Terms for the Newbie

[elucreh]

It's done! My list for newbies is DONE!!

So, you read Harry Potter and were interested enough to look online for more information and contact with fellow fans. We’re a friendly group of people, and what you were probably greeted with was something like this:

• So, you’re a newbie? Welcome to the fandom! What ship do you sail?
  
  
• I can’t wait for HBP, can you?
  
  
• *glomps hello* Ping me sometime, I’d love to get to know you.
  
  
• Orange Crush forever, wouldn’t you say?
  
  
• If you’re a Puppies fangirl, you should try WWR, I always rec fics from there.
  
  
• Would you be interested in a con next year?
  
  
• What are your squicks? Might you be interested in betaing an RL/SB slash?
  
  
• Friendly warning: do NOT flame anybody. Shipping wars are easy to start.

And so forth. And so on. If you're a web person but not a fandom one, your response was probably: WTF? And if you came in completely innocent of web terms, you didn't even understand what I just said.

So here is the List. To help you understand what they're talking about…and talk back.

(For more of an essay on the topic of "Welcome to the Fandom: We're Strange, But We're Fun!", I recommend this excellent essay by ali, which I discovered on my own entry into the fandom and which managed to both make the transition a little easier and give me a few giggles at the truths in it.)

General Terms

• canon: Source material, unviolated by fans. What actually, “technically” consitutes canon varies depending on who you ask…some say it is only The Books (although that does include Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them); some include interviews from JKR or the various people associated with her. There is also what is written as movie!canon, which means what is presented as true by the movies; some include interviews with cast and crew.
  
• fandom: What you’ve just entered. The community—the world—based around the Harry Potter universe, by fans, for fans; specifically meaning the online wide world of Harry Potter love. There are many fandoms on the web, actually, including Lord of the Rings (LotR) and anime. (The LotR fandom is a sister to the HP fandom; anime is more of a cousin, but still closely related.)
  
• fanon: What has been created by the fandom. The term is generally used to describe what is commonly accepted by the fandom, or by large portions of the fandom; for instance, fanon Draco is less evil and terrifically vain.
  
• meta: Technically "meta"discussion is discussion about the way we discuss things (e.g., this list is meta) but in fandom, it's also come to include critical essays on writing and reading and analyzing source text. (This definition was graciously provided to me by MusesFool and I can’t take the credit for it.)
  
• fangirl: To "fangirl" is to...well, act the part of a fangirl. Squee, jump around, rave about quality, approve excessively. The actual act of fangirling can be either to do this for the first time (add yourself to the "list" of fangirls, so to speak), or repeating these actions due to a new chapter or fic or similar.
  
• BNF: stands for Big Name Fan; someone whose name will be recognised throughout the fandom.
  
• PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP, HBP, QtA, FB/FbaWtFT:
  
  
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone/Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone
    
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
    
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix
    
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  (the announced title for the sixth book)
  
  • Quidditch Through the Ages
    
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
  
  
• JKR, Jo: Joanne Rowling, J. K. Rowling
  

Broadly fandom-used web terms

• AFAIK: As far as I know
  
• glomp: To hug enthusiastically
  
• *g*: an abbreviation of *grin*
  
• ETA: Edited to add
  
• IMO, IMHO, IMNSHO: In my opinion, in my humble opinion, in my not-so-humble opinion
  

Characters

• OC: Original character. A character not written by JKR, but inserted into her world
  
• IC: In character. High praise for a fanfic, meaning that the character sounds like JKR’s version of him/her. Can also mean “staying true to your characterisation of him/her”
  
• OOC: Out of character. One of the things you can say to a fic writer that will send him/her off in a huff
  
• Mary Sue/Gary Stu/Marty Stu/Ad nauseum: This definition is difficult. I recommend this excellent essay/quiz on the subject.
  
• Wet!Ron, Happy!Harry, Bookgirl!Hermione, description!character ad nauseum: This one isn’t hard to figure out, but it can take awhile to get accustomed to this method of describing characters. Can also be used to specify which fanfic universe the character you’re talking about is in (e. g. WarMage!Ron) or which canon you mean (e. g. movie!canon).
  
• Woobies: In its most literal sense, a woobie (also written w00bie) is an adorable, usually young, male. Usually used to describe Harry and/or Neville. The W00bies of Destiny ship is Harry/Neville.
  
• Puppies: Refers to Remus and Sirius
  
• Trio: Also called the Golden Trio. Harry, Ron, and Hermione
  
• MWPP, Marauders: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs; Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter. If you're going to spend any time in this part of the fandom be prepared to know the abbrevations for the group and ALL nicknames. And try not to be sick when Remus gets called Remy.
  

Pairings

• Ship: Short for “relationship”; pairing
  
• To "sail a ship": to believe the characters will get together, or that the relationship will/should take place
  
• OTP, OT3, OTO: The most common of these is OTP—the “One True Pair” (or, sometimes, One True Path), believed to be, of all ships, the truest and most important. OT3 is similar, standing for One True Threesome, if people ship three characters together. OTO is One True Orgy…I’m sure you understand.
  
• The Good Ship: Ron/Hermione
  
• Orange Crush: Harry/Ginny
  
• Pumpkin Pie: Harry/Hermione
  
• OBHWF: Stands for One Big Happy Weasley Family; compound ship, Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione; also called the HMS We Told You So
  
• Loony Lion: Harry/Luna
  
• The Government Stole My Toad: Neville/Luna
  
• slash: homosexual ships, fic, and art; usually referring to male/male relationships, also written as m/m.Femmeslash (or f/f) is female/female relationships.
  
• het: heterosexual ships, fic, and art
  
• RPS, RPF: Real Person Slash, Real Person Fiction; the fandoms of real people (e.g. Orlando Bloom) writing about their lives, but in fictional ways; usually putting them in unreal romantic relationships
  
• squick: something that you find unnatural or obnoxious. People volunteering to write or asking for recs will list their squicks, meaning that they won’t read/write anything on the list. These can range from specific pairings to cross-species sex and necrophilia.
  
• R (RW), Hr (HG), H (HP), G (GW), NL, LL, RL, SS, SB, JP, LE (LP)…
  
  
  • Ron (Ron Weasley)
    
  • Hermione (Hermione Granger)
    
  • Harry (Harry Potter)
    
  • Ginny (Ginny Weasley)
    
  • Neville Longbottom
    
  • Luna Lovegood
    
  • Remus Lupin
    
  • Severus Snape
    
  • Sirius Black
    
  • James Potter
    
  • Lily Evans (Potter)
  
  These and similar abbreviations, or simply the names, will appear with a “/” between them (e.g. JP/LE) to indicate the characters are involved. Usually in summaries of fics or to describe fics.
  
• Shipping wars: Violent disagreement between the crew members of different ships, usually between two ships that both want one character. (Wars between R/Hr and H/Hr shippers can be particularly volatile.)
  

Fanfiction

• Fic: The extremely short form of fanfiction. Also called fanfic. Fiction written by a fan, set in the HP universe. What gets confusing is that people refer to their original (not HP or any other universe connected) fiction as “original fic.” However, the original label will almost always be there to help you distinguish.
  
• Rec: Recommendation, of fic or art
  
• Drabble: Extremely short fic, usually less than 100 words. Often designed to be written in one sitting, or under a time limit. Technically, a drabble is exactly 100 words long; however, most people I've seen write them tend to say, "eh, close enough," even going as high as two hundred fifty or so, or as low as forty-five-ish.
  
• ficlet: Short fic
  
• vignette: One-scene fic, usually short
  
• WIP: Work in Progress, meaning that they have not been completed, but will be updated in the future.
  
• AU: Alternate Universe. What might have happened if Snape had never gone back to Dumbledore, if Sirius had been the Secret-Keeper, if Salazar Slytherin had gotten over himself. Usually an author will choose one point to divert from canonic history and develop the story from there.
  
• PWP: Plot-What-Plot. Used to describe fics to which there is little substance; they are usually either entirely fluff or entirely smut. WARNING this also stands for Porn-Without-Plot, so always check the rating if you don't read smut.
  
• fluff: Happy romance or friendship fics with little or no plot or substance.
  
• flangst: Fluffy angst—angst over little things leading to a happy conclusion. E.g.: a fic in which Ginny agonises over Harry never noticing her, followed by Harry awakening to her potential, as opposed to a fic in which Harry agonises over Sirius’s death and his own part in it.
  
• hurt/comfort (h/c): A romantic subcategory, in which one character is hurt (either emotionally or physically) and the other one helps him/her, leading to romantic involvement
  
• gen:
  
  
  • A fic which cannot be categorised, neither drama nor romance nor tragedy nor fluff nor comedy
    
  • A fic which has no pairing, but is simply about events; or in which the pairing is secondary and does not influence the plot, etc.
  
  
• remix: A fic expanding on someone else’s creative work. An author will take something written/drawn by someone else--a drabble or art usually--and rewrite it, filling out the corners, new point of view, etc.
  
• Marauder era, post-war, First War, pre-war, Grindelwald era, Founding/Founders:
  
  
  • When the Marauders were at Hogwarts
    
  • After Harry’s defeat of Voldemort, or Voldemort’s defeat of him
    
  • The fight against Voldemort before Lily Potter’s defeat of him when Harry was one year old
    
  • Before Voldemort’s first rising
    
  • During the fight against Grindelwald, the dark wizard Dumbledore is listed as having defeated on his Chocolate Frog Cards
    
  • During the days when the Founders (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, etc.) were establishing and ruling over Hogwarts), approximately late tenth century

Writing

• beta:
  
  
  • To beta: to check over a story for grammatical and spelling errors, as well as flaws in the storyline and characterisation, etc.
    
  • A beta: one who performs these services
  
  
• pre-beta: to check a story before it is sent to the official beta; or one who does this
  
• alpha: the author
  
• Britspeak: speaking/writing according to British current standards, e.g. eliminating all graduations from Hogwarts, ensuring that Harry spells colour with a “u”
  
• Britpick: to check over a story to ensure that it is in Britspeak
  
• PoV: point of view
  

Communication in the Fandom

• Ping: to hail on one of the many forms of IM
  
• LJ: Livejournal, one of the most popular forms of communication within the fandom
  
• RP/RPG: Roleplay, roleplay game. Each player or member pretends to be a character and they interact the way that their characters would
  
• fanzine (zine): book of fanfiction, printed out; either an anthology (a collection of several shorter fics) or a novella (two or three longer fics); where the fandom was before the web became a popular mode of communication
  
• con: convention; a gathering of fans centered around what they are fans of. Often includes official discussions and panels.
  
• FQF: fuhqufest; a series of stories written around a particular pairing, each of the authors having responded to a challenge suggested by one of the members. A wave of a fuhqufest is a round of challenges and their responses.
  
• blog: the technical definition is the place where you self-publish, but it has come to mean also an online diary. LJ is a prime example
  
• flist: friends-list, the section of LJ where you can moniter what your friends have said in their journals
  
• f-list: flist
  
• flock: to “lock” your journal to those people you’ve friended
  
• concrit: constructive criticism; the demand of any actually good fic writer is for this. Politely pointing out flaws and praising virtues.
  
• flame: an insensible, cruel attack; usually anonymous
  
• flamewar: in which one flame sparks a response, which sparks a response, until basically the entire thing has degenerated into name-calling; shipping wars often become flamewars
  
• GIP: Gratuitous Icon Post—a post to show off your icon, and for no other purpose. Although many people only say it to make sure you look at the icon they're showing off, and may mention other things in their post.
  

Fanfiction Sites

• TFL: The Firelight, a site devoted to Harry/Ginny, but accepting of all other non-contradictory pairings
  
• PS: Phoenixsong, an archive of HP fanfiction
  
• SQ: SugarQuill, an archive dedicated to fanfiction that is as canon-ish as possible. R/Hr especially; H/G as a sideline, although they have been accepting Harry/Luna.
  
• CM: Checkmated.com, a R/Hr archive. Will accept other pairings so long as they don’t contradict R/Hr.
  
• FA: FictionAlley, the biggest solely HP archive on the web
  
• FFN, the Pit, Ff.net: Fanfiction.net, an enormous fanfiction archive. Known mostly because it takes anything, therefore there is much badfic there.
  
• NaNoWriMo: during National Novel Writing Month, November, a site runs a challenge/support group where you try to finish a novel in a month's time. Many fandom members participate.
  
• Portkey: The Portkey.org, a site devoted to H/Hr, R/L, J/L, and D/G.
  
• WWR: The Werewolf Registry, a site devoted to Remus Lupin and lycanthropy.

News Sites

• TLC: The Leaky Cauldron, the reliable HP news web site
  
• Mugglenet: Mugglenet, an HP news site
  
• The Daily Snitch: An LJ-based newsletter for the fandom, usually with one issue per day. Here you can catch all the memes and rumours, see new icons announced, and find links to current discussions.
  
• Quickquotes: Another LJ-based newsletter for the fandom, usually with one issue per day. It serves a similar purpose to the Snitch, but tends to have more news about fics and people. One person on my flist (though I can't for the life of me remember who) compared them Snitch:Quickquotes::Newspaper:Time magazine
  

Other Sites

The Lex (Lexicon, HPL): The reliable HP trivia site, for all the little-known facts and things you can’t quite remember

f_w: Fandom_wank, a community where people report the bad things going on in fandom.




Now that you understand the words…let me say:

So, you're a newbie? Welcome to the fandom! What ship do you sail? I can't wait for HBP, can you? Ping me sometime, I'd love to get to know you.




Remember, I am always open for more suggestions. I'm hoping this list will continue to grow and change for a long, long time.

However, I am not taking racier suggestions. I have a friend working on a similar List for the part of the fandom that needs to know what figging and breathplay are--and I'll pass along your suggestions to her--but they WILL NOT appear on this list.

ETA: The purpose of this list is to help people, and if you would like to use it, in whole or in part, or link to it on a website, I would be glad to let you. I have a few conditions, though:

1)You let me know. Just leave a comment or e-mail me at elucreh27@yahoo.com
2)You give me credit and link back to my LJ userinfo
3)You wait a few days until the corrections flurry has died down and I'm sure it's enough of a final draft

Comments

[netbyrd.livejournal.com]

Dude. Where were you in January when I wandered into this part of the fanfic world? *throws petals at your feet*. I am going to mem this just because it will make it easier for me to direct my friends too when I drag them into my silly little internet world.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

I'm directing RL people here just so they know what I'm talking about when my fandom RL friends and I babble at each other. It actually got finished and put up because a cousin of mine, who has just started reading my LJ, read a meme I did on ships and was completely lost. What was a ship? By H/L did I mean Hagrid/Lockhart?

[moonlitwoods.livejournal.com]

...
Your site links need a bit of adjustment, Lu. :\ Your intended destinations are all prepended with your LJ internet address.

Other than that, it's an awesome list. Thanks for compiling it.
...

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Drat. How do I fix it?

[wahlee-98.livejournal.com]

This is great! I've got another good fanfic site you should add, though:

http://www.theinkpen.net/

It's offline for upgrades at the moment (it's run by some of the same people that do SQ, so I'm sure they're upgrading at the same time), but they're a great site. Still rather small, but high quality.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Will add!

[divadivine.livejournal.com]

Excellent. There was some stuff in there that I didn't even know.

Would make one addition, however:

In the Era fics, you should add Founders' Era. :D. If I encounter any newbies, I shall be sure to direct them to this entry. ;)

Impressive work. :)

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Which ones didn't you know? I'm always curious...

[magnolia-mama.livejournal.com]

Excellent list; I wish it had been around a year ago. :-D

A few additions/emendations:

1. Drabbles are fics of 100 words, full stop. Fics of 99 or 101 words are not, officially, drabbles.
2. PWP can also mean Porn Without Plot.
3. Gen can also include fics where a ship is secondary (or even tertiary) to the main plot.
4. Fandom Wank is no longer on LJ; the correct (crosses fingers, because I'm typing from memory) URL is http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/
5. The Government Stole My Toad is the name for the Neville/Luna ship. ;-)
6. Some other fanfic sites are Essence of Valor (www.essenceofvalor.com), a Ginny archive, Sink Into Your Eyes (http://www.hgnetwork.co.uk/siye/), a Harry/Ginny site, The Inkpen (http://www.theinkpen.net), a general archive.

Good work!

MM

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

THANK YOUUUUU!!! *glomps you*

[lnevans.livejournal.com]

Awesome job! Huge admirations to you, I wish I had this list when I first joined the fandom! Although I admit I learned things just reading it today!

You might want to add that the HP Lexicon also goes by HPL...I think that's the most common way I've seen it.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Thank you! (I'm actually not a Lex person except when in dire need of knowledge of whether Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff is next to the Gryffindor table in the great hall, so it's not one of "my" sites.) It's nice to be accurate!

[jennilee.livejournal.com]

A glomp is more of a run and jump hug, to be more specific! :D

*glomp*

[between-names.livejournal.com]

Brilliant list! May I suggest a clarification?

RPS, RPF: Real Person Slash, Real Person Femmeslash; the fandoms of real people (e.g. Orlando Bloom) writing about their lives, but in fictional ways and putting them in slash pairings

RPF = Real Person Fiction. RPS covers both m/m and f/f. RPF = het or gen.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Ahh...cool, thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

Technically, a drabble is exactly 100 words long; however, this rule is broken so often that it is more a longstanding joke than anything else.

Hardly the case. A drabble is 100 words. PERIOD. It's the POINT of calling it a drabble.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Really?

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

The Government Stole My Toad? That's hilarious.

Harry/Luna is, insofar as it HAS a name (and I'm not sure if it's universal or what), Loonies and Lions.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, I was wondering, as that is MY SHIP.

Thank you!

[sideofzen.livejournal.com]

Very interesting!

I'd recommend adding the daily_snitch. I've found it pretty useful for finding out what's going on in fandom.

[indilime.livejournal.com]

Came over from daily_snitch. This guide is BRILLIANT! I will link it every chance I get.

As for suggestions, I have one.
GIP: Gratuitous Icon Post—a post to show off your icon, and for no other purpose.

Technically, that's what GIP stands for, but from what I've seen, most people just insert it into a post as a way to say 'look at my new icon', even if the post contains other stuff in it. Does that make sense? I know I confused someone once when they asked me what GIP meant and I told them, because they've seen it so often in the middle of regular posts and they didn't understand it.

:)

[indilime.livejournal.com]

One more thing! I've found this ship list (http://www.fictionalley.org/fictionalleypark/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4591) very useful, and I know a lot of people on LJ refer to it for icons and such.

[race-carrigan.livejournal.com]

And try not to be sick when Remus gets called Remy.
Oi, that almost turned me into a bullimic, when I first heard of that >.<

Man, this is like the survival guide of fandom, though. It had some things on here that after over a year in fandom I've never even heard of before. And others I never understood, like, "GIP: Gratuitous Icon Post—a post to show off your icon, and for no other purpose" for instance.

Love it, bookmarked it, currently reccing to all my fangirl friends.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Squee! That was the point. *glomps you*

Oh, pleeeeeeeeeeeease!!!

[delacey.livejournal.com]

Please please please let me use this on my fanfiction archive!! pretty please!! With sugar and whipped cream and your favorite character nekkid on top! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!!

*ahem* Sorry.

The website is <a href="http://members.fortunecity.com/bottomofthebottle>The Bottom of the Bottle</a> but it's not up yet...I had a baby in the middle of trying to get it up. 0.o Hugs, TW

Re: Oh, pleeeeeeeeeeeease!!!

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! Well...with conditions...

Credit me, and link back to my journal's info page. And I would appreciate if you would hold off for a few days until all the people trooping over here telling me what's wrong with the list die down, so that I can send you the list in its final draft. It's already htmled, so I can send you the text if that would help (I've always hated that part.)

But I would love to contribute...the whole point is to help people!

[inkpuddle.livejournal.com]

I think I love you.

I've been in the fandom only a couple of months, and I still had no idea about half of these things. I'd seen them bandied about, but I honestly had no clue what everybody was talking about. :D So thanks so much for this list!

*adds to Memories*

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, that gives me warm fuzzies. Thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.subreality.com/glossary.htm ( theglossary )

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Erm...I don't know if you'll see this reply, but thanks and I'll check it out!

[geology-rocks.livejournal.com]

This is awesome. Good jorb!

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[amoeba-j.livejournal.com]

::hugs::

It's one-stop shopping for anything I haven't figured out yet!!

Thank you so much for posting this :D

[bella-the-dark.livejournal.com]

Here from daily_snitch Great, this is something that was really needed. I wish I'd had something like this when I first got here.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

The fight against Voldemort before Lily Potter’s defeat of him when Harry was one year old.

Thank you for giving Lily credit for that. In all the time I've been in fandom (and I'll admit I've never been incredibly active), I have never seen anyone phrase it that way. And it was really her doing, after all.

And thanks for the definitions...now I finally know what ETA means...*facepalm*

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

LOL, that one took me forever.

The fact that it was Lily's defeat is something I tend to soapbox on, so don't get me started...I'm glad you agree!

[mincot.livejournal.com]

Very well done!

And a genfic discussion / rec site: Godric's Hat http://p070.ezboard.com/bgodricshat

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I will check it out, thank you!

[signifiers.livejournal.com]

Hi, got here from daily_snitch. This is excellent, agreeing with everyone else that I wish this had been here when I joined! One thing I still haven't figured out though... what in the world is "The Bad Place"? I've seen numerous references and I'm still not sure.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Herm...I'm not sure myself. If I heard it in context...

The problem is I can think of two possible definitions. Can you find me an example? It sounds like something I ought to include.

[minerva-fan.livejournal.com]

::bows low before your immense knowledge::

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

LOL, thanks!

[redshoeson.livejournal.com]

Here via daily_snitch. This is absolutely fantastic!! I've been looking for a good ship dictionary in particular (I'm always forgetting who's Orange Crush and who's the Good Ship, etc, etc), so this is great. Definitely putting this in my memories; thank you!

[inkpuddle.livejournal.com]

Your icon is awesome. :D

[inkpuddle.livejournal.com]

As another person said, I'd recommend adding communities like daily_snitch, hp_directory and quickquote. It makes it a lot easier to navigate the fandom on LJ--which is to say, a great deal of the fandom. :D Just my two cents...

[inkpuddle.livejournal.com]

Oh man...were the Snitch and QQ on there before? If there were I feel dumb. *hides* :D