Spoof, Spam, Lurk and Lag

Here are some more terms used in the conversational world of the web. They are spoof, spam, lurk and lag. In her paper "Spoof, Spam, Lurk and Lag: the Aesthetics of Text-based Virtual Realities" Lee-Ellen Marvin describes these saying, " briefly, "spoof" is unattributed communication, "spam" is an excess of communication, "lurk" is a refusal to communicate, and "lag" is a mechanical delay of communication. These expressions are used as verbs ("He spoofed! And then I was lagging.") or as nouns ("I was hit with lots of spam and there was a lurker in our midst.") There are no positive expressions in the jargon which correlate with these negative terms. The observed use of these expressions shows that they are not only used to describe technical problems but are regularly used to metaphorically describe social, cognitive, and emotional experiences."

The web has created a whole new vocabulary for people to learn