GLOSSING IT OVER: A NEW WORLD NOTES JARGON WIKI

An alphabetical guide to Second Life-specific terms* frequently used in New World Notes...

Ghost - The remnants of a prim (see below) that has been deleted from the server's dataset, but due to packet loss has not been deleted from the client's dataset. Ghosts cannot be moved or deleted, but must be flushed from the client cache by an avatar moving a far enough distance or relogging. (Def. contribued by Olmy Seraph, 3/02/05)

In-world - The state of being online in Second Life.

Lag - In general, network congestion which slows down communcation between client and server. Specifically to Second Life, lag is typically caused when an excess of residents (see below), prims (see below), or active scripts exist in a given simulator (see below). (Def. added 2/23/05.)

Leader Boards - A regularly updated, automatic ranking system which posts a list of the top Residents (see below) in various categories, such as Wealth and Land Owned. All residents have access to these names and figures via the SecondLife.com website and through a button the Second Life interface. (Def. added 3/2/05.)

Linden (noun) - Singular, refers to an employee of Linden Lab. Plural, refers to Linden Lab staff or more generally to Linden Lab policy or policy implementation (e.g., "The Lindens just changed the cost of rating people.")

Linden Dollar (or L$) - The official in-world currency. Often bought and sold for real US dollars via third parties, the current market exchange rate according to Gaming Open Market (as of 2/22/05) is US$4.02 for L$1000.

- Poseball (noun) - An object embedded with a custome pose script, designed so that when a Resident sits on it, their avatar is automatically put into that pose. (E.G., a slouch.) (Added 4/08/05)

Prim (noun) - Fundamental building blocks which are comprise the basis of all in-world creations. Originally rezzed (see below) as a primary shape such as a cube, cylinder, or sphere, a prim can have its form altered, its surface textured, and its physical composition changed in an infinite number of ways. Most in-world (see above) objects are comprised of several prims linked together.

Prims can be set to respond to the physical forces of Second Life, including gravity and wind. They can also be turned invisible, or made visible but without physical substance. (Added 2/25/05)

Resident (noun) - Paying subscriber to Second Life. (Def. added 2/23/05)

Rez (verb) - "[Origin: the movie Tron. Derived from 'de-rez' - a fictional hacker term for an object losing resolution, or dissolving away.] - to create an object or to bring an object out of your inventory. To make something appear in the world. - Kathy Yamamoto"+

Simulator (noun) - Often abbreviated as "sim", a discrete area of in-world (see above) geography, approximately 16 acres in size, contained on a single server. (Also refers to the space directly above and the area below the simulator's perimeter.) Most simulators are physically linked together, to create a single, contiguous continent.

* Rather than defining each common SL-specific term every time they appear in a New World Notes entry, I'll simply link them to this guide. I will also be treating this glossary as a kind of mini wiki quasi wiki, so if you have a term and a definition you want to add to it, please post it in the Comments section below, and when appropriate, I'll add it to the entry proper, with full credit given.

+ Definition taken from Kathy Yamamoto's Second Life Glossary, an in-world document first reported on in New World Notes, 10/22/03.