Usenet slang
Shu Chih-hsiang
What do _spam_ and _newbie_ mean? How do they enter the Usenet lexicon?
Any help is really appreciated. (If you can tell me where I can find Usenet
slang dictionaries, please tell me too) I have migraine for not knowing these
words.
--
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ą Shu Chih-hsiang National Tsing Hua University ą
ą Department of Foreign Languages ą
ąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąąą
Steve MacGregor
Jene tajpis lastatempe Shu Chih-hsiang:
| What do _spam_ and _newbie_ mean?
"Spam" is a message cross-posted to multiple, irrelevant newsgroups.
Those chain-letters telling you to send $1 to each of five people, modify
the letter you received, and send the modified copy to everyone you know
(or spam it to yet another bunch of newsgroups) are the prime example.
A "newbie" is general English slang, not restricted to the Internet,
and means a newcomer, novice, someone who has just arrived.
| How do they enter the Usenet lexicon?
By being used often enough to be noticed, and used by others.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
This incredibly unbelievable insight has been brought to you by
Steve MacGregor, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
---------------------------------------------------------------
Markus Laker
u83...@Oz.nthu.edu.tw (Shu Chih-hsiang) wrote:
> What do _spam_ and _newbie_ mean? How do they enter the Usenet lexicon?
> Any help is really appreciated. (If you can tell me where I can find Usenet
> slang dictionaries, please tell me too) I have migraine for not knowing these
> words.
To spam is to cross-post an irrelevant or unwanted article to a large number
of newsgroups. It differs from cross-posting in that (a) a separate copy of
the posting is transmitted and stored for each newsgroup it was posted to,
and (b) reading the article in one newsgroup doesn't allow the newsreader to
mark it as read in all the others. Excessive cross-posting is bad; spamming
is worse.
A newbie is somebody who's new to the Internet. I suspect that this term is
coming into general use, as a number of computer- and Internet-related terms
have done; in this case a revised definition would be 'somebody who's new to
the activity or field in question.'
--
Markus Laker.
Dudley Ames
I'll tell you where to find the answers, if you will tell me how
you put that box around your signature line! :-) Check out the Jargon
File at:
=09http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon.html
cc'd & posted
--=20
Dudley Ames
University of Arkansas
da...@comp.uark.edu
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
On 1 Jun 1996, Shu Chih-hsiang wrote:
=3D>
=3D>What do _spam_ and _newbie_ mean? How do they enter the Usenet lexicon?
=3D>Any help is really appreciated. (If you can tell me where I can find Us=
enet
=3D>slang dictionaries, please tell me too) I have migraine for not knowing=
these
=3D>words.
=3D>
=3D>--
=3D> =20
=3D> =B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=
=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=
=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1
=3D> =B1 Shu Chih-hsiang National Tsing Hua University =B1
=3D> =B1 Department of Foreign Languages =B1
=3D> =B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=
=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=
=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1=B1
Richard Hoskins
u83...@Oz.nthu.edu.tw (Shu Chih-hsiang) wrote:
> What do _spam_ and _newbie_ mean? How do they enter the Usenet
> lexicon? Any help is really appreciated. (If you can tell me where
> I can find Usenet slang dictionaries, please tell me too) I have
> migraine for not knowing these words.
Run to prep (or one of its mirrors) and get The Jargon File:
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/jarg331.txt.gz
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/jarg331.info.gz (GNU Info version)
Or if you dig that Web thing:
_________________________________________________________________
NEWBIE
/n[y]oo'bee/ n. [orig. from British public-school and military
slang variant of `new boy'] A Usenet neophyte. This term
surfaced in the [2]newsgroup talk.bizarre but is now in wide
use. Criteria for being considered a newbie vary wildly; a
person can be called a newbie in one newsgroup while remaining
a respected regular in another. The label `newbie' is sometimes
applied as a serious insult to a person who has been around
Usenet for a long time but who carefully hides all evidence of
having a clue. See [3]B1FF.
_________________________________________________________________
SPAM
vt. [from "Monty Python's Flying Circus"]
1. To crash a program by overrunning a fixed-size buffer with
excessively large input data. See also [2]buffer overflow,
[3]overrun screw, [4]smash the stack.
2. To cause a newsgroup to be flooded with irrelevant or
inappropriate messages. You can spam a newsgroup with as little as
one well- (or ill-) planned message (e.g. asking "What do you
think of abortion?" on soc.women). This is often done with
[5]cross-posting (e.g. any message which is crossposted to
alt.rush-limbaugh and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost
inevitably spam both groups).
The second definition has become much more prevalent as the
Internet has opened up to non-techies, and to many Usenetters it
is probably now (1995) primary. .
Lee S. Bumgarner
> > What do _spam_ and _newbie_ mean? How do they enter the Usenet lexicon?
> > Any help is really appreciated. (If you can tell me where I can find Usenet
> > slang dictionaries, please tell me too) I have migraine for not knowing these
> > words.
> To spam is to cross-post an irrelevant or unwanted article to a large number
> of newsgroups. It differs from cross-posting in that (a) a separate copy of
> the posting is transmitted and stored for each newsgroup it was posted to,
> and (b) reading the article in one newsgroup doesn't allow the newsreader to
> mark it as read in all the others. Excessive cross-posting is bad; spamming
> is worse.
I'm sure the fine people at Hormel[tm] Inc, would just LOVE to hunt down
and kill the person who started using it. Actually, the offical source of
the verbification (like my new word?) Is something like this: there is
a Monty Python song that goes like this:
SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM
SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM
and so forth and so on. The kewl do0ds who first created IRC and MUDs were
really into MP, and so whenever someone would shoot out garbage on a
channel or MUD, rendering it useless, they called it "spam." The Usenet
Cabal then picked it up and gave it is more well known definition. And
later STILL, it wasn't until your favorite clueless laywer newbies and
mine, Canter & Lewis decided to do the Mother Of All Megaspams that
"spam" as a Usenet term finally got its 15 minites of fame. There is
another, less used version of this called "Velveeta". I think same but
different than spam.
> A newbie is somebody who's new to the Internet. I suspect that this term is
> coming into general use, as a number of computer- and Internet-related terms
> have done; in this case a revised definition would be 'somebody who's new to
> the activity or field in question.'
Actually, as someone else noticed, the term was orginally English
schoolboy slang for a "new boy." The denizens of Usenet added
"clueless" to it. ( I sometimes feel like that alien on Star Drek TNG who
spoke entirely in allusion when I post stuff to Usenet.)
Both of these may be a first in slang history: they are nearly accepted
into standard English Slang and are still actually being used by the
people who first coined them. (Anybody lurking from Websters willing to
give us a timeline for when "newbie" and "spam the verb" will be in your
fine publication?
-l
There is no Cabal.
__
Undertoad: http://falcon.jmu.edu/~bumgarls/ "Klaatu barada nictow" * "Usenet
is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive, difficult to
redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind-boggling amounts
of excrement when you least expect it. " --sp...@cs.purdue.edu (1992) * Jesus
loves you, but everyone else thinks you're an asshole * Kibo/Furr in '96!
Mark Brader
> > What do _spam_ and _newbie_ mean? ...
>
> Run to prep (or one of its mirrors) and get The Jargon File:
>
> ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/jarg331.txt.gz
> ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/jarg331.info.gz (GNU Info version)
Well, for some reason prep doesn't have the latest version, which is
3.3.3, not 3.3.1. The definition of "newbie" hasn't changed, but that
of "spam" has. It now reads:
#:spam: vt.,vi.,n. [from "Monty Python's Flying Circus"]
# 1. To crash a program by overrunning a fixed-size buffer with
# excessively large input data. See also {buffer overflow},
# {overrun screw}, {smash the stack}. 2. To cause a newsgroup
# to be flooded with irrelevant or inappropriate messages. You can
# spam a newsgroup with as little as one well- (or ill-) planned
# message (e.g. asking "What do you think of abortion?" on
# soc.women). This is often done with {cross-post}ing
# (e.g. any message which is crossposted to alt.rush-limbaugh
# and alt.politics.homosexuality will almost inevitably spam
# both groups). 3. To send many identical or nearly-identical
# messages separately to a large number of Usenet newsgroups. This
# is one sure way to infuriate nearly everyone on the Net.
#
# The second and third definitions have become much more prevalent as
# the Internet has opened up to non-techies, and to many Usenetters
# #3 is now (1995) primary. In this sense the term has apparantly
# begun to go mainstream, though without its original sense or
# folkloric freight -- there is apparently a widespread belief among
# {luser}s that "spamming" is what happens when you dump cans of
# Spam into a revolving fan.
As noted elsewhere in the thread, the current version can be obtained
at <http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon.html> in various formats.
However, at this point you may prefer to wait for the publication of
the new book version, which I presume will be called "The New Hacker's
Dictionary, 3rd edition", edited by Eric Raymond. Eric told me last
month that MIT Press was planning a publication date in September.
The Jargon File entry does not really explain why the word is "spam",
but just refers to the beloved TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus.
The term specifically refers to the episode originally broadcast on
December 15, 1970, about a restaurant where the items on the menu were:
egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg,
bacon and spam; egg, bacon, sausage and spam; spam, bacon,
sausage and spam; spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam;
spam, spam, spam, egg and spam; spam, spam, spam, spam,
spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam; lobster
thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce garnished with a
truffle pate, brandy and a fried egg on top and spam
After Terry Jones as the waitress recites this, the customer, played by
Grah Chapman, asks if they've got "anything without spam in it", and the
response is
Well, there's spam, egg, sausage and spam. That's not got
*much* spam in it.
which contradicts the menu just recited, if you were listening carefully,
but who was? And it goes on from there. You can find the whole sketch
in the books "Monty Python's Flying Circus: Just the Words" (Methuen, 1989,
Volume 1 ISBN 0-413-62554-0, Volume 2 ISBN 0-413-62550-8; I think there
has been a one-volume version since). It's in show 25, in volume 2.
I won't reproduce any more of it here for copyright reasons.
Speaking of legalities, I should note that Spam is a trademark, and
ought to be capitalized when you're talking about the food product.
Either this is different in Britain or, more likely, the Monty Python
people didn't care about capitalization because the lines were going
to be spoken, and the book publisher then failed to notice the point.
--
Mark Brader, m...@sq.com "I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pedantic and
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto that's just as good." -- D Gary Grady
My text in this article is in the public domain, as is the Jargon File.
Daan Sandee
In article <4ospfm$g...@doc.jmu.edu>, bumg...@falcon.jmu.edu (Lee S. Bumgarner) writes:
|> channel or MUD, rendering it useless, they called it "spam." The Usenet
|> Cabal then picked it up and gave it is more well known definition. And
|> later STILL, it wasn't until your favorite clueless laywer newbies and
|> mine, Canter & Lewis decided to do the Mother Of All Megaspams that
Canter and Siegel, actually. A.k.a. Larry and Martha, Coleslaw, green slime,
etc. I'm sure they'll be happy to sue you for getting their name wrong.
You can read them up on alt.usenet.kooks.
|> "spam" as a Usenet term finally got its 15 minites of fame. There is
|> another, less used version of this called "Velveeta". I think same but
|> different than spam.
From the Spam FAQ, by Chris Lewis, on news.admin.net-abuse.misc :
# Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP) means the same as the term "spam" usually
# does, but is more accurate and self-explanatory. It means,
# essentially, too many separate copies of the same message.
#
# Cross-posting means that a single message appears in more than one
# group. Most newsreaders allow you to specify more than one group in a
# posting.
#
# Excessive Crossposting (ECP), also known as "Velveeta", refers to where
# a "lot" of postings to more than one group each have been made.
[..]
# This author considers the term "spam" to mean excessive postings of
# EMP and/or ECP variety. That is, "spam", is a generic term for several
# different things. The term is _supposed_ to mean EMPs only, but most
# people use "spam" to mean any "excessive posting".
#
# The term "jello" means a large/combined EMP/ECP. This author doesn't
# believe this to be a useful term. Indeed, this author doesn't really
# believe any of these terms are useful - always call them "spam".
#
# A spam, EMP, or ECP then refers to a posting that has been posted to
# many places. There is a consensus that there is a point at which
# it is abuse, and is subject to advisory cancellation.
Daan Sandee san...@think.com
Burlington, MA
Marilyn Ruffin
u83...@Oz.nthu.edu.tw (Shu Chih-hsiang) wrote:
>What do _spam_ and _newbie_ mean? How do they enter the Usenet lexicon?
>Any help is really appreciated. (If you can tell me where I can find Usenet
>slang dictionaries, please tell me too) I have migraine for not knowing these
>words.
I have just found this newsgroup. Here I am a NEWBIE. (As a lifelong
non-accredited etymologist, some would say I am buggy--but what do
they know?)
Search for "Internet Literacy Consultants". --AL.
Joseph Chacko
We had the word 'spam' at my school. It was a slang verb, meaning 'slap
squarely on the forehead with intention to cause loud smack noise, and
brief but irritating pain'. This seems almost as offensive an action as
the usenet type of spamming.
--
Psst