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GLOSSARY OF TERMS |
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| Term | Meaning or Description at A Serenity Place | Face-to-Face Meeting Equivalent (or the real world version) |
| 13th Stepping | Repetitive, unsolicited personal e-mail messages sent to any member of A Serenity Place by any other member. Illicit intentions are not a necessary factor to be considered 13th Stepping in this media. | Hustling another member of a meeting for romantic or sexual favors. Stereotypically, a male member who takes advantage of a newer female member's insecurities. |
| AIS | see Al-Anon Information Services | |
| Al-Anon Information Services (AIS) | Currently, there is no Al-Anon Information Service established for online meetings. However, an interest has been expressed by a number of online meetings and it is anticipated that an AIS will be established in the foreseeable future. | An Al-Anon/Alateen information service (intergroup) is a local service center established by one or more districts or by groups located close enough to one another for easy access and communication. Geographical boundaries such as state or county lines need not be observed unless one information service confilcts with another nearby, in which case geographical division should be set by mutal agreement. |
| Al-Anon member | Our Third Tradition says that any person whose life has been seriously affected by another person's drinking is qualified to be a member of Al-Anon. Any person who qualifies for Al-Anon by this Tradition may consider themselves a member of Al-Anon. | |
| Application | A program or group of programs designed for end users. Software can be divided into two general classes: systems software and applications software . Systems software consists of low-level programs that interact with the computer at a very basic level. This includes operating systems, compilers, and utilities for managing computer resources. In contrast, applications software (also called end-user programs ) includes database programs, word processors, and spreadsheets. Figuratively speaking, applications software sits on top of systems software because it is unable to run without the operating system and system utilities. | |
| ASP | A Serenity Place, an online Al-Anon meeting. | N/A |
| Assembly | N/A | The assembly, composed of all the GRs in the area, convenes at least every three years to elect assembly officers, a delegate to the World Service Conference and an alternate delegate. |
| Avatar | A graphical icon that represents a real person in a cyberspace system. When you enter the system, you can choose from a number of fanciful avatars. Sophisticated 3D avatars even change shape depending on what they are doing (e.g., walking, sitting, etc.). | |
| Browser | Short for Web browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages. | |
| Browsing | To view formatted documents. For example, you look at Web pages with a Web browser | |
| Business meetings | The business of A Serenity Place is handled by the Steering Committee in a separate session maintained by the members of the Steering Committee. | A meeting where the business needs of the recovery meeting are discussed and decided upon. Generally performed outside of the recivery meeting, either before or after. While attendance at business meetings is generally open, the vote is generally limited to members of the meeting/group/District/Area/Conference. |
| CAL | Conference Approved Literature. Literature which has been approved by the World Service Conference and subsequently published by the World Service Office. | |
| Channel | In communications, the term channel refers to a communications path between two computers or devices. It can refer to the physical medium (the wires) or to a set of properties that distinguishes one channel from another. For example, TV channels refer to particular frequencies at which radio waves are transmitted. IRC channels refer to specific discussions. | |
| Chat | Real-time real_time communication between two users via computer. Once a chat has been initiated, either user can enter text by typing on the keyboard and the entered text will appear on the other user's monitor. Most networks and online services offer a chat feature, but it is not widely used because it is easier to communicate by telephone, and messages that aren't urgent can be sent by e-mail. | |
| Chat Room | A virtual room where a chat session takes place. Technically, a chat room is really a channel, but the term room is used to promote the chat metaphor. A Serenity Place is not a chat room. | |
| Closed Meeting | A Serenity Place is a close meeting, limited to those who feel their lives have been or are being deeply affected by alcoholism in a family member or friend. | Closed meetings are limited to members and prospective members. These are persons who feel their lives have been or are being deeply affected by alcoholism in a family member or friend. |
| Conference | Same as forum, an area in a bulletin board or online service in which participants can meet discuss a topic of common interest. | |
| Cross-talk | An exchange or diaglogue between individual members, or an share directed to another member, posted to the entire list. | A dialogue between members during a meeting. |
| Cyberspace | A metaphor for describing the non-physical terrain created by computer systems. Online systems, for example, create a cyberspace within which people can communicate with one another (via e-mail), do research, or simply window shop. Like physical space, cyberspace contains objects (files, mail messages, graphics, etc.) and different modes of transportation and delivery. Unlike real space, though, exploring cyberspace does not require any physical movement other than pressing keys on a keyboard or moving a mouse. | |
| Digest | Digest format is not offered at a Serenity Place | Digests are larger messages containing all the postings made by list subscribers over a certain period of time. Unlike real-world digests, LISTSERV digests are not edited; what you see is exactly what was posted to the list. The only difference is that you get all the messages for a given day, week or month in a single batch. |
| Domain | The domain "asp-afg.org" is the domain used by A Serenity Place. | A group of computers and devices on a network that are administered as a unit with common rules and procedures. Within the Internet, domains are defined by the IP address. All devices sharing a common part of the IP address are said to be in the same domain. |
| Short for electronic mail , the transmission of messages over communications networks. The messages can be notes entered from the keyboard or electronic files stored on disk | ||
| E-mail client | An application that runs on a personal computer or workstation and enables you to send, receive and organize e-mail. It's called a client because e-mail systems are based on a client-server architecture. Mail is sent from many clients to a central server, which re-routes the mail to its intended destination. | |
| Emoticons | Smileys are tiny pictures made from ordinary ASCII characters that are meant to be looked at with the head tilted to the left. Smileys came about when e-mail correspondents felt the need to convey emotional content such as sarcasm, laughter and other feelings as part of their messages. Without smileys, simple statements could easily be misinterpreted. | |
| End user | The final or ultimate user of a computer system. The end user is the individual who uses the product after it has been fully developed and marketed. The term is useful because it distinguishes two classes of users, users who require a bug -free and finished product (end users ), and users who may use the same product for development purposes. The term end user usually implies an individual with a relatively low level of computer expertise. Unless you are a programmer or engineer, you are almost certainly an end user. | |
| ES&H | Experience, Strength & Hope. A personal sharing of an individual's experience, strength and hope regarding a topic. | |
| Finger | A UNIX program that takes an e-mail address as input and returns information about the user who owns that e-mail address. On some systems, finger only reports whether the user is currently logged on. Other systems return additional information, such as the user's full name, address, and telephone number. Of course, the user must first enter this information into the system. Many e-mail programs now have a finger utility built into them. | Looking up a person's telephone number in a 'reverse directory' to obtain their full name and street address. |
| Flame | A searing e-mail message in which the writer attacks another e-mail participant in overly harsh, and often personal, terms. Flames are an unfortunate, but inevitable, element of un-moderated conferences. | Any form of verbal attack or negative comentary directed at another member during the meeting. |
| Flame-bait | A comment or commentary which provokes an emotional (flame) response whether such a response is elicited or not. | A message which incites a retaliatory response. |
| Forum | An online discussion group. Online services and bulletin board services ( BBS 's) provide a variety of forums, in which participants with common interests can exchange open messages. Forums are sometimes called newsgroups (in the Internet world) or conferences. | |
| Greeter | A member who is the first contact with persons inquiring about A Serenity Place. Greeters use standardized letters to describe ASP to prospective members, process prospective members via an affirmation of the Third Tradition, and provide the new member with some basic instruction on use of the list server and meeting policies. | Someone designated by the group to greet newcomers to the meeting and help make them feel welcome. |
| Greeter Chair | The Chairperson of the Greeter Committee. The person a member of ASP should contact directly to unsubscribe from the meeting list. | The Chairperson of the Greeter Committee. |
| Group Representative | Does not yet apply to online meetings. See Meeting Contact. | "Each group in an area should have a group representative (GR) to act as a liaison between the group and the district and between the group and the assembly. Al-Anon members who are also members of AA may not serve as GR." [Srvice Manul, p. 36] |
| Group Representative | N/A | The group representative represents the group at district and area assembly meetings where the groups share information of importance. |
| Home Page |
"The home page of A Serenity Place is located at: http://www.asp-afg.org. This is the basic home page of the meeting. However there is also a 'private' home page for members only located at: http://www.asp-afg.org/ASP/MembersOnly/index.htm |
The main page of a web site. Typically, the home page serves as an index or table of contents to other documents stored at the site. |
| Icon | A small picture that represents an object or program. | |
| Information Highway | A popular buzzword to describe the system of bulletin board services, online services, and other services that enable people to obtain information from telecommunications networks | |
| Intergroup | see Al-Anon Information Services | |
| Internet | A global web connecting more than a million computers. Currently, the Internet has more than 30 million users worldwide, and that number is growing rapidly. More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions. Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to provide to its local users and which local services to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well. | |
| IRC | Short for Internet Relay Chat, a chat system developed by Jarkko Oikarinen in Finland in the late 1980s. IRC has become very popular as more people get connected to the Internet because it enables people connected anywhere on the Internet to join in live discussions. Unlike older chat systems, IRC is not limited to just two participants. To join an IRC discussion, you need an IRC client and Internet access. The IRC client is a program that runs on your computer and sends and receives messages to and from an IRC server. The IRC server, in turn, is responsible for making sure that all messages are broadcast to everyone participating in a discussion. There can be many discussions going on at once; each one is assigned a unique channel. | |
| Link | A link will allow you to open another document without closing your browser and losing your original page. | In hypertext systems such as the World Wide Web, a link is a reference to another document. Such links are sometimes called hot links because they take you to other document when you click on them. |
| List | The list of e-mail addresses which the list server uses to distribute messages. | The list of the names and phone numbers of the people who have attended the meeting and placed their names and phone numbers on the list. |
| List Administrator | The person who has the most unlimited access to the list server. The list server responds to commands sent by the List Administrator. The range of commands varies with different list servers/software but typically includes: changing various list characteristics, assigning and changing passwords, permitting various levels of command access to others, subscribing & unsubscribing individuals to the list. Generally, the List Administrator and the List Owner are the same person, as is the case at A Serenity Place. | The Secretary who has the key to the meeting place and sets up the chairs, starts the coffee, etc. |
| List Owner | The individual or organization which actually owns the list by way of owning the account on which the list operates. This online meeting uses the list, asp-afg.org, which is owned by A Serenity Place | The owner of the facility where the meeting takes place. Typically a church or civic building, but occasionally the private home of a member. |
| List Security | The security of the list of subscribers maintained by the list server and duplicated in the Member Roster on the web site. This list is exclusively Al-Anon for the use of members of A Serenity Place to assist them in contacting other members for for Al-Anon sharing. Any other use, duplication, or distribution of this list is considered a violation of the security of the list. | |
| List Server |
A computer in Los Angeles which receives e-mail messages from individuals and redistributes them to every e-mail address on the list. Uses a server system called Esosoft. |
A server that manages mailing lists for groups of users. Two of the most popular mailing list server systems for the Internet are Listserv and Majordomo. |
| List Subscriber | An individual whose e-mail address is contained in the list server's distribution list. | A person whose name and phone number are listed in the meeting's signup sheets. This includes all old signup sheets which are still contained in the binder/folder/book/box of signup sheets for that meeting. |
| Listserv | An automatic mailing list server developed by Eric Thomas for BITNET in 1986. When e-mail is addressed to a LISTSERV mailing list, it is automatically broadcast to everyone on the list. The result is similar to a newsgroup or forum, except that the messages are transmitted as e-mail and are therefore available only to individuals on the list | |
| Lurk | As new members of a group, many of us withhold our thoughts and experiences, either out of consideration for others or from fear that we might be embarrassed, thus depriving our group of our wisdom. Through the unity and leadership of the group members, we learn that by speaking we share the responsibility for keeping our meetings healthy. Longtime members often withhold sharing in larger meetings, believing it is essential for the newer members to talk first. They forget that, by sharing, they may be providing wisdom and encouragement to a newcomer or another longtime member with a new problem in his or her life. It is essential that we nod in understanding to the pain of the newcomer, to the parent living with a child who slips in and out of recovery or to the longtime member discovering yet another relative is suffering from the insidious disease of alcoholism. Sharing our common experiences and the Al-Anon solutions at meetings is what makes a meeting alive and unified in purpose. [Paths to Recovery] | To eavesdrop on a chat room or conference. In most online areas, lurking is perfectly acceptable behavior and is, in fact, encouraged so that you get the feel of the area before posting your own comments. However, some online areas, particularly ones where participants are discussing personal issues, frown on lurking |
| Mailing list | The list of e-mail addresses which the list server uses to distribute messages. | A list of e-mail addresses identified by a single name, such as mail-list@sandybay.com. When an e-mail message is sent to the mailing list name, it is automatically forwarded to all the addresses in the list. |
| Majordomo | A free mailing list server that runs under UNIX. When e-mail is addressed to a Majordomo mailing list, it is automatically broadcast to everyone on the list. The result is similar to a newsgroup or forum, except that the messages are transmitted as e-mail and are therefore available only to individuals on the list. | |
| MC | Meeting Contact | |
| Meeting Contact | The person, elected by an Al-Anon meeting, who serves as the contact person between the meeting and the World Service Office, other Al-Anon meetings, etc. The Meeting Contact is the contact person for the meeting until it has been registered with WSO, at which time it may elect a Group Representative. | |
| Meeting member | A member of Al-Anon who attends and participates in the meetings of A Serenity Place may consider themselves a member of this meeting. | Al-Anon members who attend groups regularly and participate fully may consider themselves members of those groups. [Service Manual] |
| Member Roster | A list of individual's names and e-mail addresses who are currently on the server's mailing list. The Member Roster is for the use of current membership only. It is not permissible to download or otherwise copy this page. The server may maintain a log of attempted downloads of this page. | A list of individual's names and phone numbers who have recently attended the meeting. The group's phone list is for the use of current membership only. |
| Member of Al-Anon | See "Al-Anon member" | |
| Member of meeting | See Meeting member | |
| Moderated Newsgroup | A newsgroup monitored by an individual (the moderator) who has the authority to block messages deemed inappropriate. Moderated newsgroups have fewer flames and less spam than unmoderated forums. | |
| Moderator | The editors on moderated lists who will receive postings for approval | |
| MUCK | Short for Multi-User Chat Kingdom, a text-based MUD system. MUCK is similar to MUSH, though it uses different software. | |
| MUD | Short for Multi-User Dungeon (or Multi-User Dimension) a cyberspace where users can take on an identity in the form of an avatar and interact with one another. Originally, MUDs tended to be adventure games played within enormous old castles with hidden rooms, trap-doors, exotic beasts, and magical items. Nowadays, the term is used more generically to refer to any cyberspace. MUDs are also known as 3-D worlds and chat worlds. | |
| Multi-User Dimension | see MUD | |
| Multi-user Dungeon | see MUD | |
| MUSH | Short for Multi-User Shared Hallucination, a text-based MUD system. There are many MUSH worlds that have been evolving for years. | |
| Newsgroup | Same as forum, an on-line discussion group. On the Internet, there are literally thousands of newsgroups covering every conceivable interest. To view and post messages to a newsgroup, you need a news reader, a program that runs on your computer and connects you to a news server on the Internet. | |
| Online Service | A Serenity Place is not part of an online service, however it is accessible by those who use an online service for their Internet access. | A business that provides its subscribers with a wide variety of data transmitted over telecommunications lines. Online services provide an infrastructure in which subscribers can communicate with one another, either by exchanging e-mail messages or by participating in online conferences (forums). |
| Operating System | The most important program that runs on a computer. Every general-purpose computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers. | |
| Private | The Business section of the A Serenity Place web site is private. | Only users subscribed to the list have access to the information. |
| Punishment | The dictionary defines punish as: "To subject to pain, confinement or other penalty for a crime or fault." In other words a consequence in addition to the natural consequence of an act, designed to provide further discouragement of the act through these additional punitive measures. | |
| Rotation of Leadership | The Steering Committee consists of six members. These members are voted in by the Business Meeting members | The act of rotating out of a service position, opening the opportunity for someone else to take their turn at receiving the benefits of service. |
| Server passwords | Passwords used to access server commands. | The keys to the facility used by the meeting. |
| Service | Refers to doing 'service' for the meeting; performing some small service to help our meeting function. | "Carrying the message, as suggested in the Twelfth Step, is Service, Ala-Anon's third legacy." [Service Manual, p. 13] |
| Service Manual | A CAL book which describes the various aspects of service in Al-Anon. A valuable resource for members active in service. Updated every two years. | |
| Smileys | Smileys are tiny pictures made from ordinary ASCII characters that are meant to be looked at with the head tilted to the left. Smileys came about when e-mail correspondents felt the need to convey emotional content such as sarcasm, laughter and other feelings as part of their messages. Without smileys, simple statements could easily be misinterpreted. | |
| Software | Computer instructions or data. Anything that can be stored electronically is software. | |
| Spam | Spam is unacceptable at A Serenity Place. | Electronic junk mail. Some people define spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail. |
| Steering Committee | The committee where the business of this meeting is done; composed of current officers of A Serenity Place | "Many groups have a committee composed of its officers and several experienced members (often the previous slate of officers) to deal with questions of policy, local public information, and any internal problems that arise between the group's regualr business meetings." [Service Manual, p. 37] |
| Subscribe | To add the e-mail address of an individual to the server's list of recipients. | To begin a subscription to a periodical, such as a magazine or newspaper |
| Subscription | To be subscribed to an automated e-mail list. Differentiated from a member. | To be subscribed to a hardcopy periodical, such as a magazine or newspaper. |
| Surf | To move from place to place on the Internet searching for topics of interest. Web surfing has become a favorite pastime for many Internet users. The links on each page enable you to start virtually anywhere on the Web and eventually find interesting pages. The term surfing is generally used to describe a rather undirected type of Web browsing in which the user jumps from page to page rather whimsically, as opposed to specifically searching for specific information. | |
| Treasurer | A member of the meeting who receives the donations contributed during the meeting's practice of the 7th Tradition, pays the meeting's expenses, maintains a prudent reserve, and distributes any remaining funds according to the group conscience. | "The Treasurer: Acts as collector, custodian and disburser of funds, passes the collection backet at group meetings, asks another member to help count and record the collection . . . , keeps a records of all receipts and expenditures, submits a financial statement to the group at regular intervals, pays the group's expenses . . ." [Service Manual, pp. 35-36] |
| Unsubscribe | To remove the e-mail address of an individual from the server's list of recipients. | To cancel a subscription to a periodical, such as a magazine or newspaper |
| Unsubscribe request | Sending a message to the List Administrator | Mail or call the periodical to cancel a subscription. |
| URL | Abbreviation of Uniform Resource Locator, the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. | |
| User | An individual who uses a computer. This includes expert programmers as well as novices. An end user is any individual who runs an application program. | |
| Virtual | Not real. The term virtual is popular among computer scientists and is used in a wide variety of situations. In general, it distinguishes something that is merely conceptual from something that has physical reality. For example, virtual memory refers to an imaginary set of locations, or addresses, where you can store data. It is imaginary in the sense that the memory area is not the same as the real physical memory composed of transistors. The difference is a bit like the difference between an architect's plans for a house and the actual house. A computer scientist might call the plans a virtual house. | |
| Virtual Reality | An artificial environment created with computer hardware and software and presented to the user in such a way that it appears and feels like a real environment. | |
| Web page | A document on the World Wide Web. Every web page is identified by a unique URL ( Uniform Resource Locator ) | |
| Web Server | A computer in Los Angeles, California which distributes information to computers accessing it via the Internet | A computer which receives and distributes information from a group of clients. |
| Web Server | The computer that delivers the A Serenity Place Web pages. The home page is found at: http://www.asp-afg.org/ | A computer that delivers (serves up) Web pages. Every Web server has an IP address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the URL http://www.sandybay.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a request to the server whose domain name is sandybay.com. The server then fetches the page named index.html and sends it to your browser. |
| Web Site | The site on the World Wide Web where the home page and related files for A Serenity Place are located. This site is owned by ASP and maintained by the webmaster | A site (location) on the World Wide Web. Each web site contains a home page, which is the first document users see when they enter the site. The site might also contain additional documents and files. Each site is owned and managed by an individual, company or organization. |
| Webmaster | The individual who manages a Web site. Depending on the size of the site, the Webmaster might be responsible for any of the following: •Making sure that the Web server hardware and software is running properly •Designing the Web site •Creating and updating Web pages •Replying to user feedback •Creating CGI scripts •Monitoring traffic through the site. | |
| World Service Conference | An annual meeting of Area Delegatesof the United States and Canada, with the trustess, the Executive Committee, and the Al-Anon staff. Representatives from other national general service offices are welcome to attend the World Se Internet are part of the World Wide Web. | |
| WSC | See World Service Conference | |
| WSO | World Service Office; Al-Anon administrative headquarters located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. | |
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Last Updated on
03/14/2012
By Anne. This page is constantly under construction.
Email: webmaster@asp-afg.org