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HitsHerMark
Unfictologist
Joined: 22 Aug 2004 Posts: 1521 Location: Austin, TX
[Meta] Say what? (Vocabulary and other such things) Okay, so I noticed that every so often people ask what a particular term means. At one point during OurColony, somebody described me as "Miss 'up with people'"... I don't exactly know what that means, but I suspect it makes me the "Unforums Sunshine Girl". So, I'm going to compile a short list here, and if you have a question like "what does this acronym mean", or "how do you...", or "Should I..." post it here and I or some other friendly person will answer.
Okay, so if you're completely new to ARGs, there's a tutorial here , which has some basic info as well as our posting guidelines. And here is the "Glossary Forum" with posts that contain expanded explanations of general ARG terms. What I have here is just a quick and dirty "at a glance" sort of... thing.
Yeah.
If you're having trouble connecting with IRC, there's a thread to get help here
Okay so, vocabulary:
OOG : "Out Of Game" - This means that the information, thread, person, or site being described as "OOG" is not part of the experience/ARG/"Spiral Campaign", despite having something about it/him/her that makes it seem connected, and should be left alone.
"Tags" - A tag is a short one word or acronym that goes in brackets and describes the type of thread. There's usually a lot of activity in the forums so it's in everybody's best interest to be descriptive with your subject lines. If somebody tags a thread with [Humor] it's a thread for being silly. If it's [Press] then it's about a mention of what's going on in the news that is vaguely OOG (see below) but of interest. Other tags are defined below, but let me give you a few examples of how helpful tags can be.
[Spec] Soylent Green is People!
[Update] Soylent Green is People!
[Humor] Soylent Green is People!
OT : "Off Topic" - This means that the information, thread, person, or site being described as "OT" has no connection to the experience/ARG/"Spiral Campaign". The thread is there because it may be of interest to the community. Such as if you've made a back ground image for your PSP with some of the game content or you'd like to organize a multiplayer game of Halo 2.
Meta : Wikipedia has a good definition of "Meta" . In short it means something like "Data about Data". For our purposes, I think the best way to describe what meta means is information and topics about us the players, or about the PMs... Another example of something that's Meta is the fact that some of the images were edited on a Macintosh.
Spec : Short for "Speculation" - Not, as some might think, a very very small piece of something. There is no small spec, only small ARGers. [img=http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/images/icons/icon10.gif]
Update : This means that the thread is new information about an existing ingame (one word!) source (like a web site) has officially changed. An example of this would be if and when the SOTA finally start accepting membership applications (which they haven't as of this post), or when the countdown switched to "Server 5".
- "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" - Mods use this icon when locking a post. You can also use it to draw attention to when you are asking a post to be locked.
(AKA "trout") - In the case where something is brought up for the second, third, fourth, ...bajillionth time, that is called "trout". See HERE for the actual definition of "trout". Just because you're "trouting" somebody doesn't mean you have to be nasty about it. There are a lot of new people coming in as a result of Iris and a friendly word about using the search function works much better. The only people here permitted to be nasty are us mods, and we're only nasty to nasty people. Do you grock? *cracks knuckles*
Grok - (introduced in the name of an email address) To know intuitively . Like you grok that trees are pretty and fire is bad.
SOTA - Short for "Society of the Ancients" - An ingame (it's one word now ya know!) web site and group of people.
Any other questions or things anybody would like to add?
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GirlInFocus
flickr
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 11:30 am
Last edited by HitsHerMark on Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:03 pm; edited 4 times in total
Phaedra
Lurker v2.0
Joined: 21 Sep 2004 Posts: 4033 Location: Here, obviously
I would like to add a sticky.
And I have.
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Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 11:47 am
redct
Entrenched
Joined: 20 Jun 2007 Posts: 1233
It's actually Grok (you misspelled it )
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:52 pm
HitsHerMark
Unfictologist
Joined: 22 Aug 2004 Posts: 1521 Location: Austin, TX
redct wrote:
It's actually Grok (you misspelled it )
Fixed.
Obviously, spelling isn't something I grok.
I keep doing that, I think it's because of the whole "I grok Spock" thing.
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GirlInFocus
flickr
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 2:22 pm
LordIllidan
Unfettered
Joined: 16 Jun 2007 Posts: 737
Re: [Meta] Say what? (Vocabulary and other such things)
HitsHerMark wrote:
OT : "Off Topic" - This means that the information, thread, person, or site being described as "OT" has no connection to the experience/ARG/"Spiral Campaign". The thread is there because it may be of interest to the community. Such as if you've made a back ground image for your PSP with some of the game content or you'd like to organize a multiplayer game of Halo 2.
Hoo-rah XD
Good way to make a newcomer ARGer feel welcome
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:43 pm
aliendial
Unfictologist
Joined: 29 Sep 2002 Posts: 3438 Location: Far Far Away. Nowhere Near You. Really.
The 'official' definition of trout is a bit more nuanced, and specifically NOT intended to refer to slapping anyone:
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5238
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:58 am
HitsHerMark
Unfictologist
Joined: 22 Aug 2004 Posts: 1521 Location: Austin, TX
Updated!
Thank you!
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GirlInFocus
flickr
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:34 am
dsweenLKN
Boot
Joined: 25 Jun 2007 Posts: 13
It might not be necessary, as it is self-explanatory, but putting in a note about the [Humor] and [Press] tags might be a pretty good idea.
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:46 am
toxicpony
Guest
and now it starts.... top cola top cola = sota
you all assume master chief is the good guy....
are you so sure?
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 4:26 pm
HitsHerMark
Unfictologist
Joined: 22 Aug 2004 Posts: 1521 Location: Austin, TX
Update! Added a description of "tags" as well as [Humor] and [Press] tags.
Thank you dsweenLKN!
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GirlInFocus
flickr
Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:04 pm
rose
...and then Magic happens
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 4117
Trout The definition of trout it should mention that if you use a trout you must link to where the discussion first occurred (or to all the places it occurred if it is being asked or mentioned for the hundredth time) . I think in the olden times when the word "trout" concept first came into being, it wasn't possible to link directly to items on the list, so people just pointed to the name of the thread where it was contained. Even if I'm wrong about that, it should be required now, if you're going to trout someone, give us a link to where the topic was covered previously.
Also, I know HHM is joking about mods being allowed to be nasty. She's kidding. No one is allowed to be nasty. Just clarifying for those literal minded (like me) players.
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Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens
Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:21 am
Chrono2x
Boot
Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 14
you may want to mention the definition of what a PM is. I know that term confused the heck out of me when i first started playing ILB back in the day.
P.S. speaking of more terms to define, ILB may be a good term as well.
Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:24 am
rose
...and then Magic happens
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 4117
PM -PuppetMaster: the people making the game
ILB - I love bees - the game promoting the release of Halo 2: an online story featuring data hidden in images coupled with a radio play that required players to answer payphones (and meet other conditions) to release audio clips. Audio clips still available online at the links page . Just go down the list on the left side.
_________________I love this site for being free, in every sense of the word~Spacebass
Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens
Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:50 am
thebruce
Dances With Wikis
Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 6899 Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Chrono2x wrote:
you may want to mention the definition of what a PM is. I know that term confused the heck out of me when i first started playing ILB back in the day.
bet it was hard to understand why everyone kept referring to pms... =P
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Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 1:30 am
whitekeyes
Boot
Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 25
Yo, what about QFE and IMO?
Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 8:46 pm
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