Definitions for some of the more common terms or words you may see in the Bentley discussion groups:
browser -- n. A program that displays HTML code as a nicely composed Web page. Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, and Opera are examples of browsers for the World Wide Web. They run on your computer ("the client side") and work in tandem with the computers publishing the HTML pages on the Web (the "server side").
crosspost -- v. Crossposting allows you to post a message simultaneously to several forums, as opposed to posting it repeatedly (once to each forum), causing people to see it multiple times (AKA multiposting, which is considered to be bad form). Crossposting should include a "Follow-up To" line that directs responses to a single follow-up forum. Doing so prevents follow-up messages from being directed to the wrong forums when only one part of the original message is being responded to. Please refer to your discussion group reader's documentation for information on how to crosspost.
discussion -- n. Also known as a thread, a discussion is a chain of messages on a single topic. To follow a thread is to read a series of messages with a common subject.
discussion forums -- n. Discussion forums are the primary method for group communication on the Internet and include things such as mailing lists and corporate discussion groups.
emoticon -- n. A symbolic figure "drawn" with letters and punctuation marks and used to indicate an emotional state. Typically, they are best viewed sideways. For example, :-) or :) are used to represent a smiling face. A winking bald guy with a big nose and goatee might be rendered as: ( ;?0.> Just in case you ever need it. More emoticons can be found at various sites on the Internet, like http://www.emoticon.com/ and http://www.newbie.net/SmileyFAQ/, among others.
FAQ [Frequently Asked (or Answered) Question] -- n. A compendium of accumulated lore, posted to high-volume forums in an attempt to forestall the perpetual re-asking of the same questions. If you're new to a group, read this before you post and spare yourself the wrath of old-timers.
flame -- This term has various meanings, the use of any of them are discouraged in the Bentley discussion groups:
v. To post a message intended to insult and provoke confrontation.
v. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude.
v. Either of the above, directed with hostility at a particular person or people.
n. An instance of flaming. When a discussion degenerates into uninformative ad hominem bickering, cooler heads might inform the participants that "this flame war is a waste of electrons," though this unfortunately is frequently interpreted as inflammatory itself.
forum -- n. Any discussion group accessible through a dial-in bulletin board service, a mailing list, or a discussion group. Contrast with real-time chat via instant messaging, telephones, or personal E-mail.
ftp [file transfer protocol] -- n. The Internet service used to transfer a data file from the disk of one computer to the disk of another regardless of the operating system type.
handle n -- An electronic pseudonym; "a nom de plume" chosen by a user to conceal his or her true identity.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) -- n. HTML is the coding language that is the basis for most of the pages displayed on the Web. Browsers read this language and render the page with graphics and neatly displayed type. Hypertext refers to the fact that the code allows you to include links from one page to others on the Web. If you'd like to view the HTML source code for a given page while surfing the Web, you can select "View Source" in most browsers. A new window will open showing you the code that the browser is reading to display the current page.
lurker -- n. A visitor to online discussion forums who reads other people's postings but does not contribute. Lurking is a good way to get familiar with a discussion group or forum or gather information that is discussed.
netiquette [from "network etiquette"] -- n. The conventions of politeness recognized in discussion forums, such as avoidance of crossposting to inappropriate forums and refraining from commercial pluggery outside the business forums.
newbie [orig. from British public-school and military slang variant "new boy"] -- n. A neophyte. Criteria for being considered a newbie vary widely; a person can be called a newbie in one forum while remaining a respected regular in another.
newsgroup (Or discussion group) -- n. A collection of topic groups or forums. Discussion groups can be "unmoderated" (anyone can post) or "moderated" (submissions are automatically directed to a moderator, who edits or filters and then posts the results). Some discussion groups have parallel mailing lists for Internet people with no discussion group access, with messages to the forum automatically propagated to the list and vice versa. Mailing lists do not currently exist for Bentley discussion groups. It is something that is being considered for the future.
newsreader -- n. A browser program which enables a user to read messages posted to forums. Outlook Express and Netscape Messenger are examples of newsreaders.
post -- v. To broadcast a message to an entire forum (distinguished from E-mail in that it is not sent from one person directly to another).
robot (Or "bot" or "crawler" or "spider") -- n. A program that automatically explores the Web by retrieving a document and then retrieving some or all the documents to which it links, and then repeating the process on each new page it finds.
SPAM -- n. Although this term is used in general to mean any message that nobody wants, it applies specifically to commercial messages posted across a large number of discussion groups. The label SPAM applies especially when the post contains nothing of specific interest to the discussion group participants.
Any posts considered to be SPAM will be removed from the Bentley discussion groups.
thread -- n. Common abbreviation of topic thread, a more or less continuous chain of messages on a single topic. To follow a thread is to read a series of forum messages sharing a common subject or (more correctly) which are connected by reference headers.
thread hijacking -- The act of trying to steer a discussion thread off its original topic by discussing a subject entirely unrelated to the subject at hand. Although this can be an intentional act of trolling, it is often accidental -- caused by other participants in the discussion responding to a throwaway remark and taking the thread off at a tangent to the original subject matter. The results can sometimes be humorous or otherwise interesting, but often provoke a feeling of resentment from the author of the original article. Thread hijacking is highly discouraged in the Bentley discussion groups.
URL [Uniform Resource Locator] -- n. An Internet address that a browser recognizes as the computer location for a particular Web page or other file.