Here is a handy list of abbreviations that you might find here. I got these from this thread. Thanks to those who originally posted them and in some cases made them up. You will notice that some of these you will never see because they are intended just for humor.
:::::::::::::::::::::::
Reg. - Regular visitor
Sig. - Signature (the little quote people stick at the bottom of their posts)
Newbie - That’s you
3124 - This was WallyM7’s final post count. :wally
DNFTT = Do Not Feed The Troll(s) ( don’t let this be you )
SD - Straight Dope
SDMB - Straight Dope Message Board
TM - Teeming Millions
ATMB - About This Message Board (where you are right now)
MPSIMS - Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share
GQ - General Questions
BBQ or the Pit - The BBQ-Pit (flamers welcome!)
GD - Great Debates
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
IMO - In My Opinion
IM®HO - In My (Rarely) Humble Opinion
BTW - By The Way
BRB - Be Right Back
WAG - Wild Ass Guess
ROFL - Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO - Rolling On Floor Laughing My Ass Off
LOL - Laughing Out Loud
LSHIPIMP - Laughing So Hard I Peed In My Pants
LSHIGRBUMN - Laughed So Hard I Got Root Beer Up My Nose (It happens)
FAQ-Frequently Asked Questions
IRL - In Real Life
YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary (meaning that things may be different in different circumstances)
BTW - By The Way
IIRC - If I Recall Correctly or If I Remember Correctly
AFAIK - As Far As I Know
MST3K - Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (sorry, had to include it)
OP - Original Post ( The post that starts a thread )
LDS - Latter Day Saints
PC - Politically Correct / Personal Computer
GGD - Great God Debate (it’ll last longer than cockroaches)
SW-TPM - Star Wars - The Phantom Menace
UBB - Ultimate Bulletin Board
BP - Before Present
IDL - International Date Line
TTYA - Thanks To You All
PAW - Parents Are Watching
BBS - Be Back Soon or Bulletin Board System
FAQ-Frequently Asked Questions
IOW-In Other Words
HTML-Hypertext Markup Language
TWIAVBP - The World Is A Very Big Place
WOMBAT - Waste Of Money, Brains And Talent
BILC - Because It Looks Cool.
SWF - Single White Female
ISO - In Search Of
ISP - Internet Service Provider
NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard
GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out
YOYO - You’re On Your Own
FMAIHP - Feel My Ass, It Has Powers
D&R - Ducking and Running ( usually after a smartass comment )
GD&R - Grinning, Ducking and Running
WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get
TDA - Terminal Dumb Ass
PHD - Pop Has Dough
BOHICA - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.
FOAF - Friend Of A Friend
OTL - Out To Lunch
TANSTAAFL - There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (I think this is someone’s handle)
BMDB - Bite Me Dough Boy (Drew Carey)
TTYL - Talk To You Later
L8R - later (not really an acronym, but in the same vein)
NATO - Not Able To Organize
HUA - Head Up Ass (for the BBQ Pit)
AOL - Almost OnLine
ASOL - America Sometimes OnLine ( IOW- just plain asshole )
POS - Piece Of Shit
WTF - What The Fuck
DYPMTTUAYGA - Do You People Make These Things Up As You Go Along?
FWIW - For What It’s Worth
PBCK - Problem Between Chair and Keyboard
BBL - Be Back Later
3FMB - Fabulous Forums of Fathom Message Board ( OpalCat’s Board )
TMHP - Teeming Millions HomePage
LBMB - The Left Behind Message Board (leftbehind.com - if you don’t know, don’t ask)
UL - Urban Legend (see snopes.com )
SSM - Same-Sex Marriage
DP - Domestic Partnership
USSC - US Supreme Court ( the Supremes )
DOMA - Defense of Marriage Act
FTP - File Transfer Protocol or Fuck That Pal
TANJ - There Ain’t No Justice ( SciFi author, Larry Niven )
OT - Original Topic
IDIC - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (live long and prosper, eh?)
CYTWAB - Cute Young Thing With A Brain.
PITA - Pain In The Ass.
DFY- Dumb Fucking User
LOTH - Leaning Over Toilet, Hurling
NORWICH - Nickers Off, Ready When I Come Home ( WW2 soldiers acronym )
SNAFU - Situation Normal, All Fucked Up
TARFU - Things Are Really Fucked Up
FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition or Fucked Up Beyond All Repair
RTFM error - Read The Fucking Manual ( error caused by not following instructions )
SWMBO - She Who Must Be Obeyed ( the wife )
TYP - Thank You Partner
THA - Thank You All
“DRY”- One of the greatest posters on this board. Fabulous guy, a flirt, but a really shy and sensitive guy in real life. Women would really like him if they knew the real him. Likes to quote Shakespeare. Drop him a line via e-mail and say hello!
“2sense”- Another fabulous poster. Very helpful to newbies and extremely intelligent. Very informed in matters of English history.
“you”- An obviously intelligent, perceptive, and tasteful denizen of this board for opening this thread.
But seriously, 2sense’s list is very comprehensive and very helpful. When I was fairly new to e-mail and the net, I thought “LOL” meant “Lots of Luck”.
moloster - For those of you who haven’t seen the “thread killers” thread, a moloster derives from and is defined by the words MOst Last pOSTer.
UBB - the “old” bulletin board software
vB - the “new” bulletin board software
Sock - short for Sock Puppet, a extra screen name created by a poster, usually to support an argument.
newbie, oldbie, middlebie - relative number of posts on this board.
Troll - a regurlar poster or a sock puppet who disagrees with you. You must shout him down if you are a Troll Buster, another form of troll.
ATMB ~ About This Message Board
CCC ~ Comments on Cecil’s Columns (sounded like a govt. dept.)
CMA ~ Comments on Mailbag Answers (sounded like hardware)
GQ ~ General Questions (It made no sense as the magazine)
GD ~ Great Debates (thought it was swearing)
IMHO ~ In My Humble Opinion (sounded like a non-board term)
MPSIMS ~ (still have no idea about this one)
BBQ or Pit ~ The BBQ Pit
[/quote]
Troll - a regurlar poster or a sock puppet who disagrees with you. You must shout him down if you are a Troll Buster, another form of troll
[/quote]
Sorry, UncleBeer, but the reference is more than a little strange.
They say this is an Evil troll:
Somebody posted about “the discovery of an ancient African carving containing a list of prime numbers.” The poster listed some of the prime numbers supposedly on the carving, some of which weren’t actually primes. People who saw the message, thinking he was serious, responded with corrections. The troll then announced that those who spent their time responding to him had been “hooked.”
And this is a Good troll:
To be fair, not all trolls are slimeballs. On some message boards, veteran posters with a mischievous bent occasionally go “newbie trolling.” On the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban, as of a few years ago anyway, it was fairly common for pranksters to post known urban legends as fact in hopes of getting novice users to go, “No, REALLY?” Gotcha, sucker.
The only difference is one is a newbie and one is a veteran.
Just doesn’t wash. They did the very same thing for the very same reason.
And if you need an example of a “Troll Buster, another form of troll”, this is a good time, as there are several “Troll Buster/Hunter Goes Trolling” threads in the Pit right now.
I won’t post links, just titles, following the twin bit s of advice advice DNFTT&DNFTTH.
**Krispy challenged me to do it - so here it is.
Danielinthewolvesden - you have a funny name.
I’ve got a new pet troll - Stuyguy!!!
THE, not TEH!
I’m calling you out, Byz!
PRISM02–I’m outing you!
that if you actually don’t like all the trash and filler that the trolls and troll hunters bring to the board, then:
A) DNFTT Do not fee the trolls.
B) DNFTTH Do not feed the troll hunters.
C) Report inflamatory threads, and any accusation of a poster being a troll, ONLY to the mods and NEVER to the threads. Then the offending post can be removed, if judged necessary, without disrupting the other people engaged in actual debate.
If we can keep the troll decisions with the mods, then troll hunting will again be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.
Great job, 2sense! I’d just like to add two things: First, you have FAQ listed twice (ok, so I’d like to subtract this thing. Same dif) and secondly, it should be noted that TANSTAAFL (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch) is originally due to the great SF writer Robert A. Heinlein: See The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Oh, and btw, Soupy, I’m wondering how one is to avoid feeding the trolls, if the troll hunters aren’t so nice as to point out who they are for us. There’s a world of difference between attack and defense.
If the troll hunters email their suspicions to the mods, none of us will have to avoid feeding them.
If they ARE trolls, they will be gone soon enough, and if they AREN’T, as seems to happen about 1/2 the time, they won’t have to defend themselves in everyone else’s threads.
2)a) What I’m saying is there is very little tangible difference between sides in a game of mud slinging, especially when they are so often wrong.
b)The “defense” is not out to ban trolls as much as to get credit and cast aspersions. The simple proof is that they post dozens of times before a mod can look into anything.
c)The “defense” is often enough really the “offence”, as can be seen in the threads listed above, and may others, where the self-described “defense” is doing all the baiting and all the name calling and all the making life miserable for others. And all the messing up of bystander’s threads.
I don’t respect people with high counts who bait others and taunt others and throw mud, and then find out no real troll was present. Just because there is someone shouting Witch doesn’t mean there is one, or that it couldn’t be dispensed with quietly.
There are other message boards, you know, and many do not allow either trolls or troll-hunting hijacks. We don’t have to see all the troll threads we have here.
Matter of fact, THIS thread has been hijacked too often. It should return to the stated topic:
**Abbreviation List **
AFK - Away From Keyboard
SWAG - Scientific Wild Ass Guess
and my own invention, UAFSE - Use A Search Engine, useful when people start threads asking what a troll is and whatnot.
Now to continue the hijack:
Just out of curiosity, what exactly feeds us troll hunters? Trolling? Then I’ll certainly agree that we should not be fed, although DNT (Do Not Troll) would be a better acronym.
Oh, and let’s see, what might be the major difference between trolls and troll-hunters? I would say that troll-hunters such as myself, Coldfire, Ayesha, Osip, Wally, UncleBeer, et al. have all contributed far more to this board than we could possibly make up for by hijacking a few stupid troll threads. This is a community here, and we, unlike the trolls, are an active and useful part of it. So we annoy a handful of posters with this behavior. The majority of this community appreciates our presence, and at least tolerates the troll-hunting.
Does your DNFTTH mean to simply not get involved in, for example, any debate on libertarianism that I may have posted to, or just avoid the threads where we are outing trolls (which is the effect we want when we say DNFTT)? Perhaps you should try using principles other than your own personal annoyance as the basis of any logical argument in opposition to troll hunting.
Trollhunter: Person who lets the community at large know if someone is a troll… usually accompanied with proof. If a trollhunter fails to show any evidence for someone being a troll, said trollhunter-wannabe is labeled as a fool.
Sidenote: “Trollhunter” is faulty, as it implies said trollhunter ONLY hunts trolls. In actuality, most trollhunters are those who actually give a damn about the SDMN, and greatly dislike it when some moron uses it for his own sick games (Sentinel, anyone?). By disallowing trolling tactics to go ignored, trollhunters help fight ignorance, which is what the SDMB is all about.
Troll Sympathizers: Either naive posters or, as history has shown us, sock puppets who are actually trolls themselves (no, I’m not accusing anyone, you silly people).
Soupy, I ain’t gonna argue it with you here, but your logic is fatally flawed. You see, if there is no initial trollish activity, there’s nothing for the so-called troll hunters to attack. So, the fault lies entirely with the trolls. See how simple it it? I’m sure even you can understand it if you really try.
I know you are wrong, too. I have a good example for you.
I saw it when it started and followed it’s progress.
Since you are so stubborn, I will research to get the dates and times so you will not be able to deny it.
But be assured, you are wrong.
You will never admit it though. I suspect you told him to look at that thread because you wrote it.
Are you the “veteran”? The good troll who is different because he baits newbies? Doesn’t matter, I guess.
Be right back. Hold my place.
Don’t try to argue with UncleBeer, I did about a simple thing like the FAQ page and he got mad but not open to arguments.
On something like this, you will certainly get banned if you show him up.
And I’m still waiting for your, “proof,” TGIF. Why don’t you post it in the pit so I can respond properly. That should end all of you people’s hijack of this thread. I suggest first you re-read this thread closely. You should see that the definition of a troll that I took exception to is, “a regurlar poster or a sock puppet who disagrees with you. You must shout him down if you are a Troll Buster, another form of troll.” This has absolutely nothing to do with “good” or “bad” trolls. In fact, it appears as if you’ve taken Soupy at his word and didn’t even read the link I provided. In that article, which was not written by me, by the way, the is no mention of a “good” troll.
If this is an example of the quality of your, “research,” I suggest you just drop the issue right now. You’ll be torn apart.
Fabulous guy, a flirt, but a really shy and sensitive guy in real life. Women would really like him if they knew the real him. Likes to quote Shakespeare. Drop him a line via e-mail and say hello! 
