aloud, allowing users to use websites without seeing them.

TheSchwartz

An asynchronous job scheduling engine of the "Do this and tell me later" type. Has persistent queue support. It was named after Brad's manager, Mike Schwartz, the VP of Engineering at Six Apart, and may also have been a reference to Spaceballs (with Brad you never know). Solid, has a lot of overhead and a lot of setup. IRC log with history/discussion TheSchwartz on Dreamwidth TheSchwartz on cpan.org

Upstream

A flag in Dreamwidth's implementation of Bugzilla that is a courtesy to LiveJournal developers, to alert them that a bug inherited from the LiveJournal codebase has been patched. LiveJournal is actively encouraged to pick up patches that have been flagged for upstreaming. Yay Open Source!

WTF/Project WTF

Rather than "What The Fuck", 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.)

People the owners have worked with/near in the past, partial list

Brad (bradfitz), Brad's Mom, Hachi (hachi), Abe (burr86), Mart (mart), MK, BB, Carrie (coffeechica), Dave "worst username evar" Recordon (daveman692), Tupshin (tupshin), Whitaker (whitaker) (but not Whitaker's Mom).

INGVA

QUEEN OF THE WILD PLACES

Volunteer/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" (YouTube, English lyrics), about an IRC bot named Anna. LJ Support IRC has a support-bot named Anna.

babydev

A beginning developer. Generally used of developers who are new at development in general, not just new to the project.

bananas

Make like a banana in the presence of ice cream and split! (Kat got bored)

butterfinger

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

bus (non-essential and/or metaphorical, often seen being sent to hEll)

A reference to "hit by a bus" as "unexpected tragedy", and discussions about what would happen if both Mark and Denise were to be hit by a bus at the same time. Operating_Agreement

Camp Permabanned

Where particularly enthusiastic/persistent spammers are sent. (An Azz-ism, and also a joke based on Camp Permafrost from Bujold's Vorkosigan series.)

Cat

Short for Support Category. (From LiveJournal support.)

channelstaples

notional staples that are said to keep someone who keeps disconnecting from the server stapled there. (Popular in LJ IRC, and perhaps other places.)

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.)

Commit-and-Ditch pony

When someone does something that breaks stuff, and leaves everybody else with the mess, they are awarded the Commit-and-Ditch Pony. This can take the form of an actual toy pony, a pony virtual gift, or merely informing the offender that they now hold the pony. (From OpenMoko development, via LiveJournal volunteers.)

Disco

Support's private category is powered by this. (Mark started it; Kat continued it.)

ELF

Enthusiastic Little Fucker. Said of particularly prolific spammers before they are sent to Camp Permabanned.

Frank

LiveJournal's goat mascot.

Fred

a more friendly name for PubSubHubbub (see Technical).

fruit loops

Appropriate-answer silliness.

[17:31] * ysobel dies giggling. you know, one of these days I really AM going to have to answer a request with gibberish

[17:31] <MissKat> Even if she's like "and then the pink sparkley ponies will come and delete all your entries and replace them with froot loops!" I figure it's isa and she must know what she's talking about.

[17:31] <domtheknight> OMG PINK SPARKLY PONIES

[17:31] <domtheknight> FRUIT LOOPS

(from IRC)

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). Green is usually referred to numerically ("How much green?" "10."), which refers to the number of green requests. It can also be referred to in relative terms ("Lots.") or figurative ("Enough to fill a swimming pool!"). The support category "General/Unknown", commonly referred to as "G/Unk", spawned the phrase "green gunk", or "lime slime". (From LiveJournal support, based on the color coding of the Support system's user interface, which shows requests that are awaiting an approved response with a green background in the list of support requests.)

jdn

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

kill you in the morning

A Princess Bride reference. What else do you expect from the Dread Pirate Rah-berts?

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.)

Mart bug death

Someone proposes something tiny and specialized, then Mart (a notable architecture astronaut) generalized it to the abstract case and said "we should do it this way so it can be used for this other stuff", turning it from a five-minute fix to a five-month fix. Then (the death part) whoever came along who could do the five-minute fix, but not the five-month fix, would look at it and go "screw this" and never do it. There were approximately four people who could do the five-month version, so it would never get done, because they had a gazillion five-month projects. (From LiveJournal development, seen in the wild mentioned by mart in '04.)

MrsJ

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

Muppet

If people start calling Mark "Muppet", it's MissKat's fault.

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.)

pillowfort

refers to the secret hiding place of the Triumvirate + pony

qdb

Quotes Database, a collection of particularly funny and/or memorable quotes uttered in various Dreamwidth IRC channels. This is maintained by sophie, and also contains quotes from select other channels that previously shared the same server.

Rahversation

refers to a conversation involving Rah (denise). Coined by ysobel

SKULLBUTT THE TORMENTOR

Once upon a time, an underwear designer put a flaming skull on the front and back of a pair of briefs. Assorted #dw and #dw_nsfw people in and around amusing_underwear pointed and laughed. mayerman coined the name, and remark elevated it into a catchphrase.

Speaking of <x>, hello <y>

You may be greeted this way upon entering IRC. Likely as not, <x> has nothing to do with you; it was just the topic the moment before you entered. (This greeting habit was more prevalent in LJ volunteer IRC but still persists.)

teapatty, *|teapatty

Someone making reference to "teapatty" or changing their IRC nick to incorporate "teapatty" is either drunk or pretending not to be. At one point Wyn attempted to say "Not drunk, repeat, not drunk." Unfortunately for them, they were drunk enough that it came out "Not drunk, teapatty, not drunk." (From LiveJournal Support IRC.)

Triumvirate, The

refers to the current support wranglers: Domtheknight (The Bug-Squashing Boots), zarhooie (The Tact Hat) and chemicallace (The All-Purpose Boa). The Triumvirate + Pony is the Triumvirate with the addition of the Froot Loop Pony, also known as ysobel.

twix

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

worst username evar

David Recordon daveman692. Refers to a LiveJournal ad for rename tokens that featured his username. (From LJ.)

Other Resources

Jargon

Jargon File

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

LiveJournal Support jargon

there is some overlap of vocabulary due to the number of volunteers and IRC inhabitants who are former or current LiveJournal volunteers.

Urban Dictionary

Let the reader beware. (Often not safe for work -- or for other things, for that matter.)

Cultures

Fanlore fandom wiki

Fannish type information, in convenient wiki format.

Geek Feminism wiki

A resource for and about women in geek communities.

QDBs

Dreamwidth IRC QDB

A collection of quotes from Dreamwidth's IRC channels

metaquotes

Hilarity from around Dreamwidth, after the example of metaquotes

http://qdb.us/

Another QDB.

bash.org

A much larger, multi-network IRC quotes database. Contains notably uncensored language and potentially offensive content.