Welcome back to another week of DT’s Internet lingo lesson. Today, we explore terms old and new – some you might have seen but didn’t particularly know what it referred to and others that inspired newer, trendier words like Catfishing (if you don’t know what that means either, we recommend you read this Deadspin coverage then our review of Catfish the movie).
Netiquette
The portmanteau of “Internet” and “Etiquette” which refers to the unspoken rules by which citizens of the Web should abide. Common netiquettes include: Don’t hit Reply All to an office-wide e-mail for a response that only concerns the original sender, turn Caps Lock off unless you mean to pretend shout, and credit news sources or photographers for quotes and images you use on your own blog or post.
“This is the third time she instant messaged me even though my status clearly says ‘Busy.’ Some people have the worst netiquette.”
Pre-commerce
A start-up or business before it holds an Initial Public Offering. In a pre-commerce state, the business is private and does not have to worry about meeting the expectations of its shareholders or compromise its product to garner revenue.
“I liked Facebook much more before when it was pre-commerce. Now there are so many unnecessary features designed for advertisers.”
Selfie
A photo one takes of oneself. Selfies, short for self portraits, are usually identified when you can see the subject of the photo’s arm extending and holding the camera, or if the photo is shot in front of a mirror. More often than not, selfies are taken on smartphones – which makes the final product veer on the side of amateur.
“@radicalpuke do u ever take a nice selfie on an iphone front camera but then it FLIPS the photo and u look like a gremlin after crawling out of a sewer”
Mousetrapping
A method for websites to keep users on the page by disabling the ability to press Back or launching a series of pop-ups ads. This obnoxious practice is, for the most part, old and abandoned… but is still pretty common on spam and pornographic websites.
“Friend A: My roommate caught me watching porn. I closed all the windows but one of those pop-ups remained in the back.
Friend B: Mousetrapped!”
Check back next week to learn more tech lingo so you can keep up with conversations around the Web!
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