twink /twink/ n.
1. [Berkeley] A clue-repellant user; the next step beyond a
clueless one. 2. [UCSC] A read-only user. Also reported on the
Usenet group _soc.motss_; may derive from gay slang for a
cute young thing with nothing upstairs (compare mainstream
`chick').
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twirling baton n.
[PLATO] The overstrike sequence -/|\-/|\- which produces an
animated twirling baton. If you output it with a single backspace
between characters, the baton spins in place. If you output the
sequence BS SP between characters, the baton spins from left to
right. If you output BS SP BS BS between characters, the baton
spins from right to left. This is also occasionally called a
twiddle prompt.
The twirling baton was a popular component of animated
signature files on the pioneering PLATO educational timesharing
system. The archie Internet service is perhaps the
best-known baton program today; it uses the twirling baton as an
idler indicating that the program is working on a query. The
twirling baton is also used as a boot progress indicator on
several BSD variants of Unix; if it stops you're probably going
to have a long and trying day.