An alphabetical guide to Second Life-specific terms* frequently used in New World Notes (originally published here)...
Attachment – Avatar enhancements connected to part or all of the body, including clothes, tools, custom-made hair, etc. (Added 6/11/06)
Box head – Common new user mishap, in which a noob's attempt to wear an attachment (see above) contained inside a box inadvertently causes them to attach the entire box to their head. Often used as a symbol for Second Life's difficult user interface. (Added 6/11/06)
FIC – For “Feted Inner Core”, title coined by Resident iconoclast Prokofy Neva for lead element in conspiracy theory claiming a collusion between elite Residents and Linden Lab staffers at the expense of casual and inexperienced new users. (Added 6/11/06)
Furries – Most prominent minority SL community, Residents who roleplay as anthropomorphic cartoon animal avatars (skunks, mice, etc.). Highly-regarded for building and scripting talents of their most prominent members. (Added 6/11/06)
Ghost - The remnants of a prim (see below) that has been deleted from the server's dataset, but due to packet loss has not been deleted from the client's dataset. Ghosts cannot be moved or deleted, but must be flushed from the client cache by an avatar moving a far enough distance or relogging. (Def. contribued by Olmy Seraph, 3/02/05)
GOM-ed (verb) - When user-made content or service is undermined or made irrelevant by subsequent software/website updates from Linden Lab. From “Gaming Open Market”, a Resident-run site that was the leading L$ currency exchange outlet—until Linden Lab’s new LindeX (see below) service obsoleted it. (Added 6/11/06)
Grid - Refers to the totality of simulators (see below) available and accessible to Residents (see below)-- i.e., the known world. Often abbreviated as "MG" for "Main Grid" to distinguish it from "TG" for "Teen Grid", i.e., Teen Second Life. (Added 6/11/06)
In-world - The state of being online in Second Life.
Lag - In general, network congestion which slows down communcation between client and server. Specifically to Second Life, lag is typically caused when an excess of residents (see below), prims (see below), or active scripts exist in a given simulator (see below). (Def. added 2/23/05.)
Leader Boards - Discontinued in late 2005, a regularly updated, automatic ranking system which posts a list of the top Residents (see below) in various categories, such as Wealth and Land Owned. All residents have access to these names and figures via the SecondLife.com website and through a button the Second Life interface. (Def. added 3/2/05, amended 6/11/06.)
Linden (noun) - Singular, refers to an employee of Linden Lab. Plural, refers to Linden Lab staff or more generally to Linden Lab policy or policy implementation (e.g., "The Lindens just changed the cost of rating people.")
Linden Dollar (or L$) - The official in-world currency. Often exchanged on the LindEx (see below), for real US dollars. (Updated, 6/11/06)
LindeX - Internal currency L$-to-US$ exchange system. Rates set according to market supply and demand.
Poseball (noun) - An object embedded with a custome pose script, designed so that when a Resident sits on it, their avatar is automatically put into that pose. (E.G., a slouch.) (Added 4/08/05)
Prim (noun) - Fundamental building blocks which are comprise
the basis of all in-world creations. Originally rezzed (see below) as a
primary shape such as a cube, cylinder, or sphere, a prim can have its
form altered, its surface textured, and its physical composition
changed in an infinite number of ways. Most in-world (see above)
objects are comprised of several prims linked together.
Prims can be set to respond to the physical forces of Second Life, including gravity and wind. They can also be turned invisible, or made visible but without physical substance. (Added 2/25/05)
Resident (noun) - Paying subscriber to Second Life. (Def. added 2/23/05)
Rez (verb) - "[Origin: the movie Tron. Derived from 'de-rez' - a fictional hacker term for an object losing resolution, or dissolving away.] - to create an object or to bring an object out of your inventory. To make something appear in the world. - Kathy Yamamoto"+
Script – Linden Script Language, SL-based programming code similar to C+. (Added 6/11/06)
Simulator (noun) - Often abbreviated as "sim", a discrete area of in-world (see above) geography, approximately 16 acres in size, contained on a single server. (Also refers to the space directly above and the area below the simulator's perimeter.) Most simulators are physically linked together, to create a single, contiguous continent.
* Rather than defining each common SL-specific term every time they appear in a New World Notes entry, I'll simply link them to this guide. I will also be treating this glossary as a kind of quasi wiki, so if you have a term and a definition you want to add to it, please post it in the Comments section below, and when appropriate, I'll add it to the entry proper, with full credit given.
+ Definition taken from Kathy Yamamoto's Second Life Glossary, an in-world document first reported on in New World Notes, 10/22/03.
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