L.A. SPEAK

Electronic bulletin boards let you send private messages to other users or join ongoing conversations. A bit of BBS babble:

chat n . a private conversation, as opposed to a forum. “Let’s get off this forum and chat. “

E-mail n . electronic mail sent to an individual user. “Anyone interested in the job should let me know via E-mail .”

emoticon n . punctuation-based symbols used to denote emotion in a message, as in:

:-) n . smile

;-) n . smile with wink

8-) n . smile from a person who wears glasses

:-( n . frown

forum n . a sort of electronic subdivision, where many users discuss a single topic. “I spent all day in the gardening forum. “

FWIWfor what it’s worth. “ FWIW , that’s what Dan Quayle said, too.”

IMHOin my humble opinion. “The roast quail with polenta was dynamite, IMHO .”

lurker n. someone who reads a forum conversation but doesn’t contribute. Frequent among racier forums. “Uh, oh. We’ve got a lurker. Must be someone curious about S&M.;”

snailmail n . regular, old U.S. Postal Service.

topic drift n . when a forum veers off the subject. “TOPIC DRIFT! TOPIC DRIFT! We’re talking baseball here, please.”

thread n . a conversation that follows a single subject. “Check out the thread on the travel forum.”