Glossary Of Terms

A Glossary of Free Form Role-play & Technical Terms

Auto-Kick - See Ban.

Ban - To disallow a chatter from entering a chat room. Bans may be temporary, or permanent.

Channel - The correct name for an IRC chat room.

Channel Founder - The owner of an IRC channel, who created it and has exclusive, absolute administrative rights.

Channel Operator - A user of a chat room with administrative rights, e.g. to set the chat room's topic, or to kick or ban unruly chatters. Channel Operators on IRC are recognised by the @ prefix before their name.

Char - See Character. (Abbrev.)

Character - The fictional being, whose role in a roleplaying system is assumed by a real-life roleplayer.

Character Class - A category of character, e.g. fighter, wizard, ranger.

Chat Room - A web page including a program which allows for real-time interaction between users. Chat rooms may be IRC-based, or Java-based. Users of a chat room might be Chatters or Operators.

Chat Room Operator - See Channel Operator.

Chatter - A user of a chat room.

Class - See Character Class.

Client - A user or a computer logged on to a server, via a program or by other means.

DM - See Dungeon Master. (Abbrev.)

Dungeon Master - A player who designs or runs storylines, in which other players can participate.

Free Form Roleplay - A roleplaying system in which no dice are rolled, no statistics or accounts kept, and characters are controlled exclusively by their own players.

Founder - See Channel Founder.

God-Moder - A player whose character constantly breaks the rules, by posting more than one action per line, or by posting another character's damage, or by refusing to take damage themselves, or anything else which is against the ruleset.

God-Moding - Being a God-Moder.

IC - See In Character. (Abbrev.)

In Character - References made to actions or words of roleplay characters, not their roleplayers.

In Real Life - References made to the real world outside roleplay and IRC chat rooms.

Internet Relay Chat - A real-time communication system consisting of dozens of chat rooms, housed by a network of computers all over the world. An IRC server is a computer used to log on to the IRC network. Servers are accessed via IRC clients.

IRC - See Internet Relay Chat. (Abbrev.)

IRL - See In Real Life.

Java - A programming language, used for web pages, amongst other applications.

Kick - To temporarily eject a chatter from a chat room.

Lag - A delay in the sending of information between users of a chat room.

Message Boards - A web page which include facilities for users to add their own message to the pages, for others to read.

Message Forum - See Message Boards.

Moder - See God-Moder.

Moderator - See Channel Operator.

Moding - See God-Moding.

Network - A group of Servers, all sharing resources and information.

Nick - See Nickname.

Nickname - The name, or 'handle' by which a chatter in a chat room is known.

Op - See Operator.

Operator - See Channel Operator.

Out of Character - References made to actions or words of roleplayers, not their characters.

Ping - The time (in milliseconds) taken for a computer to respond to another computer.

Player - See Roleplayer.

Post (Noun) - A message left on the message boards, or a block of text typed by a chatter.

Post (Verb) - To leave a message on the message boards, or to type a block of text in a chat room.

Roleplayer - Real-life people who control characters in a roleplaying game.

Server - A computer which gives information or resources to other computers and their users.

String - See Thread.

Thread - All linked posts on a message board, that is, all that we were posted in reply to the original message, or as replies to those.

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