Glossary of Terms

✫ Administrator (n.): This is the highest permission level for a member. An administrator can manage the whole board by creating/organizing categories and sections, setting up permissions, changing the board's design, managing the users, etc. You can recognized them on this forum by the mint green color of their usernames or by an @ next to their name in the chatbox. Please show them respect, as they work very hard to keep our site running smoothly.

✫ Admin (abv..): Abbreviation for “Administrator.”

✫ Announcement (n.): Topic which always stays at the top of the topic list even if this topic is old. It appears at every page of a forum. They are generally used for board rules.

✫ Avatar (n.): Personal image which is shown below the username in posts. The avatar is choosen by the user and it usually reflects a personality trait, a passion or a mood. You can change your avatar on your profile; see [How to Edit Your Profile] for information on how to do so.

✫ Ban (v.): To deny access to. To ban someone from the chatbox means that they cannot log onto the chatbox or see it at the bottom of the screen. To ban someone from the site means that they cannot log onto their account. It is commonly used as a form of punishment, but only for high level offenses.

✫ Banner (n.): A large image at the top of the page that commonly displays the academy’s name and occasionally a special message or quote. Clicking on this will take you to the home page.

✫ BBCode (n.): Simple coding that allows you to modify your text with fonts, sizes, colors, italics, bolds, underlines, lists, etc. Marked by the use of square brackets [like these]. Lightway Spec Inv has provided a [Coding for Beginners] tutorial for those who would like to learn more about it.
✫ Browse (v.): To look through something, esp. to be reading a page on the forum.

✫ Category (n.): A group of forums (section). They can't contain topics directly.

✫ Chatbox (n.): Also known as a ‘cbox,’ or ‘recess’ on this site. The chatbox is a place for members to relax and chat casually with each other. Keep in mind that it is a public place and it is a chatbox, not a dramabox. If you have an issue with another member, please take it up through private message or with a staff member, not in the chatbox. The staff reserves the right to remove the chatbox at any time if students are hurt, threatened, or not doing their work.

✫ Emoticon (n.): A digital expression of emotion through either symbols on the keyboard (like so: ^_^ ) or through use of the forum-approved codes (as so: ). Overuse of emoticons can be annoying, so please do not spam them. See also: Smiley.

✫ FAQ (abv..): Acronym and abbreviation for “Frequently Asked Questions.”

✫ Flood (n.): From the original definition of the word, this term is used to talk about the action of mass-posting only to raise the member's rank, to put a forum out of order or anything else. It may be posts which are extremely short. On Forumotion, this kind of post penalize forums in their position in the Forumotion directory.

✫ Forum (n.): Two definitions

1) Website or dynamic website part which allows written expression of its members. Also called "board", "message board" or "bulletin board"
2) A group which contains topics (or threads), also called "section"

✫ Founder (n.): The administrator who created the board. He has rights the other admins haven't, such as modifying his own profile, changing the board's address or deleting his board. He also has access to the restoration tools (utilities).

✫ Global Announcement (n.): A very important announcement that will show up on every page of a forum except for the home page and a thread or topic. Contrast with a general Announcement, which only appears in the forum in which it was originally posted.

✫ Guest (n.): A user who is not logged in.

✫ Hidden User (n.): Registered user who have chosen to hide their online status. It can be done by setting "Hide your online status" to YES when you edit your profile. Administrators and moderators can still see them; their names appear in italic.

✫ HTML (n.): A more advanced form of coding used across the internet that allows one to not only do the usual text transformations available through BBCode but also to make certain adjustments that BBCode cannot. Marked by the use of the greater than and less than signs, . It is not recommended that you try to use or edit HTML unless you have a fair amount of experience with it.

✫ Icon (n.): A small image whose meaning can usually be found on a key. Another name for an Avatar.

✫ Legend (n.): A list of the usergroups and their colors down at the bottom of the home page. Like a key, this will tell you which color belongs to which usergroup so that you can recognize a student’s group by the color of their name.

✫ Member (n.): A user who has a registered account on the site.

✫ Moderator (n.): A member who's charged to ensure a nice ambiance in a section or in a group of sections. For this, he has tools simple member don't have, such as moving, locking, unlocking, deleting, splitting, merging topics, editing or deleting posts, or banning troublesome members. Every group will have a group moderator that will serve as a sort of guidance counselor. Please show moderators the same respect that you would an administrator; they may not always have the same color, but they will always have an @ by their name in the chatbox.

✫ Navigate (v.): To find one’s way; to explore. Navigating the site simply means moving around the site.

✫ Navigation Bar (n.):

✫ PM (n.): Abbreviation for “Private Message,” a message you send to a single member who will be the only one to read it. This is useful for transmitting confidential information (ex : abuse report). Many of your assignments will be turned in through PMs.

✫ PM (v.): To send a private message.

✫ Post (n.): Part of a topic which contains what a member wrote. It also contains the avatar and the informative links about the same member. It is synonym of "message"

✫ Post (v.): To make a reply; a common notification of having made a reply is “posted.”

✫ Postcount (n.): The total number of posts that a member has made, including posts that have been deleted or that are only visible to certain members.

✫ Profile (n.): A collection of information about a given user, including their preferences and site settings, though these will not be visible to most members.

✫ Refresh (v.): To reload the page. This can be done by clicking on the address bar and hitting enter, hitting f5 on your keyboard, or selecting the refresh button on your browser.

✫ Register (v.): To sign up and receive an account on the site.

✫ Signature (n.): An image, link, or collection of text that appears at the bottom of a user’s posts and/or private messages. This can be edited on your profile.

✫ Smiley (n.): A pre-provided emoticon on the site.

✫ SMS (n.): A kind of writing which is often used in textual messages exchanged between mobile phones. This writing has the characteristic to be very abbreviated by using a single letter or number for a sound (ex : "U" for "you", "2" for "to", "sk8" for "skate"). This kind of writing MUST be avoided on this board because it's hard to read!

✫ Spam (n.): Repeated posts of identical or useless information (such as the same image multiple times or posting lines full of just a period in the chatbox). Similar to floods.

✫ Spam (v.): To post the same message multiple times. This is to be avoided, because it clutters up the board and causes extra work for the administrators.

✫ Spoiler (n.): Something that could ruin the end of a movie, book, cartoon, etc. Also refers to the effect on a board that hides text or images until a user clicks on the word “spoiler.”

✫ Sticky (n.): A topic that always stays at the top of the topic list, below announcements (if there are any), even if this topic is old. It appears only on the first page of a forum. They are generally used to display useful content which must stays visible for everyone.

✫ Tag (n.): A piece of coding that begins and ends a selection of coding; they are the parts included in the brackets. Incomplete tags result in “broken” coding, so it is very important to make sure your tags are complete.

✫ Thread (n.):. A series of posts.

✫ Topic (n.): Synonymous with “thread.”

✫ Troll (n.): Message or poster aimed to engage in controversy at an excessive level. It harms the forum ambiance because it annoys members, and it is not very appreciated.

✫ Troll (v.): To purposefully antagonize or irritate other members. This is strictly forbidden.

✫ URL (n.): The address of a webpage. Ex. http://www.lightwayacademy.darkbb.com

✫ User (n.): Anyone who visits the site, generally referring to one who has an account.

✫ Usergroup (n.): A group of users which has special permissions, such as having access to a private section, or moderating a section. Any user who's member of a group will have the access/moderation permission given to the group. Each usergroup has a color listed on the legend.

✫ Username (n.): The name which a member has registered with. Serves as a link to their profile and bears the color of their usergroup.

✫Watch (v.): To choose to receive an alert every time a reply is added to a forum or topic.