DPP: Fandom Lexicon

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

Greetings and salutations, 'shipper nation! This is Amy, known on your internets as ninjamonkey73, and I'm driving the DPP bus this week. Sit back and enjoy the ride...

After yesterday's psychology discussion, today's is complete crack. There are a lot of insider terms we all throw around here in the fandom. Words of obvious and not-so-obvious origin that might be confusing to the n00bs (newbies - I was one a few months ago), so let's talk about the terms and definitions of what makes a fandom unique.

There are a few categories I can think of that these sorts of things might fall under. Show related, fanfiction related (can include non-BSG-specific terms), internet-speak, etc.


Show related
My all-time favorite term I learned when I joined the fandom has to be Leegasm. To illustrate:



Fanfiction related
I didn't know what RPF was until I came to the K/L 'shipper nation. Real Person Fiction? Wha? There are these things on the mainstream internet? Fascinating... :) I know that isn't specific to us, but I learned it here.

What things has being active in the fandom here on LJ forced you to look up? Or just confused you? We abbreviate episode titles (KLGI, EoJ, etc), the 'ship itself (K/L), we call each other "bb" and put actions like hugs in "*"s. We talk in code - the secret language of brain twins.

What's in YOUR 'shipper lexicon?

Comments

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, it took me a while to understand that "pilots" was the fandom term for "Kara/Lee" in stories and comments. In most of my other fandoms ships are named by smushing characters' names together ("Spuffy") or just pairing them up ("Snape/Lily"). I haven't come across a commonly acknowledged nickname like "pilots" since Buffy's "Scooby Gang." It's fun, I like it.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

They were always pilots in my head, so I had no trouble adjusting to that here. And anyway, I don't think Kee or Lara really work or them. :)

[somethingusual.livejournal.com]

Took me a while to realise that too. I kept thinking people were referring to all the pilots. Not just our favourite two.

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Oh, and there are tons of military terms and acronyms from the show itself that I'm still in the process of figuring out. For example:

*CAG - I'm pretty sure this is "Commander of the Air Group"
*CAP - "Combat Air Patrol"
*sitrep - report on your situation
*CIC - I'm sure one of those Cs is for Command and the other is probably for Center, and maybe the I is for Information?
*DRADIS - no clue, but I assume it's an acronym, like radar
*Wilco - again, no clue, though it seems to mean "affirmative" or something like that
*RFN - "right frakking now"
*"el tee" - it took me an embarassingly long time to realize that this is just saying the letters "Lt." and means "Lieutenant."
*snipes - engineering workers (thank you commentary track!)
*"You have the con/com" - I can't tell if they are saying "con" or "com" ~ but obviously it means "you're in command," so "com" would make sense there, or if it's "con" then it's probably short for "control center" or whatever it is that CIC stands for

Ah, Battlestar Galactica, you teach me a lingo I would never otherwise have known.

Also, because I knew nothing about the military it took me a while figure out how the ranks were ordered on BSG, and it seems to be:

Admiral
Commander
Colonel
Major
Captain
Lieutenant
Sergeant
Non-Commissioned Officers
(I think sergeants and NCOs are on a different career track than all the officers from Lieutenants on up, but I could be wrong about that).

Because the top rank is Admiral it seems like they are following Navy ranks rather than Air Force or Army ones (wouldn't you get Generals in that case?), but I don't think they do so consistently ~ they seem to mix things up between services. And again, I know nothing about the services, so I could be way off.

[thrace-adama.livejournal.com]

Wilco = will comply. :)

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

I've always been a military TV/movie buff (Dad was a stateside Marine during Vietnam and we watched everything Vietnam that came out), so my military lingo was pretty solid. I'm pretty sure they're saying "You have the con," since the same was used on Star Trek. And everything else I ever needed to know, I learned from Star Trek. :)

[stripes13.livejournal.com]

With the exception of Admiral and Commander, the officer's ranks are consistent with the US Army/Marine Corps. BattlestarWiki has a rundown (with insignia) of the Colonial Military including both officers and enlisted rank order.

And DRADIS is Direction Range and Distance (I think)

[rdave1.livejournal.com]

CIC = Combat Information Center.

[innibis.livejournal.com]

*CAG - US military, CAG means Carrier Air Group, and the commander of that air group is called CAG (it's pretty standard to call people by their jobs - the operations officer is just called OPS for example) - I assume that in BSG it's Commander as opposed to Carrier since they obviously are not on a carrier.

*SITREP - Situation Report (US military)

*CIC - Combat Information Center (US military)

*DRADIS - I don't know the acronym, but it's radar

*WILCO - Will Comply

*RFN - Right Fucking Now only translated to BSG speak

*L.T. - yup this is what enlisted guys call their lts. It's pretty much a term of affection and familiarity while still being formal.

*I have the conn - That's very traditional and it's the exchange used in US and British naval vessels exchanges of control of the ship.

The ranks are mostly a complete mish mash of US Navy and Army ranks and not entirely in the army/navy order, the officers:

Admiral
Comander
Colonel
Lt. Colonel
Major
Captain
Lieutenant
Junior Lieutenant
Ensign

NCOs are senior enlisted personnel, not officers, so it is a different career path.

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that had been bugging me! Good to know :)

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

I love terms like "Papadama" or "Lee!Emo", or even "Quad of Doom" :D

[nazkey.livejournal.com]

Papadama & Lee!Emo (or Leemo) are two of my fav's too :-)

[kag523.livejournal.com]

OMG For the first time EVER, I understand where "Leemo" comes from. *slaps forehead*

Gah! Why did that take me so long?!?

[eugis.livejournal.com]

Leemo is a classic. ;p

[nazkey.livejournal.com]

I'm only saying this because it was just really funny at the time. A while ago, I was posting a comment to one of shah_of_blah's posts and I used "FTW." Now, I know it's commonly used as "For the Win" but in Naz world, I use it as "Frak/Fuck the What." *g*

I love Fat!Lee! and Fit!Lee! etc. It seems that Lee has more of these nicknames than Kara. I mean, I haven't seen anyone say for example, Drunk!Kara or Horny!Kara ...

[kag523.livejournal.com]

I've noticed the Fat!Lee!, Fit!Lee! phenomenon too... Are there Kara equivalents?

(And I had to look up FTW. *sighs* I'm a newbie.)

[nazkey.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay wait. I've got a question: why do we misspell words like "more (moah)," or "totally (totz)," etc.? I know it's done a lot on other fandoms too and I've done, but I don't know why. Help?

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

I use them (I hope) ironically. "The kids these days" and their internet misspellings and text abbreviations. To be honest, I'm so removed from what "the kids" do on the internet and texting that I just do what I see in the comms here at LJ. I see it on FB sometimes in my cousins' threads.

I spend a lot of time over at the Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com) website. It's user generated content, but usually the definition I'm looking for is near the top.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

I'm new to everything in the L/K fandom, but I was already online constantly, so I find two things. One, I occasionally use lingo that I assume everyone else knows (like Charbuck and tech moe) which I've somehow picked up on other blogs. And secondly, that I have to look up half the acronyms that float around in the fandom ship.

Seriously.... it is its own language.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

Seriously.... it is its own language.

Hence the need for a a whole day!

(And I happen to love Charbuck!)

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

Well, there are many words I had to look up. Most of them have already been mentioned (things like "Wilco" or "Roger that"). I still get find some acronyms confusing. But I still haven't figured out what a flist is.

[bookmarmf.livejournal.com]

I believe "flist" stands for "Friends list"

[amidala-thrace.livejournal.com]

This is not necessarily specific to the BSG fandom, but I'm mentioning it because it confused the living HECK out of me when I first got into fandom in general. People seemed to be constantly talking about "BNFs" and how it was bad to be a BNF or good to be a BNF. It took me for-freakin'-EVER to figure out that BNF stood for Big-Name Fan, a person who's very well-known in a particular fandom for their fanfiction or fanart or vids or what-have-you. (And of course, I didn't want to take the easy way out and just ask what it meant, because I was sure that would mark me as a n00b. ;P) Now, BSG fandom itself seems to be pretty egalitarian from what I've seen in my 2.5 or so years of involvement, so knowledge of that particular term might not be so necessary, but I figured I'd spare other potential new folks from wondering like I did. ;)

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

I probably hadn't heard that term until I started watching fandomsecrets. Thankfully there isn't any BNF drama around here. The amount of politics and high-school-type social ingratiating that I hear about happening in other fandoms sounds horrifying and just...joyless.

[anony-mouse19.livejournal.com]

um i still couldn't figure out what DPP stands for....(newbie here)

i saw "Papadama" here first and it never stops being hilarious.lol, so awesome.

[amidala-thrace.livejournal.com]

DPP = Daily Pilots Post. :)

And I love "Papadama" too, hehe. *grin*

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

I just remembered one. It's really stupid , but it took me forever to understand statements like "I have your six" or "Your six is clear".

I had to look up wingman, as well. And "fly your wing".

And I think when Lee first arrived on Galactica and had to land his viper he said something like "I have the ball". It sounds so weird.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the use of clock face references in 3D space is hard to sort out with just a number to go by. My first memory of knowing what that meant has to be Top Gun, when Maverick and Goose had bogies on their six. Maverick was my first pilot husband...

Having or calling the ball is a shorthand for handling landing manually. The newer battlestars had auto landing systems. It's meant to be clearer than, "Hey, pilot, you better keep your hands on the stick."

[olaf47.livejournal.com]

ADAMAVERBS.

I mean, seriouslee, it is a fun game. :D Especially coffeesuperhero's GratuitousLee icon, with Lee's armsssssssss.

[nazkey.livejournal.com]

seriouslee LMAO.

I'm so going to start using that from now on!

[nazkey.livejournal.com]

Guys ... what the FRAK has happened to our "expand" button on the comms? It's so annoying to have to click on every thread to read responses to comms.

*Has a Prissy Princess Moment*

[stripes13.livejournal.com]

they're here for me

*shrugs*

ETA: maybe it has something to do with account type, basic/plus/paid?

[baciami2.livejournal.com]

I love the term SAD - Shippers After Dark...when we let our and pilots! collective libidos loose. Took me awhile to realize that SAD made me v v happy!