Newsgroup - this is a term for a type of bulletin board online popular in the past in which people could post messages through email on a variety of specific topics. Newsgroups were also known as usenet. Newsgroups were limited in that not all ISP's allowed their customers to post to all newsgroups. Later as the world wide web took hold postings occured often via dejanews which allowed anyone to post to any newgroup through their servers and not through email. Newsgroups are now archived and can be posted to via Google groups which was created when Google acquired the newsgroup assets from Deja.

Usenet - another term for newsgroups

IRC - an acronym for Internet Relay Chat which is a popular way of chatting and organizing online which is done via a special browser such as Mirc or Pirch. IRC is a popular download means and has been around far longer than the peer to peer solutions and Napster like methods. IRC is a haven for illegal information and data of all sorts. Webservers that host IRC servers are also victims of attack often from members of the IRC community for various reasons.

Netsplit - term for a unique event in which one Irc server is cut off from its related Irc Network isolating everyone that connected to that lone Irc Server that split off from the rest. If for example one connects to an Irc server in Charlotte, NC in the US and it is experiencing a netsplit then those who connected to that server would be unreachable to the rest of the members of that Irc Network. In effect it could be said that the Charlotte was lost due to a netsplit.

Ghost - term for what happens sometimes when an Irc user disconnects and relogs on to an Irc Network and it appears that they through their previous connection and nickname are still there. The nickname that can not respond is a ghost.

Warbot - term for a malicious Irc software script that is designed to go around banning people from chat rooms or otherwise limiting users experiences.

Kicked - to be removed from a given chatroom or Irc Channel but be able to go back in. The kicking is done to make an example of someone and to deter their conduct before having to banning them.

Banned - On Irc this is to be barred from participation in a given chat room or channel.

Flooding - this is a term for sending out lots of text very fast in an Irc Channel. In effect through flooding you shut down the channel by making it difficult for real people's words to get through. Some people who type fast are also banned sometimes for flooding including myself.

Troll - term for a message board or chat room poster that posts commercial information or contentless posts that just wastes everyone's time.

Sniping - this is a term used in regards to online auctions it means to wait until the last possible minute in an auction to bid. In an ebay auction for example many people will bid one price but will reconsider if outbid and bid again if given the chance, if you bid high at the last possible moment through sniping they can not bid again

Default Home Page - term for the website url set up as the one that opens automatically when your internet browser is opened. By default Internet Explorer sets MSN.com as the default home page for internet explorer users unless you change it. Many popups try to trick novice internet users into allowing their default home pages to be changed to some ad oriented homepage.

P2P - acronym for peer to peer which is a way that internet users can exchange data between themselves. Peer to Peer systems are commonly used to trade music through things like Kazaa and Napster in the past.

ASCII - this term refers to a standard text format. For example ASCII artwork would be artwork created by using text characters alone.

Attachment - this is a file that is sent along with an email message. An attachment can be a picture, a compressed Zip file containing images or other things, or a virus.

Broadband - term for high speed internet either from Satelite, Cable, or ADSL. Broadband is generally 40 to 200K a second or more.

Dial up - this is a connection to the internet established by connecting to the internet via a phone line.

404 Error - this is a term for a dead webpage on a website. If the whole server or site itself is down there will be no 404 error.

Chat Terms and Abbrievations

Away Message - this is something set up frequently for instant messaging or IRCing to inform people that you are away.

RL - this is an acronym for real life and the term is usually used in ways such as real life boyfriend or in real life as compared to internet based conversations.

Cybersex - this is an exchange of words used to tell a sexual fantasy or story and excite its participants. The excitement is generated solely through reading and writing so to say this is not a mental based high is a lie.

A/S/L or ASL - this is an acronym for age/sex/location which is a frequent question that people ask when chatting online. People that ask such in this fashion are often not very sophisiticated or good with writing itself so this intro can help to weed them out.

Afk - this is an acronym for away from keyboard

Lol - this is a popular acronym that stands for laughing out loud and it is inserted usually in response to something else said by someone else that is funny.

IMHO - this is an acronym for in my humble opinion and it is used frequently in chatting online

Brb - this is an acronym for be right back

Bbl - this is an acronym for be back later

Rofl - this is an acronym for rolling on the floor laughing and it is used in a similar fashion to Lol in online conversation

Roflmao - this is an acronym for rolling on the floor laughing my ass off

Handle or Nick - this is the name that a person chooses to represent themselves in online chats or message boards

To Slap with a Trout - this is a default setting in the popular Irc browser MIRC. To slap someone is to send a highlighted message often in purple that says that your nick slapped another nick with a large trout. It is used to draw attention to someone for something stupid or offensive they said.