The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Glossary

The glossary is an appendix of phrases, jargon, or slogans used on the wiki.

Symbols

 * "+" – shorthand for the addition of content to an article found in edit summaries. Usually followed by a word, abbreviation, or shorthand moniker, the addition symbol is popularly used this way on Wikipedia. Example of an edit summary might read: "+cats" meaning the editors added categories to the article in that edit.
 * "-" – shorthand for the removal of content to an article found in edit summaries. Usually followed by a word, abbreviation, or shorthand moniker, the subtraction symbol is popularly used this way on Wikipedia. Example of an edit summary might read: "-triv" meaning the editor omitted trivia from an article.
 * "=" – an infobox edit. May refer to formatting, link changes, expansion, etc. in the infobox of an article.
 * /d – shorthand for the discussions mobile forum feature.

A

 * "AoE" or "aoe" – Area of effect. The range in which a spell effects something.
 * "Alts" or "alt" – an alternative account; the secondary account of a TES editor. Be aware that having multiple accounts violates our user policy.
 * "Anon" – anonymous editors of the wiki. IP addresses; moniker for the former admin, Annonnimus.
 * "API" – Application programming interface. Used for building software.

B

 * "BHC" – Black Horse Courier. A small archive of ancient events on the wiki.
 * "Buffs – an effect (usually positive) added to the player. Used mainly when referring to ESO.

C

 * "CA" – Comprehensive Article.
 * "canon" – accepted, official material. Necessary on articles.
 * "cap" – used in edit summaries to note the capitalization of a word.
 * "cat" or "cats" – categories.
 * "CC" – Community Central. A "hub" wiki of sorts for Wikia.
 * "CK" – Skyrim's Creation Kit.
 * "contribs" – A user's contributions log, which records edits they have made to the wiki.
 * "crat" – a user with bureaucrat tools.
 * "CS" – Morrowind or Oblivion's Construction Set.
 * "CSS" – Cascading Style Sheets. A programming language primarily used on MediaWiki pages.
 * "CT" – Consensus Track. A type of thread used to make a major wiki-related decision.
 * "CVN" – countervandalism network. The CVN on the TESWiki IRC channel.

D

 * "DB" –.
 * "de-cap" – used in edit summaries to note the de-capitalization of a word.
 * "de-sop" – to remove administrator or bureaucrat tools from a user. Antonym of "sop."
 * "DG" –.
 * "diff" or "diffs" – the difference between two revisions of an article. A "diff" is linked to from the Recent Changes or Contributions.
 * "disambig" – A disambiguation page.
 * "DPS" or "dps" – damage per second.
 * "dupe" – duplicate.

E

 * "ESO" –.

F

 * "FA" – Featured Article.
 * "fanon" – Fan fiction or fan-made content. Not allowed on articles.

G

 * "GA" – Good Article.

H

 * "hatnote" – Short italicized phrases linking to a relevant page at the top of some articles.
 * "HF" –.
 * "HTML" – Hyper Text Markup Language. A programming language used on some articles.

J

 * "JS" – JavaScript. A programming language primarily used on MediaWiki pages.

K

 * "KOTN" –.

L

 * "lang" or "lang link" – shorthand for Language, a "lang link" being an interwiki link to a translated version of an article in another language.
 * "Lua" – A programming language primarily used on Modules and some templates.

M

 * "mainspace" – articles in the wiki proper. Mainspace articles contain no prefix. Delphine is an mainspace article, while The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Policies and guidelines is in The Elder Scrolls Wiki: namespace.
 * "Meat shield" – an ally used to catch blows from enemies. A person or animal used as a shield.
 * MediaWiki – the free and open-source software present on many wikis such as Wikia and Wikipedia. Also refers to the MediaWiki namespace on the wiki, which is comprised largely of back-end code.
 * "MOTM" – Member of the month.
 * "MW" –.

N

 * "NPOV" – Neutral point of view. Antonym of "POV."

O

 * "OB" –.
 * "OOG" – Out-of-game. Usually refers to Out-of-Game Texts, such as those written by Michael Kirkbride.
 * "OOU" – Out-of-universe; things in the real world or elsewhere.
 * "Orphan" – An article that is not linked to from any article on the wiki. See Special:LonelyPages.
 * OVERLINK – Linking the same words too many times in an article.

P

 * "PAG" – policies and guidelines.
 * "Permaban" – to block a user from editing for an indefinite amount of time. Usually forever.
 * "plain text" – Writing the name to an image without a link. stormcloaks.png versus Stormcloaks.png.
 * "POV" – Point of view. Writing that is biased or does not meet our standard on neutral point of view.

R

 * "RC" – Recent Changes.
 * "redlink" or "red link" – A link leading to a nonexistent page.
 * "ref" or "refs" – references.
 * "revert" or "reversion" or "rv" – undoing an desirable edit made to the wiki.
 * "RLR" – red link removal.

S

 * "SF" or "S&F" – The style and formatting guide for editing articles.
 * "SI" –
 * "sop" or "sysop" – an admin; to give administrative tools to a user (verb). Antonym of "de-sop."
 * "SK" –.

T

 * "tag" – Usually refers to an editor placing a maintenance template on an article or file. For example, "I tagged about twenty images for deletion yesterday."
 * "Tank" – a character built to withstand repeated and excessive physical blows, so as to divert, distract, or absorb the aggravation of targets so that weaker or long-ranged allies may attack.
 * "TES" –.
 * "The Wiki Which Shall Not Be Named" – UESP.net
 * "TIL" – The Imperial Library.
 * "TOC" – Table of Contents.
 * "TOU" – Wikia's Terms of Use.
 * "tp" – talk page.

U

 * "UESP" – Utah Educational Savings Plan.

V

 * "VIP" – Vandalism in progress, a page designed for users to report vandals.
 * "VSTF" – Volunteer Spam Task Force.

Z

 * "ZOS" – ZeniMax Online Studios.