BTW (By The Way) - A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online
forum.
E-mail (Electronic Mail) - Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another
via computer. E-mail messages can be sent electronically to more than one address.
Flame - Originally, flame meant to carry forth in a passionate manner in the spirit of honorable debate. Flames most often involved the use of flowery language and flaming was a form of art. More recently flame has come to refer to any kind of derogatory comment no matter how witless or crude.
Flame war - When an online discussion degenerates into a series of personal attacks among the debators, rather than a discussion of their positions. A heated exchange.
IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) - A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum, IMHO indicates the writer is aware that he or she is expressing a debatable view, probably on a subject already under discussion. One of many shorthands in common use online, especially in discussion forums.
Listserv - The most common form of mail list, "Listserv" is a registered trademark of L-Soft International, Inc. Listservs originated on BITNET but they are now common on the Internet.
Mail list (or Mailing List) - A (usually automated) system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, whereupon their message is copied and sent to other subscribers to the mail list. In this way, people who have many accesses to e-mail can participate in discussions together.
MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) - The standard for attaching non-text files to standard Internet mail messages. Non-text files include graphics, spreadsheets, formatted word-processor documents, sound files, etc.
An e-mail program is said to be "MIME compliant" if it can both send and receive files using the MIME standard.
Besides e-mail software, the MIME standard is universally used by web servers to identify the files they are sending to Web clients. In this way new file formats can be accommodated simply by updating the browsers' list of pairs of MIME-types and appropriate software for handling each.
Netiquette - Practicing etiquette on the Internet.
Netizen - Derived from the term citizen, referring to a citizen of the Internet, or someone who uses networked resources. The term connotes civic responsibility and participation.
Newsgroup - The name for discussion groups on USENET.
Password - A code necessary to gain access to a locked system. Good passwords use a combination of small and capital letters in conjunction with non-letters. They are not simple combinations such as virture7. An example of a good password might be: Hot$1-6.
Spam (or Spamming) - An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list, or usenet, or other networked communications facility as a broadcast medium by sending the same message to a large number of people including those who may not have needed for it.
Usenet - A world-wide system of discussion groups, with comments passed among hundreds of thousands of machines.
