• What's an "Old Republic? member?"
• What is T******?
• What is L******?
• What is C***********?
• Why do people always type assass?
• What does YATWOSWF stand for?
• What do all of these crazy abbreviations stand for?
• Why do people on this messageboard spell so poorly? Why is it always "aboot" and "sook" instead of "about" and "suck"?
• What is a 'snog'?
• Thread, topic, forum . . . what does it all mean??
• What is a spoiler?
• What are archives?
• What's Soylent Green, and what does it have to do with Star Wars?
• Why eat macro? Who's macro? Why do people want to eat him?
• What does Albatross mean?
• What does vote and increment mean?
• What is T***? E Chu Ta? Poodoo?
• Why do people keep telling me I'm 22? I'm not.
• Who is Kitster?
• Ziegfeld? Ziggy? What's that?
• What's SWNYC? What's NYLine?
• What is Canon?

Anyone who has a registration date earlier than May, 1999 registered during the dark times-- before the Emperor pulled the plug on the old site and we began this new era. Basically, "Old Republic members" are the ones who have been posting since before we left our original parent site.

For more information about that, see What was the Old Republic?"

This is standard messageboard protocol for referring to Jim Cameron's 'boat movie'.

Some of the Old Republic members have/had violent tempers regarding discussion of this film. We must assume that the bitterness generated by "the boat" has something to do with the fact that it did the unthinkable-- unseated SW:ANH as the top moneymaking film of all time. (Don't worry-- we'll have a re-release and overtake it soon enough.)

The rest of the bitterness seems to come from the old threat that Leo would play Anakin in the PT. Since that horror did not materialize, we're starting to feel safe, and the sithy feelings are ebbing a bit.

This refers to one of the taboo topics for this board. The leader of the Old Republic has been officially declared a 'closed subject' on this board, because tempers ran high and accusations ran rampant whenever he was discussed.

9 out of 10 Jedi Masters have determined that this subject is dangerous to your health and may lead to anger, fear, and aggression.

If you want more details, try politely emailing one of the prominent Old Republic members and asking them to explain. (Try Callista@MyR2.com or Sardonicus@phydiux.com)

Again, a taboo topic of this board. This refers to the Old Republic, and discussion of it has been officially closed because some people have such strong feelings about it that it is hard to maintain peace.

If you'd like more information, try politely emailing one of the prominent Old Republic members and asking them to explain. (Try Callista@MyR2.com or Sardonicus@phydiux.com)

This is one of the inside jokes of the board. Since it is referenced so frequently, it deserves mention here:

The messageboard has an automatic editing function that catches some curse words and vulgar words. One of them is "ass." A long time ago, at a URL far, far away, users discovered that if they typed it twice in a row, the editor didn't turn it into asterisks. Members began typing assass to short-circuit the censor program, and eventually assass became a word in its own right. These days, it is considered more of a joke than anything else.

Assass has entered our lexicon of "messageboard-speak", just like GL, LFL, T****** and Old Republic.

"You Are a Totally Wacko Obsessive Star Wars Fan"

This phrase originated in one of the defining threads of the message board-- created in the Cantina, the YATWOSWF thread is one of our best-loved threads ever. It explains a lot of the reasons that we're all still together.

(See also: Abbreviations)

This is our most complete listing of the abbreviations that we use at this board-- many of which are common on the internet, some of which are peculiar to Star Wars fans, some of which a perculiar to this message board.

AD: Anthony Daniels (who plays C-3PO and writes the WC in SWI)
AE: Archival Edition (the yet-to-be-completed version of the OT)
AFAIK: As far as I know
AFK: Away from keyboard
ANH: A New Hope (SW episode 4)
AotC: Attack of the Clones (SW episode 2)
AQ: America's Queen (a Natalie Portman fan site)
BAK: Back at keyboard
BRB: be right back
BTS: behind the scenes
BTW: By the Way
CCG: Customizable Card Game (as produced by Decipher and WOC-- games like YJ and Magic, the Gathering)
DotF: Duel of the Fates
DS: Death Star
DS2/DSII: Death Star II (from RotJ)
EOM: End of message
EP1: Star Wars, Episode 1 (TPM)
EP2: Star Wars, Episode 2 (AotC)
EP3: Star Wars, Episode 3
ESB: Empire Strikes Back (SW episode 5)
ESE: Extra-Special Edition (see AE)
EU: Expanded Universe (the novels, comics, etc-- any SW that is non-canonical)
FAQ: Frequently Asked Question
FBWY: Force Be With You
FotR: Fellowship of the Ring
FWIW: For What it's Worth
FYI: For your information
GL: George Lucas
GR&D: Grinning, Running, and Ducking
HP:(SS)/(CoS) Harry Potter:(Sorceror's Stone)/(Chamber of Secrets)
HTH: Hope this helps
IAE: In any event
IF: Imperial Forces
ILM: Industrial Light and Magic (George Lucas' special effects company)
IMO/IMHO: In My Opinion (In my Humble Opinion)
IOW: In other words
IRL: In Real Life
JW: John Williams
KJA: Kevin J. Anderson (author of several SW books)
LBX: Letterbox (Widescreen)
LD: laser disc
LFL: Lucasfilm Ltd.
LMAO: Laughing my assass off
LOL: Laughing out Loud
LOLTIME/LOLTOME: Laughing out loud, tears in/out my eyes
LotR: Lord of the Rings
MF: Millenium Falcon
MTFBWY(A): May the Force Be With You (Always)
MO: modus operandi
MOC: Mint On Card (refers to condition of collectibles)
NP: Natalie Portman
np: no problem
NPR: National Public Radio (refers to the SW radio dramas)
NRFB: Never Removed From Box (refers to condition of collectibles)
nrn: no reply necessary
NT: new trilogy (the prequels)
NTSC: National Television Standards Commitee. (The system used to encode video images in the U.S. and Canada.)
NYLine: New York Line
OIC: Oh, I see
OMG: Oh my G**!
OOP: Out of Print (refers to availability of collectibles)
OT: Original Trilogy
OT: off-topic
OTOH: On the other hand
PAL: Phase Alternation Line (The system used to encode video images in the UK and other parts of Europe.)
PITA: Pain in the assass
ppl: people
P&S: Pan & Scan (video format)
PT: Prequel Trilogy
RAF: Rebel Alliance Forces
RM: Rick McCallum (Producer of the Special Editions and the prequel trilogy)
ROFL/ROTFL: Rolling on the floor laughing
ROTFLMAO: Rolling on the floor laughing my assass off
RotJ: Return of the Jedi (SW episode 6)
RPG: Roleplaying Game (Such as the SW RPGs and Dungeons & Dragons)
SE: special edition (the 1997 release of the original trilogy)
SFX: special effects
SJS: Steve Sansweet, LFL Director of Fan-Relations, collector extraordinaire, author of SWEnc
SotE: Shadows of the Empire
ST: Star T***
SW: Star Wars, of course
SW2: Star Wars, Episode 2 (AotC)
SW3: Star Wars, Episode 3
SWEnc: The Star Wars Encyclopedia
SWI: Star Wars Insider
SWNYC: Star Wars New York City
TAP: Theatre Alignment Program (Lucasfilm's program to bring theatres into the THX system)
TARP: Trilogy Archival Restoration Project (LFL's work to finish the restoration (and alteration) of the OT that began with the SE. (Also AE or ESE.))
TFN: theforce.net
TGEI: The Great Ewok Inventor (George Lucas-- derogatory)
THX: The theatre system designed by Lucasfilm
thx: thanks
TIA: Thanks in advance
TMRFE: The Man Responsible For Everything (George Lucas-- complimentary)
tnx: thanks
TOS: Terms of Service. (There's a whole separate FAQ on that! Click Here.)
TOS: The Official Site (www.starwars.com)
TPM: The Phantom Menace (SW episode 1)
TT: The Two Towers (LotR:2)
TWOSWF: Total Wacko Obsessive Star Wars Fan (see YATWOSWF)
WC: Wonder Column (a feature in SWI loved by some, loathed by others)
WOC: Wizards of the Coast (the gaming company that has overtaken the Star Wars Fan Club and SWI) (Sometimes WotC)
WS: widescreen
WTF?: What the F***?
YATWOSWF: You're a total Wacko Obsessive Star Wars Fan
YJ: Young Jedi-- can refer to the CCG or the books

The double 'o' spelling just refers to pronunciation-- this is largely due to Skywalker and Kris-- two prominent board members. Skywalker is Canadian, hence "aboot." Kris is British, hence "sook."

Snog is another term that we owe to Kris (but hands off, ladies-- he got married since joining us). Snog is a British term roughly equivalent to the American "french kiss."

Trek refers to that other sci-fi franchise, of course. It is occasionally used as a curse word by some board members here. This does NOT, however, mean that no one here likes Star Trek. Some of us do. But nonetheless, it is often used as a byword-- simply because it competes with our saga. (Likewise T*****.)

Thread and topic are used almost interchangeably here. YATWOSWF is the title of a thread, for example. You might also say that YATWOSWF is the topic of that thread.

Forum, on the other hand, refers to a section of the messageboard. The Cantina is a forum, for example.

The official board definition:

We choose to err on the side of caution. If it is about plot, characters, costumes, settings etc., there are members of this messageboard who don't want to know it yet. In deference to their wishes, we do not discuss any of these topics in the non-spoiler forums.

Guidelines: (Compiled by the Pactee Congress of 2002)

• No posting text from spoiler sites or highlighted info from tfn.
• Please post links to images rather than the actual images-- and warn others that they "click at their own risk."
• No posting text from the databank at www.StarWars.com
• "Selects" and other LFL material may only be posted in marked threads (careful with the titles!), so that those who wish to avoid them can.
• Be judicious with any references to the SWI-- post "semi-spoiler" warnings if appropriate.
• Please give warning before posting any freeze-frames from trailers, commercials, making-ofs, etc. (Post a link instead of image!)
• No text from toy packaging or soundtrack packaging without appropriate warnings.
• If you'd like to speculate, feel free . . . but please do it in marked threads in the Echo Base or Spy only.

Archives are read-only areas that contain topics that were previously posted to one of our forums. You may not add a reply to a topic that is in an archive. Topics in an archive may have been completely removed from the original forum where they were started, or they may still exist in their forums.

Honestly, Soylent Green has very little to do with Star Wars, but it has plenty to do with our messageboard.

Soylent Green is a sci-fi film-- released in 1973, starring Charlton Heston. References to it have become a common 'in-joke' on the messageboard. If you haven't seen it and don't want to spoil the ending, stop reading right now!

The big moment in Soylent Green is when Heston realizes that soylent green (one of three food products that the people of the world live on) is made of people. "It's peeeeeeeee-puuuullllllll!!!!" (They've all been unwitting cannibals.)

Because Star Wars fans are often sci-fi fans as well, references to sci-fi movies have been pretty common here. This one in particular has stuck around and become a favorite. (It started with Soylent Green and evolved into our threatening to eat a member of the messageboard. For more information about this craziness, you might want to ask madmax.)

Why not? He's soylent green!

Again, this one started with madmax, in a thread titled, Why don't we eat people? . . . and it escalated from there. Don't take that the wrong way though-- it's all a joke.

Wouldn't we all like to know! Once upon a time, our madmax started a thread entitled Albatross. Now the albatross pervades the board . . .

Albatross is a reference to a Monty Python (Flying Circus) skit. The man trying to sell the albatross yells "Albatross" every few minutes . . . suffice it to say that is why "Albatross" occasionally gets "yelled" in the middle of a thread.

(No response to the albatross is necessary-- just ignore it and continue with the thread topic.)

Often, when we are collecting opinions or votes on something, we make a list of the choices, and as each person posts to the thread, he/she adds one 'point' to the total of the choice he/she is voting for.

Incrementing the numbers as we go helps keep track of what vote is "winning."

For example, an authoring poster might submit:

What is your favorite from the OT?
ANH
ESB
RotJ

The first reply might look like this:
ANH
ESB 1*
RotJ

The second reply might look like this:
ANH 1*
ESB 1
RotJ

And the third reply like this:
ANH 1
ESB 2*
RotJ

(The asterisk is added simply so that everyone knows which choice the most recent voter chose. Some people bold their choice instead. You aren't required to do either, but it is a nice courtesy.)

This curse is usually typed out, but sometimes gets the asterisk treatment. This is trek, as in:

"Trek you to Titanic, Jar-Jar!!"

E Chu Ta! and Bantha Poodoo! are both expletives from the SW universe.

From time to time members have conflicting viewpoints that rise largely from the fact that we cover a fair age-range. Once upon a time asax explained the problem this way, "We all tend to assume that everyone else has the same POV we have . . . I assume everyone else here is also 19 and from NYC." And from that point forward . . . we were.

We've all had a birthday a year since then, so now we're all 22. And you'll be pleased to know that we graduated university successfully and we're looking forward to medical school.

Kitster is asax. Or Asax is Kitster. Either way.

The Ziegfeld is a theatre in NYC (141 West 54th Street), and is the site of the NYLine. A large chunk of the board membership goes to each new SW release there. It's one of the best theatres in the U.S.

SWNYC and NYLine are SW fan organizations in NYC. Many members of this messageboard are from the NYC area and are involved in these groups.

Canon refers to material that LFL considers as part of the dogma of SW. At last official comment, the SW-Canon consisted of the following:

• The five (soon to be six) feature films.
• The novelizations of the feature films.
• The NPR dramatizations of the three OT films.

Everything else is considered either quasi-canonical or non-canonical.
(The EU, for example.)