I know what wtf means, but wtf?

October 26, 2005 5:58 PM

Is there anywhere a FAQ or tutorial to help newer people such as me with understanding short-hand terms such as "FARK", or what's the difference between "funny" and "teh funny"?

I've spent some time here and elsewhere and have figured out some terms, but others elude (exclude?) me.

posted by longsleeves to Writing & Language (16 answers total)

www.urbandictionary.com
posted by mhuckaba at 6:01 PM on October 26, 2005

Both your examples have wikipedia pages. If a wiki's just too credible for you there's also urban dictionary
posted by moift at 6:02 PM on October 26, 2005

curses
posted by moift at 6:02 PM on October 26, 2005

You could lurk a while longer and make inferences based on context, or you could consult Wikipedia.

Fark is a website.

Teh is a typo with a special meaning in the right context, often used ironically in these parts.

Etc.
posted by nyterrant at 6:06 PM on October 26, 2005

Double curses!
posted by nyterrant at 6:06 PM on October 26, 2005

Wikipedia is sometimes helpful. Or the Urban Dictionary. Or Google. And the Acronym Finder for other things.

On preview, poop! Also: don't use "teh."
posted by Uncle Glendinning at 6:10 PM on October 26, 2005

thanks to all.
posted by longsleeves at 6:16 PM on October 26, 2005

Am I the only Noob who giggles whenever anyone writes IANAL?

And am i right in thininking it means I Am Not A Labrador?
posted by gergtreble at 6:17 PM on October 26, 2005

Nice page title, btw (by the way). Let me just add on a more meta note, don't feel excluded by use of jargon/slang. Most people don't use it intentionally to obfuscate or shut noobs (newbies=new people) out of the conversation, it's just quicker/easier/teh funnier to use a bit of slang or a hip reference. If you don't understand something, check out the urban dictionary or wiki or just google the phrase/word in question and move on. As you have already noted, you have picked up on some of it already, and stuff you don't pick up on may very well be out of fashion within two weeks (until it is put on a retro-ironic-hipster-self-referential t-shirt under a picture of the AYB guy).
posted by Rock Steady at 6:20 PM on October 26, 2005

And for the more MeFi-specific ones...
posted by scarabic at 6:27 PM on October 26, 2005

You could just ask me, I'm hip to all the slang.
posted by Hildago at 9:23 PM on October 26, 2005

You know, this is a good question, and it's asked often, and there's never been a quality response. There's always a lot of snarking, and a bunch of "google it", and a smattering of "read the guidelines". Well, none of these are great answers. They don't help. I'm sure that the people who ask these sorts of questions have already tried some of that.

I've been reading Metafilter for five years, and have been posting for three. There's still plenty of stuff that makes no sense to me. I've never asked about it because (a) it's not that important to me and (b) I know what kind of lousy responses these sorts of questions generate. It's a kind of exclusionary thing. I think it would be great if somebody could share some sort of central location for what might be best described as Metafilter Lore, the history and quirks and traditions of the site. Or, at the very least, provide some quality answers.

The answers in this thread have apparently proved useful for the OP, but it still doesn't solve the problem in the long run.
posted by jdroth at 10:11 PM on October 26, 2005

The problem with having an up-to-date and comprehensive list of the memes and in-jokes in a community as large as the internet, or even as large as metafilter, is that nothing qualifies for inclusion until it's been around enough to be established and is hence already old hat. No one wrote it down when the first idiot asked mat for a pony, they waited for several idiots to ask mat for ponies and now there it is, on the wiki. That's the best anyone can really do, and pointing askers to it is probably the best course for a general question like this. If you want the background behind a particular reference people can obviously give you direct answers, but if you just want to be able to parse community-specific lingo, you'll have to immerse yourself in the community. It's exactly the same with any other established community and it doesn't necessarily mean there is active exclusion of new members, just that you can't expect expertise in the community's finer points until you've lived it a little.

This is the same reason the anti-drug filmstrips from high school were and probably always will be hilarious to their intended audience. By the time someone documents enough cases of general use of "groovy" meaning good in the "hep" lingo nobody knows or cares what the fuck a hep is anymore.

Having said that, people do tend to add their quirky sayings to urbandictionary well before memedom, so look there for some top-of-the-line ironic misspellings and non-sequiturs
posted by moift at 10:39 PM on October 26, 2005

And, of course, the real question is: if I feel so strongly about this, why don't I create this holy grail of geekdom myself?

That's the real question.

(Or, maybe, how come I've never noticed the MeFi wiki before now? That seems to have many answers. Thanks, scarabic.)
posted by jdroth at 10:49 PM on October 26, 2005

Acronym Finder has been mentioned, and there is a little javascript bookmarklet you can snag that makes it really easy to do quick searches with it. See something confusing, highlight it, one click and you're there.
posted by prostyle at 6:41 AM on October 27, 2005

Pleased to ease your anomie, jdroth :)
posted by scarabic at 10:19 AM on October 27, 2005