Second Life Abbreviations

Welcome to the Second Life Abbreviations Page

• This page will be used to gather and store all of the common/most used Abbreviations in Second Life/Teen Second Life.
• Learn about what things are/do in Second Life by looking below, teach others :)

Abbreviations

Agent The data representation of the current user. In general, the code uses “agent” to mean you and “avatar” to mean someone else. Identified by a UUID, usually called “agent_id” in the code.

Animation A file or in-world inventory item that moves or animates your avatar. You can use animations to make your avatar clap their hands, dance, blow someone a kiss, and much more.

AO Animation Overrider. A scripted device that contains replacements for the default walking, sitting, flying, and standing animations of your avatar.

Asset A data resource such as an image, sound, script, object, etc. Assets can be downloaded to the viewer or uploaded into a central asset store. Assets are identified by UUID and type. Types are in llassettype.h.

Asset Server The database that tracks all Second Life objects in-world and in inventory. Overloaded asset servers can cause search, inventory, rez, teleport, and Friends list failures.

Avatar The graphical representation of a user. Implemented in the class LLVOAvatar on the viewer.

Attach To take an item from inventory and cause it to be fixed to a certain part of your avatar’s body.

Attachment An object (clothing, weapons, jewelry, shoes, etc) that can be attached to an avatar at a specific location. Usually location is set by the creator of the object.

Baked Freshly donned clothing will often look clear and sharply defined and then, a short time later, become fuzzy and clear again.

Ban Forbidding entry to a land parcel, to add someone to your ban list and thus eject them from your land, permanent removal of someone from Teen Second Life (which can only be done by Linden Lab).

Banlines Lines of floating red letters spelling out “no entry” that appear on the boundaries of a land parcel that your Avatar is not allowed into by the owner.

Banlist The list of those banned from an area, by use of a script, or by Landban that otherwise allows visitors.

Bling Jewelry and attachments scripted, particle based shimmering “bling” effects.

Body Part A component of an Avatar; shape, skin, hair, eyes, and/or prim attachments are Body Parts that combine to create an Avatar’s form. Different body parts can be created and saved to a user’s inventor

BRB Be Right Back, shorthand meant to imply that the speaker is away from the keyboard for a moment, but will return very shortly.

BTW By the Way.

Build To create/make something out of primitives in Teen Second Life.

Busy Mode Where your Avatar does not hear nearby chat, where IMs receive the “busy mode” response, and all inventory and teleport offers are automatically declined.

Cage To trap an avatar in place by rezzing trap object which surrounds them from moving.

Camera Viewpoint from which you see the Teen Second Life world.

Clear Cache Often problems with slow-loading textures or objects can be fixed by clearing your cache. Clearing your cache can also make missing inventory items reappear.

Death When your avatar is in an area that allows damage to occur, shown by a heart top of your screen.

Deed To give a parcel of land to a group, to give an object to a group. The object becomes the property of the group.

Detach To remove an item that has been attached to a specific part of the avatar’s body and return it to inventory.

Draw Distance The distance you can see in the far distance - Edit > Preferences Menu

Drop To remove an attached item from your avatar and drop it on the ground, instead of returning it to your inventory.

Estate A collection of regions with a particular set of rules, such as banned users, sun position, etc. Each estate has an owner, either a user or “Governor Linden”. Most privately owned regions are in their own estates. Estates have integer identifiers. The “mainland” is estate id 1.

Event A group activity, led by a host, that starts and ends at specific times, and can be legitimately listed on the Search/Events calendar.

First Look Residents can often use the Second Life First Look software and try out new features.

Flexi These features force the object to move with the Second Life wind vector pressures and/or movement of the avatar to which the object is attached.

Freebie An item/object made available at no cost

Freeze A function used by landowners to bring a havoc-wreaking resident under control. Once frozen, an avatar stops flying, falls to the ground, and is unable to move.

Full Perms An object set so it can be freely copied, modified, and transferred.

Furry Resident using anthropomorphic animal avatars.

Floater A dialog or window appearing in the user interface. Implemented in classes titled “LLFloater*”

FMOD Cross-platform audio library. Used to play decompressed sound effects and stream MP3 music to users on particular parcels. See FMOD.org.

Gadget Particular form of scripted item; usually one that is a) worn by its user; and b) focuses on providing that user with extra functions, as opposed to doing anything externally visible. HUDs and AOs are common Gadgets.

Grid A collection of sims (e.g. MG & TG). Linden Lab runs several grids for internal and external testing.

Gesture Gestures are unique combination of sound, animation, and chat that can be preconfigured to go off with a command or a specific phrase, (for example, you can have your avatar clap his or her hands and play the sound of applause whenever you type: /clap).

God Mode A special mode of Second Life which only Linden staff members can access. A Linden in God Mode is invisible to sensors, cannot be pushed or damaged, has unlimited L$ and has full permissions access to every object on the grid. All actions that Lindens engage in while using God Mode are logged and inspected; any use of these powers for other than testing and legitimate administration purposes will usually lead to them getting fired.

Grey Goo An object which continuously makes copies of itself. Can be produced by accident, but is generally considered a form of Grid Attack.

Grid Address (also Grid Coordinates) - the name of a region combined with three numbers between 0 and 255 for the X & Y (north-south & east-west) coordinates, and from 0 to 760 for the Z (up-down) coordinate.

Grid Attack A coordinated attempt by griefers to crash Second Life as a whole, or multiple servers within it. Attempting a grid attack is grounds for instant and permanent banning from Teen Second Life.

Grid Monkey A Linden (which varies at any given time) assigned to care for the grid and resolve hardware and software issues. There usually is a grid-monkey on-call at all hours of the day/night, making sure someone is ready to take care of any issues at all times.

Griefer A person whose primary purpose is to harass others and destroy their enjoyment of Second Life. Griefers should be Abuse Reported through the Help Menu.

Group Many memebers who are part of something interesting e.g. FurryNation, TSL Welcomers etc

Group Title The labels designated for officers and members of a group. Group Titles appear over an avatar’s name when that group is active.

Havok4 The physics engine for the Second Life that handles real-time interaction between objects or other characters.

Help Island An optional post-Orientation Island new resident learning area. To handle the large number of people joining Second Life - Currently not in action on the Teen Grid - Hopefully soon it will be open

Home The location that you teleport to when you choose the menu item “Teleport Home” or when you “die.” You can set this location with a menu command. Home may be set to land that you own, land that a group you are a member of owns, or Linden Land that is set to allow home to be set (such as TG Welcome Areas or InfoHubs).

Host Any server computer, but usually a sim.

HUD (Heads up Display) A control panel for an AO or other device that appears on screen.

IM (Instant Message) The chat window that allows two players to speak privately, to instant message another resident.

Infohub A Linden Lab-owned information and social area. Infohubs are located at some of the former Telehub locations and are built and managed by residents or resident groups. Some new players first spawn at Infohubs after leaving Orientation Island or Help Island.

Indra The internal code name for the software project comprising the Second Life Servers (Userserver, Spaceserver, Dataserver, Simulator, and Backbone) and Viewer (the client)

Inventory The window that contains everything you possess that isn’t manifest in the world. Your inventory is the collection of clothing, objects, textures, etc. that your avatar possesses. Your inventory travels with you, and you can use any of it at any time.

In-World Being connected to the Second Life servers and present in the Second Life world (also: online), anything that takes place within the virtual environment of Teen Second Life.

Island A Sim or group of Sims that are detached from the Linden Lab owned Mainland and only accessible by teleportation.

Kick The forced log-off of a resident from Second Life by an administrator.

KK Equivalent to “OK”

Lag The condition of running slowly. This can be caused by the server, your internet connection, or the objects, scripts and activities of the players around you.

LSL Linden Scripting Language, a C-like language used for server-side scripting of objects.

Land Baron A resident who makes profit in-world by buying and selling land, or by developing and selling land on Private Estates.

Landmark Landmarks are shortcuts to places in Second Life > World > Create Landmark here, landmarks are stored in your Inventory for later viewing.

Liaison A Linden who work as front-line technical support or serve as an in-world representative.

Linden An employee of Linden Labs. Linden employees are referred to as “Lindens” because all of them have that last name when in the game.

Linden Dollar The unit of currency for all monetary transactions in Second Life. Lindens are a microcurrency and can be traded for real world currencies on the Lindex and on other third party exchanges.

Linden Lab The creators of Second Life and Teen Second Life.

Link When building, multiple prims may be linked together with a menu command. When linked, they can be moved as one unit.

Lock To set the lock flag for an item, making it un-modifiable.

Log A transcript of chat, or of computer activities.

LOL Laughing Out Loud.

Lucky Chair Scripted chairs that give out prizes when you sit on one that is displaying the first letter of your first name.

Mainland Managed by Linden Lab. Land on the mainland is initially auctioned off by Linden Lab in one sim blocks.

Map The window that displays the map. It can be used to find locations, individuals, and specific coordinates.

Message Template The protocol description for UDP packet communication between the viewer and servers. Described in the text file app_settings/message_template.msg.

Mentor A resident volunteer working with Linden Lab of Second Life and Teen Second Life who teaches and guides newcomers into the world.

Mouseview (also Mouselook) Typing the letter “m” will change the main window to a first-person camera view that will change according to mouse motions. This is the usual view for weapons fire. It is also useful for flying in some circumstances. Hit the Escape key to exit Mouseview.

Mute Choosing the option that prevents you from seeing the chat from another player.

Newbie A newcomer to Second Life or Teen Second Life; a resident who has joined for a relatively short period of time and/or is not familiar or comfortable with Second Life’s culture, interface etc. The newbie cut-off point is generally considered to be at around 90 days.

Noob Means the same as Newbie.

No-Copy Any object whose permissions do not permit the current owner to make additional copies of the object. These objects have (no-copy) in their name in the inventory.

No-Fly Any land parcel that does not permit flying. You can fly through no-fly parcels, but as soon as you touch down and stop flying, you’ll be unable to fly again until you exit the no-fly parcel. If you get really stuck, teleport somewhere else.

No-Modify Any object whose permissions do not permit the current owner to make changes of the object. These objects have (no-modify) in their name in the Inventory.

Non Physical A method of avatar movement obtained by sitting on a non-physical prim and then moving the prim with the edit tools, or using a script in the prim for controlled movement. A non physical avatar can pass through walls and cannot be pushed; they are considered an immovable object from the point of view of any physical object that strikes them.

Notecard An inventory item containing text and/or embedded textures, snapshots, objects, or other notecards. Items embedded in notecards must have copy/modify/transfer permissions.

No-Transfer Any object whose permissions do not permit the current owner to resell or give away the object. These objects have (no-transfer) in their name in the Inventory.

Occlusion 3D graphics rendering technique that ensures that the computer does not spend time attempting to draw things that are not visible (typically because they remain hidden behind something else).

Office Hours Sheduled times where specific Lindens are available to take questions and comments from residents on their specific areas in Teen Second Life or Second Life.

Offline The state of being disconnected from the Second Life servers and absent from the Second Life world.

Ogg Vorbis Open source audio compression library. Sound effects are stored as .ogg files in the asset system.

OMG “Oh My God!”

Online TTe state of being connected to the Second Life servers and present in the Second Life world. Also: in-world.

Orbiter Orbiters send their victims so far into the sky that it would take hours for them to fall back down in the normal way and/or their coordinates no longer fit within TL’s world model. Normally, teleporting away or–in extreme cases–relogging will fix being orbited.

Orientation Island The first area all users of Second Life visit when they first log into the world.

Parcel An area of land owned by a single user or group. Parcels are composed of square blocks measuring 4×4 meters, but the blocks do not have to be contiguous. Parcels have both an integer local id and a global UUID.

Prim Abbreviation for primitive.

Primitive 3D object in the world. Each prim is represented by a set of parameters, including position, scale, rotation, shape, cut, hollow, etc. Prims can be linked together into link sets. They can also be attached to avatars, but this process is separate from linking. Primitives are implemented in LLPrimitive, with vertex generation performed in LLVolume and rendering in LLVOVolume.

Quaternion Representation of a rotation. SL uses unit quaternions represented in four floats. This allows only three floats to be transmitted and the remaining value reconstructed on the viewer.

Region Data set for a region of the world, like “Orientation Island”. A region can be run by any simulator process, and regions move from sim to sim as the hosts are shut down, crash, etc.

Skin A texture image that replaces the default skin of your avatar. Cannot (usually) be adjusted by the appearance sliders, but looks much better than the default skin.

Sim Server host machine, for example sim1234.agni.lindenlab.com. The SL server grid consists of 2000+ sims. Sometimes “sim” is used incorrectly to mean simulator process or region.

Simulator The primary SL server process. Each simulator process simulates one 256×256 meter region. As the viewer moves through the world it is handled off from one simulator to another. Multiple simulator processes run on each server host, currently 2 to 16.

Statistics Bar A window of detailed performance data that appears on the upper right corner of the user’s screen, enabled with Ctrl-Shift-1 or View->Statistics Bar. The data can help identify the source of performance problems in the client or simulator.

Spam An unsolicited instant message, notecard, texture, group invite, animate request, or object sent to multiple people. This can be sent by another player, or by an object containing a script.

SLURL A type of weblink that launches the Second Life client and teleports you to the location indicated via the slurl.com website.

SLT “Second Life Time.” The time zone corresponding to the local time at the Linden Lab offices at San Francisco. Linden Lab now refersto Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) and Pacific Standard Time (PST), but the term SLT is commonly used in-world by residents.

Sliders Controls for customizing Avatar appearance and clothing. These sliding settings levers in appearance mode (right-click on Avatar & select “appearance” to access) change values for avatar and clothing mesh. As an example, foot size can be altered from tiny to large on one slider, rounded to pointy toes on another, thin to thick platforms on another.

Skybox Buildings located in the sky

Streaming Music/Video Music and video that may be heard and viewed on a parcel. Each parcel may have one video and one audio stream set at any one time. Streams are specified as URLs to files or streaming servers on the Internet. With the proper permissions, an avatar can manually specify the URL of the streaming audio and video in the Media tab of Preferences.

SL Second Life

Stipend The money given to a player by Linden Lab on a weekly basis. Premium accounts receive Stipends (300L$/week), though some older accounts have been grandfathered in under previous stipend programs.

Task Server-side representation of a primitive or link set. Since primitives can contain scripts or be physically simulated each task adds load to the server process. The agent is also represented as a task on the server, but has extensive additional processing.

TSL Teen Second Life for 13 - 17 years to play, when they turn 18 they get transfered to the MG of Second Life.

TY “Thank You!”

TP Teleport to other locations

Town Hall A meeting where a senior Linden addresses and takes questions from residents. Town Halls are usually conducted via voice. (Not doing them anymore).

TSLB/SLB Second Life Birthday/Teen Second Life Birthday

TOS Terms of Service.

Tiny Prim Micro Prim.

Tiny An extremely small Avatar, usually a furry, designed to resemble an animated stuffed animal.

Tier The monthly land “tax” you pay to either Linden Lab (on the mainland) or to a private island owner to own land. The more land you own, the higher your monthly Tier fees.

Texture An image or graphic uploaded to Second Life for application to the surface of an object or to clothing. Textures can be purchased or found for free in-world, or created in third-party graphics programs and uploaded to Second Life for L$10 per image.

Terraform To change the shape and elevation of land. Most Mainland sims are limited to ± 4 meters terraformability. Land on Private Estates can be terraformed up to ± 100 meters.

Terms of Service The set of rules that all residents agree to follow while using Linden Lab services or products, and the consequences of violating those rules. Abbreviated TOS. Also see Community Standards.

TTYL “Talk To You Later”

Traffic A Linden Lab generated measure of how many avatars frequent a parcel of land and how long they stay. Higher traffic results in a higher placement in the “Popular Places” found by selecting Search.

Transfer When a Teen Transfers from Teen Grid to Main Grid.

Texture An image applied to the surface of an object.

UUID Globally unique identifier, a 128-bit number represented as a 16-byte binary value or 36-byte hexadecimal string. UUIDs can be generated by any part of the system and are guaranteed to be unique.

Vector An array of floating point values used to represent positions, colors, etc. Implemented in LLVector3, LLVector4, LLColor4, etc.

Vehicle A scripted object whose movement you can control. Typically, a resident will sit on/in the vehicle and use it as a form of transportation. Vehicles include cars, airplanes, hoverboards, boats, UFOs, and much more.

Vendor A scripted object that designed to sell objects, clothing, or other items to residents. Many brands of vendors are networked and operate of a central server.

Viewer Client software, written in C++, that runs on the user’s Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computer. The process is named “newview” for historical reasons. You may specify Client parameters to it to alter its default behaviour.

Video Tutorials Tutorials that get filmed in Second Life or Teen Second Life often (machinimas).

Windlight Sky and atmospheric and lighting effects for Second Life, developed by Windward Mark Interactive, which was purchased by Linden Lab for their technology.

Whisper Speech (usually by objects containing scripts) that is audible only within a 10 meter radius from the object. Compare with regular chat (20m radius), shouting (100m radius) and Region Say (sim-wide).

Wire Frame A mode of viewing the world by seeing only the edges that connect the vertices of objects, avatars, and terrain. The client wire frame mode can be toggled on and off with Ctrl-Shift-R.

Welcome Area A Linden Lab-owned and designed information and social area for new residents.

Wiki Second Life Wiki - Information about Volunteers, Windlight, Video Tutorials, Orientation Guides, Projects

X-Axis The East-West axis of the in-world coordinate system.

Y-Axis The North-South axis of the in-world coordinate system.

Z-Axis The up-down axis of the in-world coordinate system.

Do you know of any?

Let me know, send a E-mail to danielvoyager@hotmail.co.uk. Spam comments will be automaiclly deleted.