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.
<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'.
Most of the above sub-jargon is used at both Stanford and MIT.
Several of these expressions are also common in email, esp. FYI, FYA, BTW, BCNU, WTF, and CUL. A
few other abbreviations have been reported from commercial
networks, such as GEnie and CompuServe, where on-line `live' chat
including more than two people is common and usually involves a
more `social' context, notably the following:
<g>
grin
<gd&r>
grinning, ducking, and running