Common Forum Terms:

Admin - (aka: main admin, root admin, user-1) The creator of a forum. The account with the username admin. They have absolute control over the forum.

Administrator - Administrators or "Admins" are staff of the forum as designated by the forum creator. They are members who are part of a member group that have administrative powers assigned. On a new forum the creator (main admin) is included in the Administrator member group by default, though it is not required for the main admin to be in a group to utilize all their powers on the forum.

Admin Panel - The area where all of the administrative functions can be found. Located in the forum top bar.

Announcement - This is a thread that is automatically placed at the top of the board (or multiple boards) that it's on. The thread is immovable until the announcement is taken down.

Attachment - A uploaded file that displays along with a forum post.

Avatar - The image that represents a member on a forum. Avatars appear next to a user's every post.

BBCode - The programming language of forum posts. BBCode tags are what give words bold, italics, underline, and many other "styles". BBCode also allows you to make links and generally beautify your text in a post.

Board - Boards (organized by categories) is how you keep different topics of discussion separate from one another.

Bookmarks - A system used to save threads of interest for later viewing.

Bump / Bumping - Posting in a thread to move the topic up to the top of a board.  This is generally a less than desired action.  Often forums or boards have specific rules regarding bumping threads.  (See also necroposting.)

Calendar Event - An event on the forum's calendar.

Category - Separators on the main page of the forum which divide the boards into a grouping.

DDos - Distributed Denial of Service (Attack). Read more at Wikipedia

Display Name - Display names can contain special characters and symbols. For this reason, people like having a display name so that they can use a space, or special character to make their name more interesting than their username.

Disposable/Throw-away Email Address - An email address that is temporary or generated for the sole purpose of a registration and then becomes non-active.  This type of email address is not compatible with ProBoards/Forums.net forums.  Your email address is your unique identifier to confirm ownership of a forum or account.  Members need to have access to their email account whenever verification is required.

Falling - When a thread has falling enabled, it won't be moved to the top of the thread list if it has a new reply.

Followers - Members who are following you. See "Following".

Following - Following a fellow member allows you to have a list of when they last posted, along with a link to the post. Following is a great way of "bookmarking" members who you like.

Forum - A forum is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.

Friends - Two members that follow each other on a forum are considered friends.

Global Moderator - Global Moderators are the next step up from Moderators. Normally, global moderators will have the moderator functions in all of the boards on the forum, plus, additional 'lower' admin options, such as 'fix a board', or ban member. By default, any global moderators you add will have no powers to use. This will mean that you will need to supply the global moderator group with the powers you want them to have.

Guest - Guests are forum visitors who do not have an account on the forum.

Group - See "Member Group".

Header & Footer - A place for custom codes to be placed that affect the look or function of the forum.

Locked - An action that can be used on threads to prevent further posting from members.

Member - Members are forum users who have a registered account on the forum.

Member Group - A way of categorizing and grouping members. Member groups are used for assigning any combination of powers to certain members and/or specifying which members have access to various boards and board functions, such as creating threads or posting.

Member Rank - Different ranks assigned to members based on the number of posts that the member has.

Moderator - Moderators are people who have control over a message forum. By default, any moderators you add will have no powers to use. This will mean that you will need to supply the moderator group with the powers you want them to have.

Necroposting - Posting in a thread that has been "dead", meaning being inactive for a relatively long period of time.

News Feed - The text scroller found toward the top of the main page of the forum, which generally cycles through different notable items.

Notification - A numbered bubble that appears in the menu bar of a forum, letting you know when something of note has taken place on the forum. A couple of examples would be when a bookmarked topic has been updated, or when you have been tagged in a post on the forum.

Plugins - A prepackaged code (either self-made or downloaded from the plugin library) that you can upload, and using the graphical interface, interact with to customize or perform an action on the forum.

Poll - A system that can be included in threads which allow members to vote on set options.

Post - The basis of the forum. A post is a comment, or reply, to a thread.

Post Count - The number of posts that an individual member has made on a forum.

Secondary Email Address - An email address not visited very often and used for website registrations or other instances where a person's primary email (one used for friends, family, financial institutions, etc.) would not be appropriate to use or share.

Shoutbox - An integrated "box" or part of the forum where forum visitors and members can come to discuss anything in a live, instant messaging chat room.

Signature - Self-assigned text or images that are added to the bottom of every user post.

Skins - See "Theme".

Sticky - An action that can be used on topics to prevent them from falling down the threads list in a board, keeping the topic visible at the top of a topics listing.

Template - The raw CSS and HTML of the forum. The basic building language and form of the forum.

Theme - Themes are either self-made, or downloaded packages that contain information that gives the forum colors, and styles. Themes are what make the forum look unique. Themes can be made by using any of the built-in theme creators, or downloaded from the theme library.

Thread - Threads are a collection of posts. Threads are how you break discussion up on the forum into various topics. A thread can be about anything. Threads are also known as "Topics".

Topic - See "Thread".

Username - The name that you log in to the forum with. Usernames have a limit of 20 characters and cannot contain spaces, special characters, or symbols.


Acronyms & Abbreviations:

BBCode -  Bulletin Board Code. A lightweight markup language used to format posts.

CGI - Computer Generated Imagery

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets. A style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language

GMod - Global Moderator

HTML - HyperText Markup Language The standard markup language used to create web pages.

iOS - The operating system for Apple’s mobile devices

IP - Internet Protocol. The method by which data is sent from one computer to another on the internet.

IP Address - Internet Protocol Address. The identifying number for a computer or device on the internet.

ISP - Internet Service Provider

Mod - Moderator

MP - Mini-Profile

OP - Original Post / Original Poster

OS - Operating System (e.g. Windows, Linux)

PM - Personal Message

RSS - Rich Site Summary (referred to as Really Simple Syndication) Method for publishing frequently updated information (blogs, news headlines, etc.) and delivering to the end user.

TOS - Terms of Service

V5 - Version 5 of the forum software (e.g.. V6 = version 6)