MarioWiki:Glossary

This article is under construction. Therefore, please excuse its informal appearance while it is being worked on. We hope to have it completed as soon as possible.

The Glossary is a list of gaming, computing, and Wiki terms used in the Super Mario Wiki. While entries in this list link to mainspace subjects, this page does not include definitions for fictional characters, living people, events, places and things appearing in the Mario series or relating to it in the real world.

A

Administrator

A user with Sysop or Patroller rights.

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Usually refers to opponents programmed by the game.

Autoconfirmed users

Users who have an account on the MarioWiki for at least one week and have made at least 10 edits.

Autopatrolled users

Users whose edits get automatically verified by the software. Their edits do not get displayed as new for administrators.

B

Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense (BJAODN)

A page that contains deleted content by users who thought the deleted content was humorous.

Ban Evasion

Avoiding serving the time of a block or ban by creating sockpuppet accounts to use instead of the blocked/banned account. If not infinite, the block is extended the first time, then becomes an infinite ban the second time. If infinite, the sockpuppet accounts are usually deleted.

Beta

A pre-release form of a video game. Beta versions of games are partially playable, but often do not utilize the final enemy placement, textures, or interface.

Beta Elements

Concepts that appeared in the beta version of a video game, but were cut for the final release.

Binary

A system of numerical notation to the base 2, in which each place of a number, expressed as 0 or 1, corresponds to a power of 2. The decimal number 58 appears as 111010 in binary notation, since 58 = 1 × 32 + 1 × 16 + 1 × 8 + 0 × 4 + 1 × 2 + 0 × 1.

Bit

The unit of information; the amount of information obtained by asking a yes-or-no question; a computational quantity that can take on one of two values, such as false and true or 0 and 1; the smallest unit of storage - sufficient to hold one bit.

Bitmap (BMP)

A picture created on a visual display unit where each pixel corresponds to one or more bits in memory, the number of bits per pixel determining the number of available colors.

Block

Losing the rights to edit the Super Mario Wiki for serious offences e.g. major vandalism. Only administrators can block users.

Bug

An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware, especially one that causes it to malfunction. E.g. "There's a bug in the editor: it writes things out backward." The identification and removal of bugs in a program is called "debugging".

Bureaucrats

Users that have deleting, CheckUser, blocking, UserRights, and rename rights. In other words, they are Sysops with additional rights.

Byte

Adjacent bits, usually eight, processed by a computer as a unit. Larger units are called kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terrabytes, etc.

C

Cache

A small fast memory holding recently accessed data, designed to speed up subsequent access to the same data. Most often applied to processor-memory access but also used for a local copy of data accessible over a network etc.

Cameo

A brief appearance of a character, species or item in a medium (a game, movie, comic, etc.) other than the one they originated in. The cameo is of no lasting importance to the subject or what it is appearing in.

Canon

A system of classification that separates official media products from unofficial media products, therefore determining which characters, locations, events, etc. "actually" exist in a series' fictional universe.

Cookie

A piece of data downloaded to a computer by a website, containing details of the preferences of that computer's user which identify the user when revisiting that website.

Conjecture

An unofficial name for something.

CPU (central processing unit)

Refers to a computerized player or opponent in a game. Also known as AI (artificial intelligence).

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

An extension to HTML to allow styles, e.g. colour, font, size to be specified for certain elements of a hypertext document. Style information can be included in-line in the HTML file or in a separate CSS file (which can then be easily shared by multiple HTML files). Multiple levels of CSS can be used to allow selective overriding of styles.

D

Dynamic Page List (DPL)

A MediaWiki extension that allows the user to put out a list of articles that meet certain specified criteria.

DYK

Short for "Did You Know?"

E

Easter Egg

A message hidden in the object code of a program as a joke, intended to be found by persons disassembling or browsing the code.

Edit Conflict

When two or more people try to edit the same page at the same time. After one person saves his/her changes, the rest get edit conflicts. Their changes do not go through; instead, the new version of the page is provided for them to re-edit. A textbox with the version of the page they were going to submit is also presented to them, and the difference between the two is shown.

Edit War

Two or more users persistently reverting each other's edits. Participating in an edit war is a warnable offence.

F

FA

Short for Featured Article.

Filler Character

A conjectural term used for characters that were created to fill a void. I.e. Waluigi is the opposite to Luigi as Wario is to Mario.

Fourth Wall

"Breaking the fourth wall" is when a video game character happens to notice that he or she is in a video game, or when he or she refers directly to the player.

G

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

A standard compressed file format used for pictures.

Glitch

An unusual feature of a video game, ranging from characters falling through the floor to the game crashing. Most glitches are caused by errors in the game's programming.

GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)

A time zone on the city of Greenwich in London.

H

Hexadecimal (Hex)

A numbering system that uses 16 as the radix, employing the numerals 0 through 9 and representing digits greater than 9 with the letters A through F.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

A set of standards used to tag elements of a hypertext document (such as this wiki). It is regularly used for displaying pages and formatting in the World Wide Web.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

The standard protocol for transferring hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. Compare HTML.

I

IP (Internet Protocol)

A code used to label packets of data sent across the internet, identifying both the sending and the receiving computers.

J

JPEG or JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

A standard file format for compressing pictures by disposing of redundant pixels.

L

Last Warning

The last warning permanently posted on a user's talk page for bending the rules of the wiki. If the user breaks the rules again, they will be blocked.

Life

In platformer games, there are a certain amount of lives that the player has. He or she can lose them by being hit by enemies too much or even gain them by finding extra lives. If the player loses all of his or her lives, a Game Over ensues.

Log

A record of the activity of some system, often stored in a particular file.

N

"NPC" redirects here. For information about the New Play Control! series, see here. For the Japan-only compilation game known as Nintendo Puzzle Collection, see here.

Newbie (also known as Noob or n00b)

A newcomer or novice, especially an inexperienced user of the Internet or of computers in general.

NIWA (Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance)

A network of independent wikis striving to chronicle the many diverse video game universes created by Nintendo.

NPC

Abbreviation for "non-playable character". Refers to any character in a video game that cannot be used by the player. Some examples are Bowser and Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros.

NSFW

Abbreviation for "Not Safe for Work". It usually refers to something with swearing, gore, sexual references, drugs, nudity, etc.

P

Patroller

A user who is given blocking, rollbacking, patrolling, and CheckUser rights. In other words, they are administrators who aren't considered ready to be Sysops yet.

Per

Used before a name/a group of people to mean the person agrees with that person/those people. Used in voting for Featured Articles, proposals etc.

Pipe Projects

Projects to improve the Wiki or certain aspects; users can add their names if they believe they can help.

Plagiarism

The copying of another person's work without giving any credit to the original author. This also includes altering the text (such as making the switch from active to passive. EX: "Mario stomped on the Goomba" to "The Goomba was stomped by Mario.").

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

An extensible file format for the lossless, portable, well-compressed storage of raster images.

Port

A game that was on previous consoles or handhelds that is transferred to a different console or handheld with little to no changes regarding gameplay.

R

Recovery

The act of restoring one's health, usually through restorative items, such as Coins or Mushrooms. Alternate methods include visiting Toad Houses or Inns. In Super Smash Bros. games, the term refers either to reducing one's damage percentage or returning to the stage after being attacked or falling.

Redirect

A page created intended for the purpose of leading the receiver into another page with a similar name.

Reminder

A template permanently posted on a user's talk page to get them to stop making unconstructive edits. If what they do is continued deliberately, a Warning is posted on their talk page.

Rework

Take parts of a cancelled video game and use them to make another. Some cancelled games can have parts reworked into more than one game.

RAM (Random Access Memory)

The main memory of a computer, in which data can be stored or retrieved from all locations at the same (usually very high) speed.

ROM (Read Only Memory)

Computer memory in which program instructions, operating procedures, or other data are permanently stored, generally on electronic chips during manufacture, and that ordinarily cannot be changed by the user.

RPG

Short for Role Playing Game. Some examples are Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Paper Mario.

S

Self-Destruct (or SD)

The act of knocking oneself out in a Super Smash Bros. game. A common example is missing a jump from one platform to the next and falling into the bottomless pit.

Server

A program which provides some service to other (client) programs. The connection between client and server is normally by means of message passing, often over a network, and uses some protocol to encode the client's requests and the server's responses.

Sidescroller

A linear type of level that is shown from a perspective where the directions forward and backward are left and right.

Shovelware

Extra software dumped onto a CD-ROM or tape to fill up the remaining space on the medium after the software distribution it is intended to carry, but not integrated with the distribution.

The 'Shroom

The Super Mario Wiki monthly newspaper.

Sockpuppet or Sock Puppet

An extra online identity created by a member of a discussion forum, etc., to agree with opinions submitted under his or her usual online name. It can also be used as an act of Ban Evasion.

SPAM

Short for Stupid Pointless and Annoying Message. It is a form of vandalism.

Spin-off

A game that has other gameplay types rather than the usual gameplay type it has (eg: Mario Tennis, Mario Kart).

Sysop (short forsystem operator)

An administrator who is given deletion, blocking, rollback, CheckUser, protection, and patrolling rights.

Stub

Any article that needs more information. Stubs are bad because they make the wiki look unprofessional and incomplete.

T

Template

An electronic file with a predesigned, customized format and structure, as for a fax, letter, or expense report, ready to be filled in. Templates must be added with {{Template Name}}

TOC

Short for Table of Contents.

Troll

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. Trolling is sometimes a form of vandalism.

TPP

Short for Talk Page Proposal.

U

Unlockable

A character, gameplay mode, item, or other element that can only accessed after completing a certain task in a video game.

Userbox

Boxes that users are free to create and use to describe their likes, dislikes, favorites, and other pieces of information about them.

Userbox Tower

A user's unique tower of userboxes. Starts with the userboxtop template and ends with the userboxbottom template.

Userspace

Anything that belongs to a user such as signature, certain sub-pages, talk pages, and the user page.

V

Vandalism

Any addition, deletion, or altering of content intended for the sole purpose of disrupting the peace of the wiki.

Vaporware

A term for games that did start development but were never published. In other words, it is a term applied to Cancelled video games.

W

Wiki

Software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.

World Wide Web (www)

The complete set of electronic documents stored on computers that are connected over the Internet and are made available by the protocol known as HTTP. The World Wide Web makes up a large part of the Internet.

Warning

A template permanently posted on a user's talk page to stop their bad behaviour.

Z

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