weenie

1. [on BBSes] Any of a species of luser resembling a less

amusing version of BIFF that infests many BBSes. The

typical weenie is a teenage boy with poor social skills

travelling under a grandiose handle derived from fantasy or

heavy-metal rock lyrics. Among sysops, "the weenie problem"

refers to the marginally literate and profanity-laden

flamage weenies tend to spew all over a newly-discovered

BBS.

Compare spod, computer geek, terminal junkie.

2. Among hackers, when used with a qualifier (for example, as

in Unix weenie, VMS weenie, IBM weenie) this can be

either an insult or a term of praise, depending on context,

tone of voice, and whether or not it is applied by a person

who considers him or herself to be the same sort of weenie.

It implies that the weenie has put a major investment of time,

effort and concentration into the area indicated; whether this

is good or bad depends on the hearer's judgment of how the

speaker feels about that area. See also bigot.

3. The semicolon character, ";" (ASCII 59).

(1995-01-18)