Fan Fiction. Fiction written by fan of a particular TV show, comic, game, or other entertainment property, which is set within the world of that property. Predates the Internet by years, but has taken off with the advent of online communities.

Marshall Huffman, OSU ‘08

“A MOO (MUD object oriented) is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users (players) are connected at the same time.

The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses. One is to refer to those programs descended from the original MOO server, and the other is to refer to any MUD that uses object oriented techniques to organize its database of objects, particularly if it does so in a similar fashion to the original MOO or its derivatives. Most of this article refers to the original MOO and its direct descendants, but see Non-Descendant MOOs for a list of MOO-like systems.

The original MOO server was authored by Stephen White, based on his experience from creating the programmable TinyMUCK system. There was additional later development and maintenance from LambdaMOO administrator, and former Xerox PARC employee, Pavel Curtis.

One of the most distinguishing features of a MOO is that its users can perform object oriented programming within the server, ultimately expanding and changing how the server behaves to everyone. Examples of such changes include authoring new rooms and objects, creating new generic objects for others to use, and changing the way the MOO interface operates. The programming language used for extension is the MOO programming language, and many MOOs feature convenient libraries of verbs that can be used by programmers in their coding known as Utilities. The MOO programming language is a domain-specific programming language.” See also: MUD, MUCK.

Wikipedia

“TinyMUCK or, more broadly, a MUCK, is a type of user-extendible online text-based role playing game, designed for role playing and social interaction. The backronym “Multi-User Created (or Character, or Carnal) Kingdom” is sometimes cited, but is not the actual origin of the term; “muck” is simply a play on the word “mud” in TinyMUD.” See also: MUD, MOO.

Wikipedia

“In computer gaming, a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games and social chat rooms. Typically running on an Internet server or bulletin board system, the game is usually text-driven, where players read descriptions of rooms, objects, events, other characters, and computer-controlled creatures or non-player characters (NPCs) in a virtual world. Players usually interact with each other and the surroundings by typing commands that resemble a natural language, usually English. Arguably modern graphics-based massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), such as World of Warcraft as well as social avatar virtual worlds such as Second Life could be considered MUD variants.

Traditional MUDs implement a fantasy world populated by elves, goblins, dwarves, halflings and other mythical or fantasy-based races, with players being able to take on any number of classes, including warriors, mages, priests, thieves, druids, etc., in order to gain specific skills or powers. The object of this sort of game is to slay monsters, explore a rich fantasy world, to complete quests, go on adventures, create a story by roleplaying, and/or advance the created character. Many MUDs were fashioned around the dice rolling rules of the Dungeons & Dragons series of games.

Such fantasy settings for MUDs are common, while many others are set in a science fiction–based universe or themed on popular books, movies, animations, history, and so on. Not all MUDs are games; some, more typically those referred to as MOOs, are used in distance education or for virtual conferences. MUDs have attracted the interest of academic scholars from many fields, including communications, sociology, law, and synthetic economies.

Most MUDs are run as hobbies and are free to players; some may accept donations or allow players to “purchase” in-game items, while others charge a monthly subscription fee.” See also: MOO, MUCK.

Wikipedia

“Short for “Role-Playing Game”; a game in which the player takes on the persona of a fictional character and has adventures with other characters in a world created by the Game-master, a sort of referee. Can be played with other people (“Face-to-Face” or “table-top”; also called “Pen-and-Paper” ), or over the Internet (“Play-by-E-mail&quo t; or “Play-by-Post” games; this category also includes games played on IRC or via a chat site)

Not to be confused with computer RPGs, which are a different kettle of fish altogether.”

“A contraction of ‘user network,’ [it] is a global, decentralized, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name. It was conceived by Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979. Users read and post public messages (called articles or posts, and collectively termed news) to one or more categories, known as newsgroups. Usenet resembles bulletin board systems (BBS) in most respects, and is the precursor to the various web forums which are widely used today. Discussions are threaded, with modern news reader software, as with web forums and BBSes, though posts are stored on the server sequentially.

One notable difference from a BBS or web forum is that there is no central server, nor central system owner. Usenet is distributed among a large, constantly changing conglomeration of servers which store and forward messages to one another. These servers are loosely connected in a variable mesh.[clarify] Individual users usually read from and post messages to a local server operated by their ISP, university or employer. The servers then exchange the messages between one another, so that they are available to readers beyond the original server.”

Wikipedia

Note: Wikipedia article does not cite any sources.

“A commercial Internet forum software produced by Jelsoft Enterprises.” Underlies many bulletin boards; for example, The RPF and the TrekBBS.

Wikipedia