Chat room Abbreviations

Web Communities

VU --- Virtual University The oldest and largest online learning community!
BB --- Bulletin Board where we post messages and replys   Chat Boards --- Links are on your main desktop and posts can be viewed by all students   Classroom Boards --- Links to Classroom Boards are on your classroom desktop and posts are for homework and other class related material. They can be viewed only by class members.   Real Time Chat --- Chat in real time with classmates   Live --- Meet with other students using Real Time Chat for a live session. Times and topics are announced in the classroom boards and attendance is strictly voluntary.   GA --- Go Ahead. When doing a live session in order to keep everyone together, the instructor will post the instructions one step at a time. You will be asked to type GA when you have completed the step and are ready to move on. If the class is large, you will be asked to post your GA in alphabetical order so that no one is missed. When the last person on the name list types GA the next step of the lesson will be posted.   BYOI --- Bring Your Own Image. For some live sessions the lesson is about doing modifications to an image of your own choosing.   mIRC --- Internet Relay Chat Client program that can be used to access VU's Real Time Chat. Zonie's mIRC page has complete instructions for this program.   YourName36 --- When you join the live chat, your first name and a random number make up your nickname. To change to your preferred nickname type /nick Chicken_lips (if "Chicken_lips" is what you want to be known as) / tells the server you are talking to it, nick tells it you are changing your nickname, and the next thing you type is your new name. No spaces allowed! If there is someone using that name, you will need to choose another.   Virtual Notebook --- A web page you create with links to your weekly homework. Example   TOE --- Table of Exersizes, another term for Virtual Notebook, see above.   Digest --- At the end of the week bulletin board messages are changed to a condensed format. The files are available at the bottom of the board arranged by date. If you post a question and it is digested before it is answered, you may post it again.
thePlace A very special online community for people who love graphics and web design. It is a separate organization from Virtual University, but Virtual University Students will see many familiar faces. The focus of this group is graphics using the PaintShop Program, but it is open to all who are interested free of charge.
PSP--- PaintShop Pro, a graphics program from JASC Software PSP-8 --- Current Version PSP-7 --- Older Version, No longer supported, Time to update! PSP-9 Beta --- New Version, not ready for sale yet, but available for testing. A company never knows how their new program will work on YOUR computer until it has been fully tested by millions of people like you. The company asks users to try the new program and give them feedback before a final release. Patch --- Sometimes after a new version has been released for sale it still needs some changes. Registered users are generally notified as these become available.     Sig --- Signature Graphic, sometimes also called a Sig Tag. By tradition members of "thePlace" end a message by showing a graphic with their name on it. It is not required but graphics lovers love to show graphics!   Sig Swap --- A popular activity for inspiring creativity is to make sigs for other members. Normally members sign up, and are notified of the person they are assigned to make a sig for. Copy the images you receive onto your computer and then to your web site and use them as sigs in your posts! Creativity, Learning and Fun are the goals, so you never know what to expect!   Tut --- Tutorial or PSP lesson. Posted in the Challenges section.   Post --- "thePlace" is an Electronic Bulletin Board, so when messages are added, they are "posted".   Hot linking --- When images are shown they are not stored on "thePlace" web site (www.hollandvoice.net) but are linked from the member's web space. Some free web sites do not allow members to do this. It costs money to store and send images, and if only the image is used, you don't see the advertising that pays for it. In the "Resource" topic you will find a section called "Web Hosts" where you can get information about sites that allow hot linking.   Bandwidth Theft --- Putting a link to an image on another site without permission. For example: I see a graphic I like and want to steal it, but instead of taking it and putting it on my server, I just link it directly. I have not only violated the copyright laws by using someone's image, I have also committed bandwidth theft by using their resources to do it!   Bandwidth --- If the Internet was made of water instead of data, Bandwidth would be the flow of water. Have you ever wondered what the numbers on a modem meant? Bandwidth! A 28.8 Modem delivers a bandwidth of 28,800 bits of data per second. Which is like taking a shower under a leaky faucet by today's standards but it's still twice as fast as a 14.4! Internet providers pay for the amount of data they send over the Internet like we pay for water and sewer... Kind of. :-)   Moohaahaa --- I have no idea actually, but it gets me laughing every time!! Even though we only communicate by typing with practice we can recognize people by their messages and form close friendships! I'm sure we all know whose line that is!   Avatar --- That little picture, (100 x 100 px) that shows on your posts under your user name. You can change it as part of your profile settings.   That Little Pencil --- Member icons are between your name and your Avatar. You get a pencil for 1 - 24 Posts, a pen for 25-49 and so on. The list of icons is under "Guidelines Tips and Suggestions" under the section called "Icons, Buttons, Cups for Members" in a sticky message that says "Revised Member Icons". These icons don't get added automatically so don't feel you have been overlooked if they aren't up to date.   Graphics Gazette --- "thePlace" is a members only site, only regestered users can log in. Graphics Gazette is a public site associated with "thePlace". It has many interesting topics including tutorials, tubes, fonts and The Calling Card Project.