Forum TerminologyA list of forum terms and abbreviations. First is the forum glossary, followed by forum abbreviations and initials.
Forum glossaryadministrator, admin
Admins are those with access to the admin backend, the forum machinery. They also have full privileges on the forum, meaning that they can see, edit or delete all posts and so on. Admins work with Moderators to manage the forum.
announcement
Generally, a sticky post that lists rules and news. If there is an Announcements board, permissions will be set so that only Admins or SuperMods can post to it.
avatar
A personal icon, a graphic of some kind, used as a badge by a member. It is commonly a photo of themselves, a child, or a pet; or a cartoon. In forums where people are clearly identified, then a photo is often used. In forums where some degree of anonymity is used by most (which is most forums), then the avatar might be a graphic of some kind.
In gaming, avatar means something else, it is the bot the gamer controls, and their representation within the game.
ban, banned user
Forums are continually under attack by bots, spammers and those with personal issues. Bots are automated programs that seek out weak points, in order to post linkspam or place malware on the site; spammers are human attackers who try to post unwanted links; and the web, forums in particular it seems, attracts those with mental issues because they can remain anonymous while being given a platform to display their assorted rants. All these attackers must be banned or the forum will degenerate into a quagmire. To ban a user, the username is prevented from logging in.
banned words
banned links
banned websites
Some words are blocked by forum admin. These might be offensive words, or banned link URLs. When such a word is included in a post, it is replaced by a series of symbols such as **** or xxxx. If in a link, the link is rendered inoperative.
BBcode
A simple type of code that allows for common functions that need an HTML conversion, on forums where the use of HTML is barred (which is most of them). This allows things such as links to be created, when otherwise, with no HTML, they would not be possible. BBcode is used because HTML is too vulnerable to exploits, in a forum situation.
big boards
Very large forum websites. The term is normally associated with vBulletin as there are more big boards using that software, since it is the most capable, though phpBB is a major contender. A 'big board' has many definitions - at big-boards.com it is one with 500,000 posts or more. Another (which is a 'larger' definition) is a board with a minimum average online of 1,000 or more. Such boards have millions of posts, and hundreds of thousands of 'pages' in their sitemaps.
board
Short for message board, an area within the forum where topics of a similar nature are posted. A forum consists of several boards, each concerned with a different topic.
bot
Bots are AI properties of remote computers, that visit and investigate or interact with a site. As with everything there are good ones and bad ones. qv spambot, spider
bump
To bump a thread means to reply to an older thread that has moved down the page, therefore moving it back up to the top once again, as the last post with any activity is automatically (re)placed at the top. This can be an annoyance since people may have selfish reasons for doing this. Sometimes they may draw attention to their action, if deemed valid, by using a graphic indication like this: ^bump^. Also used are UP or TTT (to the top).
Captcha
[completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart]
A test to determine whether a post is being made by a human or a bot. It normally has a question or questions that must be answered correctly such as the identification of obscured text in graphic form, or random questions that spambots are not usually currently programmed to answer correctly (eg "What 3-letter animal goes woof?"). A captcha test originally meant an obscured-text question, but is now widely used to mean any such test.
censor
qv word filter
chatbox, shoutbox, chatroom
An instant text / realtime conversation facility that (as far as a forum is concerned) displays the text conversation in a module somewhere on the page, in a direct copy of the IM (instant messaging) format.
CMS plugin forums
A content management system can do many jobs, and one of them, as usual enabled by plugins, is to have an integral forum. Some are notably good, some poor. They cannot be as good as the best discrete forums because that would need a large number of plugins being available for the [plugin] forum - which is unlikely to occur. Major plugins of this type do indeed have their own plugins, but not on anything like the scale of the standalone forums. In all modern webapps, the level of functionality depends on the availability of plugins, as the core app is usually designed to be a framework, not a do-everything application out of the box, as that would be an extremely inefficient way of developing major server software of this type.
container
An admin term, meaning an area of the page within which similar boards are grouped - aka category / section / board group.
double-post
1. To post the same question or statement in two different places, which is normally prohibited as it renders the forum impossible to use or manage efficiently.
2. Can also refer to posting twice rapidly, in the same topic or possibly another.
drive-by poster
aka hit-and-run poster. One who registers, posts once, and is never seen again. This can be annoying because if users go to the trouble of answering detailed questions, and then no thanks or feedback are received, it may appear that the exercise was a waste of time. Drive-by posting is bad manners.
dynamic
A dynamic website, like a forum, is one that is database-driven and can have the web pages changed. All modern webapps of extended capability use databases and are therefore dynamic.
Antonym: static, as in standalone HTML web pages
edit a post
After saving a post, you normally have a period of grace in which to edit it and correct mistakes, or delete it. Most forums limit this time to about 10 minutes, since if it is permanently extended it can result in entire threads becoming meaningless, if the OP edits the first post.
emoticon
An icon showing an emotion. qv smiley
entropy
As applied to forum posts, it is the way all threads and posts (except stickies) gradually move down the page and eventually onto page 2 and beyond, as they are replaced by later posts. All posts eventually fade away and either disappear into the distance, or are archived, or are deleted.
exploits
aka vulnerabilities, attack vectors. Exploits are ways that a forum is vulnerable to attack and compromise. Forums are the most vulnerable of all website applications because they allow the greatest amount of user interaction - they allow visitors to register, to write to the database, and to write to the web pages. Some forums have a poor history in this area; forum software must be chosen for its robustness as much as anything else.
To reduce vulnerability, HTML is not normally allowed, and instead a harmless substitute called BBcode is used.
fanboy
Someone who posts unrelenting praise for something and cannot see its bad points, and argues senselessly against any criticism of it. Can be an employee or affiliate of the seller, or a person with a tenuous hold on reality or a financial motive, or just somebody who bought one and can't accept the fact they might be wrong.
filter
qv word filter
Fireboard
A plugin forum for Joomla CMS. Known as the most capable of that type, before it was succeeded by Kunena, qv.
flame, flaming
Insulting posts that attack another post or the poster - normally resulting in a penalty of some kind as otherwise it can escalate.
flood, flooding
1. Making a lot of (unwanted) posts.
2. A multiple-post attack by a bot.
3. When a server is flooded by too many HTTP requests from one IP or IP range, it can react by blocking out the offending IP/s - a flood block. This gets a 403 error or similar. It may be that a little more tolerance is needed in the number restriction as some flood blocks are initially set too tight.
forum
A dynamic website, or a section of one, that uses a special type of website application plus a database and other server software, to enable an organised and categorised discussion on a number of topics, as it allows visitors to write to the web pages in a sequential discussion format.
A forum normally contains several boards, which are smaller topic areas. Threads are the post 'trails' that are placed within a board. Therefore a forum consists of a website or site section that has topic discussions with a taxonomy of forum - board - thread - post. The forum will contain a series of discussions on various topic themes that can be subsequently searched for information. Therefore a forum can be a lightweight leisure resource with no future value, or it can be a permanent repository for useful technical support information.
Forums are a core component of the online community system, which allow a globally-dispersed community to discuss and solve common problems or simply chat about football.
forums, fora
The correct plural of forum in English when referring to websites is forums. The word fora is used to describe multiple locations where something may be mentioned, other than online. Examples:
"We found that several of these forums were hard to install on the server."
"The trash collection service can be discussed in your local paper's Letters to the Editor column, the community magazine, or other fora."
There is an exact parallel with datum / data / datums which is also a Latin word: there are two distinct plurals, the Anglicised plural being equally correct since each plural has a completely different meaning.
founder admin
The original site owner, in some forum software, and with higher privileges than other admins.
guest
An ordinary unregistered visitor. Normally, guests cannot see all the boards of a mature forum, as some will be designated as unsuitable for bots, or only for logged-in members.
hidden user
One who sets their public visibility status to invisible in their profile, so they cannot be seen as online in the list at the foot of the front page or as viewing a thread. However they can still be seen by Moderators. Mods often use it for discreet observation.
hijack
To hijack a thread is to redirect it off-topic or elsewhere, it is bad manners and may result in a penalty.
karma
aka rep., reputation. An incremented system to show a member's (voted for) reputation or value. Like many other features, it may or may not be implemented.
Kunena
The reincarnation of Fireboard for Joomla, this plugin forum is recognised as the most capable of CMS integral forum solutions.
linkspam
The practice of placing unwanted links on a forum in order to increase another website's PageRank, so that it gets better search results. Linkspam, trolls, obscenity and overheated arguments are among the problems faced by admins.
locked thread
[or, less often, a board] A thread may be locked down to prevent any additional posts. This is normally used for announcements or short ad hoc threads, when further discussion is to be directed elsewhere.
lounge, the
[aka the water cooler, the sofa] 'The Lounge' board is a freeform board where any and all
off-topic posts can be made, and any subject discussed. Rules are
relaxed and generally no one bothers about off-topic infringements etc.
lurker
Someone who visits a forum regularly and reads the messages but never posts. Possibly 99% of forum visitors never post, but are probably not lurkers as they do not visit regularly. A lurker is usually thought of as one who reveals some continuous connection with the forum, perhaps on another forum, but never contributes.
lurking
Staying in the background by visiting often, reading, but never posting (see above).
Miserable User
A famous vBulletin plugin which creates a new usergroup, into which minor disruptive members may be placed for a period of time. The affected user then gets a 25% (variable) chance of numerous site errors such as blank pages, redirects to the front page, loss of posts etc. This adds up to a miserable experience for the user, who hopefully goes elsewhere for a while to post their rubbish. If they create an alt ID to get round it, they can be banned, which solves the problem.
Moderators, Mods
The Mods maintain discipline and remove spam from the forum. Depending on their privileges they can edit or delete posts and issue penalties of varying levels. Without Mods, forums would degenerate into unreadable pages of spam and misdemeanours, because unlike the physical world the online world allows people to hide behind anonymity much of the time, and there will always be a small percentage who abuse the system.
multiple ID
A 'multiple' is a person who signs up with another username. Multiple IDs or usernames are universally against forum policy. Sometimes these are innocent but misguided persons, but usually they are banned members attempting to get back on. They are often located easily because they use the same IP and/or go straight to their favourite board and post the same material with the same idiosyncracies as before.
nofollow links
Some links are given a 'nofollow' attribute in the code, the most common being those to dynamic pages, duplicate URLs, and low-value areas of the site. In addition, external links that may be to low-quality sites or banned sites can also be given a nofollow.
This code direction is for search engines, essentially it says,"This is a link we don't want you to follow and index the page at the other end; or, we have no control over this external site and we are not recommending it, and we don't want to be associated with it".
This is a standard code direction to SEs and all respect it - in fact they demand it, for adverts, under penalty of sanction if the link is paid for in any way (as any advert is). Nofollowed links are therefore officially 'disconnected' from the site, and labelled as unreliable. Any or all links can be nofollowed, according to the capability of the forum software. Nofollow links are almost worthless to the linked site since no (or negligible) PageRank or AnchorTextWeight flows to the linked site. This means there is virtually no value in the link and it is a waste of time trying to get such links - which cuts down on spam. However it is totally incorrect to say the link has no value whatsoever, it most certainly does; but that value is only between 1% and 10% of a normal link. Nofollow links from powerful sites still have considerable value, no matter what SE staffers or anyone else says about it. In practice this means that small / weak sites are quite well protected by nofollowing their links, but large and powerful sites still get spammed because even a nofollow link from them is worth more than a standard link from a small site.
notice
A general announcement that is set to appear at the top of the front page. Depending on the forum software, it can be set to be dismissable (not shown repeatedly) to certain usergroups, or only seen by certain groups and also dismissable.
off-topic
Going off-topic on a thread means to post material or questions that take the the discussion into a different area to the original subject. This is the easiest sin of all and we are all guilty at one time or another. However it makes the forum impossible to use as an information resource, since material is scattered everywhere. It doesn't matter for informal discussions such as those in The Lounge, but especially for any technical topics it is a strongly negative influence. Forums (ie their Mods, in practice) interpret the 'no off-topic rule' with varying degrees of severity. In some forums anything goes, in others as soon as the slightest deviation is seen, a Mod intervenes. It depends on what the community (or the site owner) have decided appropriate.
pagecode
The pagecode generated by forum software is universally awful. In code validation terms, or any other measure of quality, it is quite often appallingly bad. As well as the code being poor, any number of other sins are also seen. In fact, a good way to find the worst possible web code is to examine some forums.
There is a market niche here for a team of coders who can produce a forum that outputs half-decent code, since that would help in the commercial area, and such a forum would work better than others. Since almost all forums are equally poor, none has a real advantage except Kunena for Joomla, since that starts out with big advantages in the area of code quality. In the end, in standalone forums, the forum with the best SEO plugins has the best commercial chance (as these are designed to correct the faults), and that is vBulletin. Luckily, search engines love forums, and since all are equally poor, traffic is fine in the end.
phpBB
A very popular forum solution, noted for its capable, fully-granular ACL, the large community, and past security issues.
plugins
All dynamic sites (those that run off a database) use plugins to extend their functionality or features. Webapps are normally limited in features out of the box, and the required capability is simply plugged-in. This is a much better system than integral functionality for three important reasons: (1) every user's requirements are different; (2) including a number of core functions / features raises the cost and complexity, when many users will not want those capabilities; and (3) main application developers are less capable than 3PDs (3rd-party devs) in coding additional functionality, as is universally proven. This applies to both large and small software originators - take MS Windows for example, nobody would dream of using the built-in defragger, for good reason. 3PDs do a far better job with add-on functionality for those who need it.
poll
A series of questions on a topic, often organised into a formatted table of questions that require a checkbox to be filled. Having done so the visitor is then shown the current results for the poll.
post
A message placed on the forum. To 'post' is to place a new topic starter or a reply. A post is made to an existing thread, or to start a new thread within a board, or as an official announcement. All contributions are posts.
postcount
This refers to the number of posts (messages) that a user has made, and is listed under their username. It may be useful as a measure of that user's experience on the forum, if not in the theme area. As an example, a frequent poster might have a count of over 1,000; a long-term member of a mature forum 5,000 posts; a senior member of a well-established board 10,000 posts; and a top support tech on a mature and popular board, 40,000 posts.
preview
A halfway stage in saving a post, that allows you to check how it looks and correct mistakes. In general, it should be used freely.
profile
A registered member's personal details, which may be viewable by the public, only other members (as is normal), or admins only.
profile pic
A picture that is placed in the user's profile area. It may be a photo of the user, but more often is a graphic of some kind. It might be different from the avatar, if those are allowed.
promotion
A promotion system may be used in several areas to elevate a member's privileges, or to raise their usergroup membership.
rep
qv karma
SEO
In the past SEO referred to search engine optimisation of a website, though now it tends to mean a process of improving all quality and marketing aspects. Since forums have easily the worst native code of all webapps, the technical phase of this process is not easy. The majority have pagecode of such appalling quality that there is little point in trying to compete with standard websites, only with other forums. The two best forums for SEO are Kunena and vBulletin - Kunena because it is a plugin forum for a top-class CMS, Joomla; and vB because it has the VBseo plugin, which fixes around a hundred SEO sins in the original forum. Nevertheless Kunena is the winner by a mile as the CMS starts out far ahead in quality terms. Unfortunately Kunena is severely limited in capability compared to vB, so it is normally used for 'basic' forums, it is not appropriate for big-boards qv.
shill
A person who advertises for another. They place links or promote the product or service in an unreasonable manner, acting as a fanboy but with a commercial agenda.
sig, signature
A tagline placed automatically below each post, for those members who are allowed to have one and who have made use of the facility. A sig may contain a witty quotation, some personal detail of the user's, or a link to their website. Sigs are a privilege that may be granted to some or all.
sig links
Links to another site, in a member's signature. A frequent source of abuse, as linkspam is a natural result. To cut this down, on forums where it is possible (such as vBulletin) two usergroups are used for ordinary members - new members and full members. The first group, new members, has no sig privilege. After say 10 posts they are auto-promoted to full member, which has a sig or sig link privilege. This way, new members cannot linkspam the forum.
SMF
The Simple Machines Forum is the benchmark in forum software, due to its popularity and capability. It handles most tasks well, although is not outstanding in any area. Possibly its best point is simply that it has no serious flaws, unlike many similar server applications. SMF is open-source, ie free. Most plugins are free although some are commercial, though inexpensive. SMF is appropriate for small and medium-size sites, but not so useful for big-boards since the functionality is not as extensive as that of vB or phpBB.
smiley
An icon that represents a common emotion or action such as laughter or frustration. Very common usage in forums, even by those who would never use such a device elsewhere. The smiley started with the simple graphical representation of a happy face that was so popular in the 80s, just two dots for the eyes and a curve for a smile, within a circle. This came to be represented by punctuation, and there are hundreds of simple and complex variants. Then, coders provided a punctuation-to-gfx facility and this completed the circle :)
sofa, the
qv water cooler
SMS code
The use of harsh abbreviation as is necessary in cellphone texting due to space limitations - for example C U L8R. It is not required on a forum and tends to annoy.
sockpuppet
A mouthpiece or fanboy qv controlled by a third party.
spam, spammers
An unauthorised advertising attack on a forum, usually consisting of linkspam. Spammers are those who use the forum for unauthorised advertising. However spam is often used in a generic way to refer to anything unwanted.
spambot
A bot whose job is to find forums, penetrate them and post spam links. Spambots have to be defended against by using Captcha tests and the like.
spider
A spider is a search engine bot that trawls sites looking for content and links. It continually reports on pages and other resources that can be indexed. Spiders are welcome visitors as they are part of the process that ends with a website being placed well for searches, which is where most visitors originate.
sticky, sticky thread, stickies
A sticky is a thread that is fixed at the top of a list of threads for a board. Stickies are normally announcements by admins, or similar types of posts. To sticky a post or a thread is to fix it at the top of the list so that it never recedes down the page.
Super Moderator, SuperMod, Smod
The highest level of Moderator. A SuperMod has access to all forums and all rights, unless removed per user / per forum by an Admin.
tags
Keywords added to a post in the correct place, to allow it to be found more easily in searches on those topics.
thread
An original message, or starter topic, and its replies. An ordered list of a conversation in sequence.
tinyurl.com
bit.ly
These are the most common free URL shortening or replacing services. Usually they are blocked on forums since they can be used to substitute innocent-looking links for spam sites, banned sites, or affiliate links.
title
Users normally have a title under their username, in the left column where the person responsible for the post is given. It is designed to help others identify that user and the possible value of their information. By default these titles run something like: Member, Full Member, Super Member, Senior Member and so on. However local preference may be to use a title that reflects the forum's theme area.
topic
The main theme of an original post, or thread starter, is its topic. In general it helps if replies stay on-topic, as that results in a logical discussion. The forum itself normally has a main topic, and so all discussion is normally directed toward that theme in some way or another. qv off-topic
treatment
Forum admins may put some users in treatment for a period of time to dissuade them from disruptive activities. This is most easily done by vBulletin admins as there are a range of plugins to accomplish this, one of the most famous being Miserable User qv. The treatment results in forum use being made more difficult and less enjoyable for the affected user. This is normally time-limited, such as for 7 days, and cannot affect the user elsewhere offsite as it is simply a restriction on use of the specific server. Often handed out to minor trolls and fanboys.
troll
Someone who engages in trolling. Some persons register for that purpose and have to be banned immediately. Trolls are negative contributors whose agenda is to disrupt and destroy.
trolling
To post irrelevant, confrontational, defamatory, or inflammatory messages. While we might all be a little guilty of the occasional slide in this direction, trolling is normally a sign of someone with personal problems or a dispute with the forum administration, and they have to be banned.
usergroup
A group of persons who have a prearranged set of permissions.
username, userID
The username is the forum name or nickname of a member. These range from real names, through hard to decipher codenames, to the far out.
URL
A technical name for a website address.
vBulletin
This forum software is generally recognised as the most capable, having a large range of plugins and some excellent SEO solutions. It is a commercial program although inexpensive.
vulnerabilities
qv exploits
water cooler
qv the lounge
word filter
An auto-deletion of certain words in a post that should not have been used. This is a useful feature as it prevents a slip of the tongue (or keyboard, that is) going public; however it can also cut in to remove the word when it is a totally-unrelated constituent of another word (called 'match within' in coding), and results in gibberish.
zombie threads
Old threads that are many pages back in a board's list of threads, that a member posts in and brings back to life. Some forum admins lock threads over a certain age to stop this; or lock threads of over a given number of pages, eg 100 pages; or archive old threads so they cannot be posted in.
Abbreviations and initialsaka
also known as
AFAIK
As far as I know
BRB
Be right back [might be used in shoutbox chat]
BTDT
Been there done that
BTW
By the way
COPPA
The US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act , 1998, for the protection of children under the age of thirteen. In practice it means that some content is not allowed to be viewed by under-aged children.
DIY
Do it yourself
DL
Download
DMCA
The US Digital Millenium Copyright Act, covering online content copyright
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
FWIW
For what it's worth
HTH
Hope this helps
IB4TL
In before the lock - a post made quickly to a thread that is likely to be locked
IDK
I don't know
IIRC
If I recall correctly
IMO
In my opinion
IMHO
In my humble opinion
L8R
Later (see you later)
LOL
Laughing out loud
LMAO
Laughing my A off
OP
Original poster - the person who started a thread
OT
Off topic - a post that takes the thread off to another subject, which is unwanted
PITA
Pain in the A
PM
A private message, using the facility that most forums have whereby messages can be sent between members. Such messages are normally of a private nature or contain material (such as links) that the forum does not permit to be displayed in public.
PWI
Posting while intoxicated - used as a disparaging comment on the sanity of a post
qv
See elsewhere
ROFL
Rolling on the floor laughing
TIA
Thanks in advance
WB
Where have you been?
YMMV
Your mileage may vary - "...but you might get a different result"
A comprehensive forum glossary and listing of forum terminology, forum terms, forum abbreviations, forum acronyms and forum slang.
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Forum Terminology
