The FAQ is currently in the process of being updated in the new system. We apologize for any inconvenience, and will be updating this page as soon as possible.
The Internet is known for widespread use of abbrevations and acronyms. Pholks on the Phish.net use scores of additional ones to refer to songs and the like. This can be particularly confusing in environments that include lots of new folks.
Bold entries are local (or at least in some way specific) to Phish.net.
Italicized entries are relatively common throughout cyberspace, or elsewhere, or were at some time.
This is intended to be an exhaustive list of common ones, but you still use them at your own risk (of not communicating). See also, acronymn index.
AUD: Audience recording of a show, made using microphones with in the taping section or FOB, as opposed to a recording made from the soundboard (2-track or otherwise), FM radio, pre-FM, local FM (e.g. for handicapped seating), or monitor feed.
CD-R: Compact Disk Recordable, compact discs that can be purchased blank and recorded to (for storing or transport, of data or music), or the drive that records them. Don't confuse CDRs traded not for profit with commercial bootlegs.
CD-RW: Compact Disc ReWritables, compact discs that can be recorded to multiple times, by writing at a different angle, or the drive that can write (and rewrite) to CD-RW discs. Blanks typically cost 4-10 times as much.
CWYTWM: Come waste your time with me (chorus from orginal tune "Waste")
DAO: Disk-At-Once recording, a process for writing CDRs that leaves no gaps between tracks.
DAT: Digital Audio Tape, a technology for recording audio (or data) on tape digitally.
DAUD: audience tape (see AUD) mastered on a DAT
DAUD1: analag master of an audience tape, e.g. Mics > Dat > Analog, as opposed to DAUD2, which is Source > Dat > Analog master > Analog copy. (See generations.)
MB: megabyte (1,024 kilobytes; a floppy disc is usually 1.4MB; a CDR is typically 640MB or 700MB)
MD: MiniDisc, a technology for recording digital music on cute little teeny-weeny diskettes, which seemed like a good idea but hasn't really taken off in the way that DAT and CDR have.
RTFM: read the "friggin" manual/message; or, read the faq, man
RUF: right up front (alternative to FOB; see also BTP, SCT; compare OTS)
SBD: SoundBoaRD -- a tape made from the actual mixing console, rather than from microphone input. Typically an analog master recording, as opposed to DSBD which is initially recorded directly from the soundboard to DAT.
SCT: self-centered tapers (alternative to FOB; see also BTP, RUF; compare OTS)
SEG: shit-eating grin
SCI: string cheese incident, a jam band from boulder colorado
SITD: still in the dark
SITM: Silent in the Morning
SIYNE: smilies if you need em
SK: used in TTY to indicate that you wish to disconnect
SOAM: Split Open & Melt (more commonly Split or Melt) or Scent of a Mule (more commonly Scent or Mule)
TAB: Trey Anastasio Band, typically his Summer 2000 ("money love and change") tour but sometimes also to refer to his earlier "solo" tours (both of which included other musicians, inc. Tony and Russ).
TAO: Track At Once, a method of recording to CDRs that places short artificial gaps between tracks
Note: Many titles can be shortened to one word. Except for TMWSIY, abbreviations may only lead to later confusion, whereas one-wording will be pretty darn clear, or at least real darn close. (e.g. Creature, Hood, Ice, Antelope....)
Thanks to Dan Mielcarz, Mike Lerdawg, Rob H at Columbia;, SJack, Beth Haas, Paul D. Crittenden, Taylor, Craig Volpe, James McMullen, Andrew Cogan, and Kristen Godard, among others in the Phish.Net; and to Brad Jackson, for his 1/26/92 post to SAS-L.
"[Other species] tend to work with what's there. They don't really change the basic structure of it."
-- Jon Fishman, 4/22/92 interview with Shelly Culbertson