Second Life Jargon Buster

One of the most important parts of Secondlife is the walking around, interacting with other people - making friends is after all what Secondlife is all about.

Like most places, Secondlife has its own particular language, which can often be confusing for new residents, especially those that aren't so familiar with internet "Chat Speak" - the reason for a lot of the abbreviations is their ease to type, thus speeding up the flow of a conversation.

Sometimes you may wish to "do" something in chat - for instance, smile, or some other action - and not use the text based emoticons that are commonly used for the smilies (For example :D ). To do this in Secondlife is fairly easy, just type "/me (Action)" in the chat bar - this will replace the "/me" with your avatar name.

So, for instance, to have "Sorka Nemeth smiles fondly at Fortyniner" appear in open chat, I would actually type "/me smiles fondly at Fortyniner" in the chat bar.

Here I have included a simple glossary of the more common terms used in-world, and will add to it as I discover more.

AFK - "Away from Keyboard" - this tends to be for those slightly longer trips in to Real Life, to answer phones and the like. Also see "BRB" and "BBL".

BBL - "Be back later" - this is normally used if you have to leave world for awhile but intend to return soon. Also see "BRB" and "AFK"

BRB - "Be right back" - used for those neccesary trips away from the keyboard for drinks, chocolate and stuff. Also see "AFK" and "BBL"

HB - "Hurry Back" - the normal response of friends to an "AFK" or "BRB" statement.

ILY - "I love you" - used among couples when in a public area. Normally responded to with "ILY2"

LOL - This stands for "laughs out loud" and is used alot to show humour in a conversation as it is easier to type then the other options. Also see "ROTFL" and "PMSL".

TTFN - "Ta ta for now" - This actually originated from Tigger in the world of Winnie-the-pooh and has been adopted by the internet chat room as a sweet, fast goodbye.

TY - "Thank you"

TYVM - "Thank you very much"

WB - "Welcome back" - normally used to welcome someone who has returned from being "BRB" or "AFK".

YW - "You're Welcome"

YVW - "You're very Welcome"

Rezz - Means to create an object in world, or drop an object from your inventory. You may hear people saying things haven't "rezzed" which means they haven't loaded properly in world.

Ruthed - An embarressing condition experienced by all Secondlifers at various points. It refers to the return to the generic and FEMALE avatar state, particularly embarressing for the guys. It is often temporary, and can sometimes be fixed by editting appearence or rebaking textures.

ROTFL - "Rolls on the floor laughing" - for times when a simple LOL, won't cut it.

PMSL - "P*** myself laughing" the slightly more adult version of ROTFL.

BTW - By the way.

Lag - The mysterious condition that causes your avatar to either not respond, or to act as if dipped in fast drying cement.

Prim - The basic building block of SL, everything (except your avatar and most clothes) are made up of them in differing numbers, shapes and sizes.

Avatar (Av) - The 3D representation of yourself.

Neko - Part animal (usually cat) and part human. Of Japanese origin, and a popular look on SL.

HUD - "Head's Up Display" used for controlling certain avatars, or playing certain in world games such as Tiny Empires.

Furry - Another popular look in SL - Furry is the name given to those who have chosen to go animal, or part animal in their appearence.

LM - Shortened version of Landmark, a way of keeping track of the places you have visited and would like to go back to in world.

Poseball - Poseballs are found all over Second life, and are the main way of animating your avatar. Confusingly, not all poseballs are "balls" but may be embedded in other objects like cushions. (Find out how to use Poseballs on our FAQ)