A feature supported by Unix and some other OSes that allows two or more logged-in users to set up a real-time on-line conversation. It combines the immediacy of talking with all the precision (and verbosity) that written language entails. It is difficult to communicate inflection, though conventions have arisen for some of these (see the section on writing style in the Prependices for details).
Talk mode has a special set of jargon words, used to save typing, which are not used orally. Some of these are identical to (and probably derived from) Morse-code jargon used by ham-radio amateurs since the 1920s.
| AFAIAC | as far as I am concerned |
| AFAIK | as far as I know |
| BCNU | be seeing you |
| BTW | by the way |
| BYE? | are you ready to unlink? (this is the standard way to end a talk-mode conversation; the other person types BYE to confirm, or else continues the conversation) |
| CUL | see you later |
| ENQ? | are you busy? (expects ACK or NAK in return) |
| FOO? | are you there? (often used on unexpected links, meaning also “Sorry if I butted in &ellipsis;” (linker) or “What's up?” (linkee)) |
| FWIW | for what it's worth |
| FYI | for your information |
| FYA | for your amusement |
| GA | go ahead (used when two people have tried to type simultaneously; this cedes the right to type to the other) |
| GRMBL | grumble (expresses disquiet or disagreement) |
| HELLOP | hello? (an instance of the ‘-P’ convention) |
| IIRC | if I recall correctly |
| JAM | just a minute (equivalent to SEC.... ) |
| MIN | same as JAM |
| NIL | no (see NIL) |
| NP | no problem |
| O | over to you |
| OO | over and out |
| / | another form of “over to you” (from x/y as “x over y”) |
| \ | lambda (used in discussing LISPy things) |
| OBTW | oh, by the way |
| OTOH | on the other hand |
| R U THERE? | are you there? |
| SEC | wait a second (sometimes written SEC... ) |
| SYN | Are you busy? (expects ACK, SYN|ACK, or RST in return; this is modeled on the TCP/IP handshake sequence) |
| T | yes (see the main entry for T) |
| TNX | thanks |
| TNX 1.0E6 | thanks a million (humorous) |
| TNXE6 | another form of “thanks a million” |
| TTBOMK | to the best of my knowledge |
| WRT | with regard to, or with respect to. |
| WTF | the universal interrogative particle; WTF knows what it means? |
| WTH | what the hell? |
| <double newline> | When the typing party has finished, he/she types two newlines to signal that he/she is done; this leaves a blank line between 'speeches' in the conversation, making it easier to reread the preceding text. |
| YHTBT | You Had To Be There. Used of a situation which loses significant meaning in the telling, usually because it's difficult to convey tone and timing. |
| <name>: | When three or more terminals are linked, it is conventional for each typist to prepend his/her login name or handle and a colon (or a hyphen) to each line to indicate who is typing (some conferencing facilities do this automatically). The login name is often shortened to a unique prefix (possibly a single letter) during a very long conversation. |
| /\/\/\ | A giggle or chuckle. On a MUD, this usually means 'earthquake fault'. |
| <g> | grin |
| <gd&r> | grinning, ducking, and running |
| BBL | be back later |
| BRB | be right back |
| HHOJ | ha ha only joking |
| HHOK | ha ha only kidding |
| HHOS | ha ha only serious |
| IMHO | in my humble opinion (see IMHO) |
| LOL | laughing out loud |
| NHOH | Never Heard of Him/Her (often used in initgame) |
| ROTF | rolling on the floor |
| ROTFL | rolling on the floor laughing |
| AFK | away from keyboard |
| b4 | before |
| CU l8tr | see you later |
| MORF | male or female? |
| TTFN | ta-ta for now |
| TTYL | talk to you later |
| OIC | oh, I see |
| rehi | hello again |
Most of these are not used at universities or in the Unix world, though ROTF and TTFN have gained some currency there and IMHO is common; conversely, most of the people who know these are unfamiliar with FOO?, BCNU, HELLOP, NIL, and T.
The MUD community uses a mixture of Usenet/Internet emoticons, a few of the more natural of the old-style talk-mode abbrevs, and some of the ‘social’ list above; specifically, MUD respondents report use of BBL, BRB, LOL, b4, BTW, WTF, TTFN, and WTH. The use of rehi is also common; in fact, mudders are fond of re- compounds and will frequently rehug or rebonk (see bonk/oif) people. The word re by itself is taken as ‘regreet’. In general, though, MUDders express a preference for typing things out in full rather than using abbreviations; this may be due to the relative youth of the MUD cultures, which tend to include many touch typists and to assume high-speed links. The following uses specific to MUDs are reported:
| CU l8er | see you later (mutant of CU l8tr) |
| FOAD | fuck off and die (use of this is generally OTT) |
| OTT | over the top (excessive, uncalled for) |
| ppl | abbrev for “people” |
| THX | thanks (mutant of TNX; clearly this comes in batches of 1138 (the Lucasian K)). |
| UOK? | are you OK? |
Some B1FFisms (notably the variant spelling d00d) appear to be passing into wider use among some subgroups of MUDders.
One final note on talk mode style: neophytes, when in talk mode, often seem to think they must produce letter-perfect prose because they are typing rather than speaking. This is not the best approach. It can be very frustrating to wait while your partner pauses to think of a word, or repeatedly makes the same spelling error and backs up to fix it. It is usually best just to leave typographical errors behind and plunge forward, unless severe confusion may result; in that case it is often fastest just to type “xxx” and start over from before the mistake.