| Abbreviations - the more common ones are in bold |
| AFAIK | As Far As I Know |
| AFK | Away from Keyboard |
| AISI | As I See It |
| ANFAWFOS | And Now For A Word From Our Sponsor |
| AWGTHTGTTA | Are We Going To Have To Go Through This Again? |
| AWGTHTGTATA | Are We Going To Have To Go Through ALL This Again? |
| BOT | Back On Topic |
| BTW | By The Way |
| BNF | Big Name Fan |
| CUL | Catch You Later |
| CWYL | Chat With You Later |
| DILLIGAF | Do I Look Like I Give A [*CENSORED*]! |
| FITB | Fill In The Blank |
| FTASB | Faster Than A Speeding Bullet |
| FWIW | For What It's Worth |
| FYI | For Your Information |
| GIWIST | Gee I Wish I'd Said That |
| HHOK | Ha Ha Only Kidding |
| HHO 1/2 K | Ha Ha Only Half Kidding |
| HTH | Hope this Helps! |
| IAC | In Any Case |
| IANAL | I Am Not A Lawyer |
| IITYWTMWYKM | If I Tell You What This Means Will You Kiss Me? |
| IITYWIMWYBMAD | If I Tell You What It Means Will You Buy Me A Drink? |
| ILSHIBAMF | I Laughed So Hard I Broke All My Furniture! |
| IMHO | In My Humble Opinion |
| IMNSHO | In My Not So Humble Opinion |
| INPO | In No Particular Order |
| IOW | In Other Words |
| LLTA | Lots and Lots of Thunderous (or Thundering) Applause |
| LOL | Laughing Out Loud |
| LTIP | Laughing Til I Puke |
| MYOB | Mind Your Own Business |
| OAUS | On An Unrelated Subject |
| OATUS | On A Totally Unrelated Subject |
| OTOH | On The Other Hand |
| OTOOH | On The Other Other Hand |
| ONNA | Oh No, Not Again |
| ONNTA | Oh No, Not This Again |
| OOTC | Obligatory OnTopic Comment |
| OWTTE | Or Words To That Effect |
| PPP | Petty Pet Peeve |
| POV | Point Of View |
| ROFL | Rolling On Floor Laughing! |
| ROFLGO | Rolling On Floor Laughing Guts Out! |
| ROFLASTC | Rolling On Floor Laughing And Scaring The Cat! |
| RSN | Real Soon Now |
| SICS | Sitting In Chair Snickering |
| SOI | Stunk On Ice |
| TANJ | There Ain't No Justice (Niven) |
| SNERT | Sexually Neurotic Emotionally Retarded Troll |
| TANSTAAFL | There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (Heinlein) |
| TGAL | Think Globally, Act Locally |
| TINWIS | That Is Not What I Said |
| TPTB | The Powers That Be |
| TTBOMK | To The Best Of My Knowledge |
| TTFN | Ta Ta For Now |
| TTYL | Talk To You Later |
| WDYMBT | What Do (or Did) You Mean By That? |
| WMMOWS | Wash My Mouth Out With Soap! |
| WTH | What the Heck |
| WYLABOCTGWTR | Would You Like A Bowl Of Cream To Go With That Remark? |
| WYLASOMWTC | Would You Like A Saucer Of Milk With That Comment? |
| YAOTM | Yet Another OffTopic Message |
| APA | Amateur Press Association |
| FIAWOL | Fandom Is A Way Of Life |
| FIJAGH | Fandom Is Just A Goddamn Hobby |
| RAEBNC | Read And Enjoyed, But No Comment (an APA abbreviation) |
| DDD | Direct Distance Dial (i.e. the phone system) |
| DTMF | Dialing Tones, Multi Frequency (i.e. Touch Tone(c)) |
| POTS | Plain Old Telephone Service |
| FTL | Faster Than Light |
| SnailMail | The Ordinary Postal Service |
| Smilies - tilt your head to the left if you don't get it |
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| :-) | humor. |
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| :-> | humor variation. |
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| %-} | humor variation. |
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| :-( | sad. |
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| :-< | sad variation. |
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| %-{ | sad variation. |
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| :_) | tongue in cheek |
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| :-! | foot in mouth |
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| <:-) | for dumb questions. |
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| (:-) | for messages dealing with bicycle helmets. |
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| (8-) | for messages dealing with owls. |
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| d:-) | for messages dealing with baseball. |
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| d :-o | hats off to your great idea |
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| q:-) | for those who wear their caps backwards. |
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| @= | for messages dealing with nuclear war. |
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| o>-<|= | for messages of interest only to women. |
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| ~= | a candle, to annotate flaming messages. |
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| oo | for somebody's head-lights are on messages. |
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| ;-) | say no more, nudge nudge. |
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| :-$ | put your money where your mouth is |
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| >:-> | leer |
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| ;-} | leer? (terminal dependent) |
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| |-<> | kissy face |
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| :-| | man playing an harmonica |
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| O:-) | for those innocent souls |
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| =:-) | from a hosehead |
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| :-(*) | about to vomit |
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| :-)8 | well dressed |
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| 8:-) | from a little girl |
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| :-} 8 | from a big girl |
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| #-) | partied all night |
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| %-\ | hungover |
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| :-* | mustache |
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| :x( | habe a code in by dose |
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| :-)... | drool |
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| 8:] | from a gorilla |
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| (:)-) | scuba diver |
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| P-) | wink |
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| |-) | getting tired |
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| :-D | bigmouth |
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| B-) | with glasses |
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| B-* | glasses & beard |
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| :-))) | reeel happy!!! - Big Smile |
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| :-X | won't say a word! - Lips sealed |
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| :~) | Ymmmeee - Lick lips |
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| (-:|:-) | Siamese twins |
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| {:\/ | sounds like a duck |
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| .\/ | duck variation |
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| :-0 | Ohhhhhh! |
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| |:-O | Ohhhh variation |
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| %+{ | from the loser of a fight |
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| Internet Slang |
| Boinking | Arranging to meet someone in real life whom you have met on the Net. |
| Bounce | when e-mail fails to be sent to its destination. |
| Clickstream | the route you take around the Net by clicking links. |
| Cyberspace | the imaginary space you are travelling around on the Net. |
| Dead tree edition | The paper edition of a book or pamphlet etc. that is available to read on the Net. |
| Electronic anarchy | The state of lawlessness on the Net.This is because there are very few rules, so you can do or say what you like. |
| Electrotransvestism | Pretending to be someone of the opposite sex on the Net.Steer clear of the wierdos. |
| Eye candy | a program, animation, image etc. that is good to look at but isn't paticularly useful. |
| Flaming | Typing in CAPITAL LETTERS to simulate shouting. Considered impolite. |
| Flame mail | Angry or rude e-mail or messages on newsgroups. |
| Information Superhighway / Infobahn | Other names for the Net. |
| Lurking | Reading messages to a newsgroup without sending any yourself. |
| Net evangelist | Someone who tries to persuade people to connect to the Internet. |
| Net guru | People who are respected for their knowledge of the Internet.Hmmm.......we're fine examples don't u think? :-D |
| Netiquette | Internet manners and rules made by Net users. |
| Net junkie | Someone addicted to the Net. |
| Net surfing / Surfing the Net | Exploring the Net by jumping from one page to another - a bit like a surfer catching one wave and then another. |
| Net traffic | data and files travelling around on the Internet. |
| Net users / Netters / Netsters / Netheads etc. | Names for people who use the Internet. |
| Newbie | A new Internet user (ie a novice) |
| Newbie hunting | Searching for new Net users who aren't sure of what they are doing and teasing them. |
| Shouting | see flaming |
| Snail mail | slower mail delivered by post, as opposed to fast e-mail. |
| Spamming | sending lots of unnecessary messages to Net users or newsgroups. |
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