Terminology

''All information supplied here comes courtesy of the Terminology thread on the forums. Our thanks go to all the people involved there.''

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1st stage hatchling

A hatchling that has just hatched and has no wings.

2nd stage hatchling

A hatchling with wings (or has grown bigger) and now has a gender.

A
Abandoned (page)/AP

Where non-picked bred eggs, abandoned eggs and hatchlings go.

Occurs when the Abandoned Page is full, resulting in users being unable to grab cave-born eggs off of the front page for a period of time until a certain amount of abandoned eggs are removed.
 * AP Blocked/Blocked AP

Admin

Administrator of the forums. Has the most power of any user; an admin can do pretty much anything. On the DC forums, there is only one admin: TJ09.

Adopting

The act of receiving of a dragon, kindly given by another who has an excess/doesn't want/need anymore of that breed.

Alt

Abbreviation for Alternate, referring to secondary sprites for specific dragon hatchlings/adults. Alt Blacks and Alt Dark Greens are dragons that can be obtained only by breeding for example.

Alt Lottery

Catching or keeping a specific colored egg and raising it till it hatches to see if it is an alternate sprite, with no intention of keeping the hatchling if it is the normal variety.

Approve, Abstain, Reject

The three options you can chose when looking at descriptions (note you must have 10 adult dragons to rate descriptions).

Artists (*See Spriters)

Also known as spriters, these are the wonderful creative people who have designed the dragons that you see here on Dragon Cave, often working in collaboration with others. Artists should always be treated with respect and will want you to ask permission if you wish to alter or use any of their sprites outside of Dragon Cave. Artist credits can be found at the bottom of a dragon's page when you are viewing their description and statistics.

ARK list

Act of Random Kindness. An honorary listing of site members who have shown kindness towards other members of the board enough to be recognized for it. ARK list members can be identified by a gold badge in their signature.

Army

A huge number of a specific breed that someone has amassed on his or her scroll. Their scrolls often contain small numbers of other breeds, and dozens of the breed of choice.

It can also refer to when the abandoned page or cave entrance are full of the exact same egg. (Like armies of Deep Sea that appear during mass breeds.)

Arrowhead Lineage

Arrowhead is a lineage that combines 2 opposing stairstep/staircase lineage to form an "arrow" shape.

Auto abandon

1. What will happen to an egg if you breed more eggs than your scroll limit. If you have reached the limit of eggs you are allowed, or if you have reached the total eggs and hatchlings you are allowed, the next egg you breed will automatically vanish from your scroll and be abandoned to the Abandoned Page without any action on your part. You will get a notice that the egg has auto-abandoned.

2. What will happen if a Valentine or Holiday pair breed more than one egg. You keep one, the others will auto-abandon. You will get a message that you need to select one egg to keep, at which point the other eggs will vanish from your scroll and be abandoned to the Abandoned Page without any other action on your part. If you do not select one egg to keep within the hour, all those eggs from that pair will vanish from your scroll and automatically be abandoned without any other notice or action on your part.

Auto-refresher and Auto-F-5er

An add-on for internet programs such as Firefox that automatically refreshes a web page every second/set of seconds/minutes. Considered cheating by many DC members and mods for giving an unfair advantage in catching dragons to those with the add-on.

B
BIC

An acronym standing for "back in character" - as contrasted to "out of character" (OOC). Used to denote one is roleplaying and fully in character again after real-life related comments.

Blacklist

A list of users that meet certain requirements, which can differ from site/topic to site/topic. They are "bad" users, those who are detrimental to the site/topic. Often times the Blacklist includes flamers, trolls, and spammers. Those that break the rules of the site/topic often may also be blacklisted.


 * Blacklisted: to be added to the Blacklist
 * Blacklistee/Blacklister: a user whose name is on the Blacklist. Often "banned" from a topic, as sites actually CAN ban people. When "banned" any posts they make are to be ignored. They are no longer eligible to participate in the activity of the topic, often seen with gifting/trading topics.

Bouncing

Snagging an emergency egg (typically one with less than two days left) from the abandoned page, then abandoning it as soon as it gets the extra day added to it instead of posting it on a click site or some other website to hatch it. A practice that can annoy more seasoned members of the DC collective.

Bregging

A concatenation of the word Breeder and Begging. Refers to the annoying act of PMing members of the forums and asking/begging/pleading with them to breed a specific egg for you. Someone who partakes in bregging is known as a bregger.

Bred

Antonym : Caveborn

Bred is a title given to an egg, hatchling, or dragon that is the offspring of two user owned dragons. Bred eggs can be obtained by breeding two dragons on your scroll or by adopting them at the abandoned page. User preference varies when it comes to choosing between a caveborn or bred egg/hatchling.

Bred only

A dragon breed that can be obtained only by breeding, for example: Geodes, Two-Finned Bluna and Shallow Water dragons.

Breed (*See Held Egg)

1. Action of breeding dragons, to make a new egg. Random results may occur.

2. A specific type or species of dragon.

Breedable

Any dragon that can produce eggs when bred with another dragon is considered breedable. Some dragons can only breed within their morphological types (such as Pygmies), whilst others cannot breed at all such as the Undead dragon.

Any dragon that cannot breed, regardless of whether or not the "breed" option shows up. These dragons can only be obtained through the main page during cave drops, or via other special creation means.
 * Non Breedable/Unbreedable

BSA/Breed Specific Action

Specific abilities granted to different breeds of dragons. This ability could only be be used once every x period (which may vary depending on the breed).

BUMP!

An acronym for Bring Up My Post

1. A word used when "bumping" topics back to the top of the list. When a topic doesn't get any replies in a while, it is eventually overlapped by other threads that are getting responses. The said topic is then sent to back pages, being unable to get new people to read it. As an attempt to make more people see said topic and work/discuss on it again, the word bump is posted alone, sending the topic all the way back to the top of the first page. Some informative and service threads often require lots of bumps to maintain their activity and usefulness.

2. What people do inside threads (like The Trading Thread) when they quote themselves in order to have their post part of the last/active page of the thread.

Burned scroll

When a user has done something against the rules that is bad enough for their scroll to be burned as punishment. All dragons on it disappear, and if someone tries to view it, they get the message, "You pick up the scroll labeled "(scroll name)" only to find that it is charred and impossible to read.

C
C&C (*See Concrit)

Short for "constructive criticism", this is what creators of original works prefer to receive rather than outright flames. Both spriters and writers, when asking for concrit, expect reviewers to be specific about what areas need improvement, without resorting to statements of preference without a rationale.

Catch

To catch/To help catch. The term used when another person (or group of people) try to get eggs from a multi-egg clutch, with the intent of returning them to the breeder. Breeders enlist them to catch eggs if they want to keep more than one egg in a clutch.

Camping (*See Haunting)

When someone sits around on the abandoned page or the cave repeatedly refreshing, waiting for something they want to pop up.

Caveborn/CB

Antonym : Bred

Caveborn is a title given to an egg, hatchling, or dragon that has been generated by the site and given out at hour and 5-minute drops. User preference varies when it comes to choosing between a caveborn or bred egg/hatchling.

CDN

Also referred to as CDN option. Abbreviation for Content Delivery Network. On Dragcave, the CDN option is used when talking about incubators. It is an option that can be selected when creating an incubator which doesn't involve replacing the code in the signature. In technical terms: A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a system of computers networked together across the Internet that cooperate transparently to deliver content to end users, most often for the purpose of improving performance, scalability, and cost efficiency.

Checkerboard Lineage

Checkerboard is where the same 2 breeds or breeds with color variations are used throughout the lineage so that each generation is the "other" breed/color. Therefore, when you look at the lineage, you see alternates between the 2 breeds/colors which form a checkerboard image.

Clean Lineage

A "clean" lineage usually means a lineage without inbreeding, though it might also be long and/or uneven.

Click

There is one click added per IP address every 24 hours. A click is gained when someone clicks on the dragon, or on the 'view' link.

Click Happy

A term describing a person who cannot seem to control their clicking finger and is relatively successful at getting what they click. The usage is similar to that in "report happy" where someone reports every minor infraction they see; a click happy person clicks every egg, rare egg, hatchling, etc. that they see out of reflex, whether they truly want said dragon or not. Click happies are often blamed by themselves for "locking" their scrolls (*see scroll lock), and by others in the past for "swiping" trades before Teleport was added. Related to, but not the same as, fast fingers.

Clutch (*See Breed, Held egg)

The number of eggs produced by breeding, or eggs acquired in one instance.

Code

The 4 or 5 alphanumeric code unique to each dragon and is widely used in trading and gifting. e.g. http://dragcave.net/viewd/12AB (12ABC is referred to as the CODE).

Copypasta

Shortened form for copy-paste, usually used in the Dragon Requests section. It refers to a concept that is exactly the same as another, or copied, then pasted. Though requests based on the same thing are okay, copypastas are prohibited.

Completed List

A list of all completed dragon requests. Sprites occasionally get removed for pending release or because they have been declined for use.

Completed Request Section

A sub-forum in the Suggestion/Request board that houses all completed requests. Posting is prohibited unless you point out a major flaw (anatomy error, file type error, lack of transparency, description flaws, etc) and will earn you a 10% warn for unwarranted bumping.

Concrit

Short for "constructive criticism", this is what creators of original works prefer to receive rather than outright flames. Both spriters and writers, when asking for concrit, expect reviewers to be specific about what areas need improvement, without resorting to statements of preference without a rationale.

Cooldown

Generally refers to the time it takes for an egg freshly-caught from the Cave is able to be traded or abandoned (5 hours). Cooldown time is sometimes abbreviated as CD. Can also refer to the time it takes for a certain dragon to be able to use a Breed Specific Action again.

C&P

Copy and paste (a post containing a statement which has been copied and pasted - refers to a repetitive statement).

Customsort2 - (*Old sorting method, no longer applicable)

By following the url http://dragcave.net/account/customsort2, a user is able to use a different sorting method in which all the dragons will be displayed horizontally, thus making it easier to sort a bigger scroll.

D
Database Error

An unfortunate event in which the entire DC site is blocked off except for the Not Found page. Instead, a message simply saying "Database Error" is shown. The largest one yet lasted for an entire day in November 2008.

Datamonster/DM or D/M 

An evil dragon that devoured users' dragons on July 20th, 2009. TJ rescued/revived most of the lost dragons but this dragon may make an appearance again.

Acronym for Datamonster Survivors - Survivors of the Datamonster who may or may not be participating in the DMSLP (see DMSLP). Acronym for Datamonster Survivors Lineage Project - A breeding project that involves listing all the survivors of the Datamonster, breeding purebred generations from those survivors and documenting the lineage.
 * DMS or DM/S
 * DMSLP

DC

Dragon Cave - the site. Not at all related to comics.

DC IRC

An abbreviation for DragCave Internet Relay Chat. The DC Chat is a place where everyone can hang out and chat with other users, moderators and TJ. The chat has its own set of rules, and a topic on the IRC can be found in the Site Discussion.

Description

A small user-written text that appears under the regular description for each breed, that may be written under the Actions page for all adult dragons and frozen hatchlings. Before being published, it's reviewed by members of the site and by a mod as well before it is allowed to appear on the individual page of a dragon. There are several rules applied to writing descriptions, which involve mostly a good grasp of the written English language, humility and maintaining a consistent temporal setting.

Doctored or Dead Lineage

A lineage that technically fits the requirements of an even-gen or purebred lineage, but only because the dragon or dragons in it that did not fit the lineage requirement were killed after breeding, leaving only a tombstone. In the past, users would create these kinds of lineages to make it look like their dragon was a low generation offspring, but this has not been possible since a generation counter has been added to the lineage view.

Dorkface (*See Lineage)

The Story of the Dorkface Clan:

Once upon a time, not so very long ago ladiefare was on a quest to acquire female Gold Dragons from the cave to add to her breeding stable. She had captured 3 Gold eggs,which was no small feat!As they grew,the first one gendered as a male.She named him Mighty Midas and threatened the next egg in line to gender that should he also be male he would be named Dorkface, so it'd better be a girl!

Well, he did not listen and was named Midas Dorkface!(The third egg also gendered male and was gifted to a fellow Dragcave addict and was named Midas Dorkface II btw! He is an honorary Dork!)

As time went by he produced many eggs and became the most favored Dragon in ladiefare's stable. One day when she got bored ladiefare thought up The Quest.The Quest was a combined effort with the community of DragonSpam, where the Dorkface offspring had been gifted for months, to collect one of every breed of Dragon descended from the Dorkface line that others had bred with their own Dragons.

Thus the Dorkface Clan was born, prospered and produces many eggs (they are very prolific breeders) to this day.

Doom (*See WSOD)

That horrible blank page you get where you know that all the rares are spawning while you madly hit F5.

Drag N' Drop Link (*Old sorting method, no longer applicable)

Before server transfer: By following this URL you are directed into a secret feature inside Dragcave which allows the users to sort their scrolls in a drag and drop fashion. Very usefull for bigger scrolls. Drag N' Drop is now known as the Alternate Custom Sort.

Drop

1. When eggs appear on the front page.


 * Hour drop: The drop that occurs upon the hour and lasts for more then 3 eggs.
 * 5 minutes drop: The drop that occurs every 5 minutes.

Duplicate

A possible status for a thread which usually causes great exasperation among "experienced" members. Duplicates are, as the name suggests, threads that have similar topics already been made, no matter if they are labeled incorrectly or weeks old, and should not be created. In a duplicate, one should not post "SPAM!" or anything to that effect, but instead direct the thread creator to the other existing thread, lest they anger the mods.

E
Egg Rush (*See Hour drop)

The drop that occurs upon the hour and lasts for more then 3 eggs.

Egg Killer

Completely unrelated to the option to kill an egg oneself through the action's page. Generally as an act of revenge, an egg killer is someone who found a way to give a massive amount of either clicks or views to a single egg, leading to its premature death by soft shell. There was some trouble in the site with Egg Killers in the past, which led to a small case of mass hysteria and eventually to the ban of several sites and to the eradication of the Type I soft shell (egg death by excess of Views alone). This activity seems to be non existent right now, and is considered as the highest grade of malicious action against an egg and against DragCave in general.

Egg Killing

A frequent vent (or for a small minority, enjoyable activity) on DC. The action refers to taking a new egg without high views, that can be abandoned easily, and using the kill option on it instead. This usually results in a dead egg, a blemish on one's DC record, and a very angry breeder. Said breeder may claim they will not breed any more eggs for "ungrateful idiots", though this promise is usually broken quickly.

Egg Lag

1. The lag causing an egg to appear a few times after refresh, causing you to click on it madly only to receive the dreaded "This egg has been taken" message.

2. The lag causing a gold egg to appear a few times after refresh, causing you to click on it madly and hit F5 at the same time out of habit, only to receive the "adopt an egg" message with a dreaded pink egg on it.

Eggspam

1. Posting your eggs in entries on the board, rather than your signature. Not allowed on DC Forums.

2. Making pointless topics asking for clicks for your eggs. This is not allowed per board rules and will usually be reported at first sighting.

Egg Sitter(s)

A person or group of people who will look after your scroll whilst you are away. This includes helping them to get views and making sure they don't die.

Egg Stages or Egg Sequences

A term used to denote the different "stages" of hatching, or cracking, an egg can be in. Many people use different terms for these stages:


 * First crack/just started cracking: the first crack on an egg, a small diagonal line on the upper left
 * Usually not given a name: the second crack on an egg, a jagged diagonal line that forks into two parts
 * Full crack/crack across/vertical split: the third crack on an egg, a jagged vertical line that goes all the way across the egg
 * Small hole: the fourth crack on an egg, a small, diamond-shaped hole in the middle of the egg
 * Big hole: the last cracking stage; a large black hole in the center with small cracks radiating from around it
 * Jagged horizontal line, only showing half the egg sprite: your egg died

Emergency

This depends mostly on the site or community you happen to be on. Most communities do not consider an egg or hatchling an "emergency" unless it has 2 days or fewer to grow up. However, some are as strict as requiring 1 day or less, and others are as lenient as classifying anything with 3 days or less as an emergency. The site itself considers emergency as any growing thing having less than 4 days left on their death timer, as this is usually the point where they would have proceeded to the next life cycle had they gained enough views.

Emergency Room/ER

A very common name for a page inside Fansites where emergency eggs are listed so that people entering it may give them views and also copy their codes and post them elsewhere if they feel like it.

EQ

Abbreviation for the Earthquake BSA (Green/Pebble dragons). When used, it gives all eggs in scroll (including fogged eggs) a possible chance at hatching early (they may or may not "run away" to the abandoned page), dying or no changes at all.

EST- Eastern Standard Time

A time zone located mostly along the eastern coast of North America and the western coast of South America, and also TJ's time zone and the time kept on Dragon Cave- as a result, this may also be referred to as "cave time". It is calculated as GMT -5 (five hours earlier than Greenwich Mean Time) and observes Daylight Savings Time (DST), which moves the clock forward one hour every spring and backward again in the fall.

ETA

ETA is an acronym for Edit To Add. Often used by posters who just submitted a post, but realized that they had forgotten something. Going back to edit their post, some users may add ETA just to clarify that this was added later, by edit.

Even Gen Lineage

Even Gen is when ALL possible slots within a dragon's lineage is filled. All generations of the egg or dragon are equal and even when you look at the lineage. There is no gap or blank spaces. The first founding dragons are always Cave Born.

F
F5 

The refresh button located above the 5 and 6 keys. On many DC'ers' keyboards, this button has been badly abused by repeatedly using it to refresh the abandoned or cave pages. Also used as a verb, meaning to refresh internet pages.

F5-ing

Constantly refreshing using the F5 key.

F5 frenzy

Any time you madly use F5 trying to get an egg.

Fail Page

The "Cannot Find Server"/"404"/"500"/etc page when DC refuses to load for whatever reason. Thought to be annihilated by the server transfer of 2009, only to be brought back a week later.

Failticket

A hatchling that turned out to be of the normal variety and not alt - in relation to playing the alt lottery.

Fansite(s)

A wonderful website(s) created by DC fan(s) that many DC'ers may be able to submit eggs/hatchlings. These fansites are generally well organized and provide a variety of services to help make the DC gameplay more enjoyable. Fansite(s) can also be a forum, where users are allowed to chat about non-DC related topics, express their own artwork, and just have fun in general.

Fast Fingers

People who have the ability to snatch eggs with lighting speed ability, usually interfering with a trade/gift along the way in the past before Teleport was added.

FAQs

Short for "Frequently Asked Questions". Several stickied topics the new members often fail to read that provide all the useful information that they would ever need to know about the basic DragCave game play. Always standing on top of the Help forum, this compilation of threads have all the rules and information cleared in a way capable of making need for a help forum obsolete.

Festival of Eggs

An annual Easter event to hunt for non-hatching eggs that appears in random DC pages. Participants collect these colorful eggs in an Easter basket. When the event is over, those who participated received a small Easter basket badge on their scroll.

FFA

Abbreviation for Free For All. Use when referring to an event where a person will provide teleport link for the eggs/hatchlings that is to be abandoned. The abandoned egg/hatchling is then freely available for anyone trying for it.

Flaming

A personal attack by one person on another person that has nothing to do with the topic at hand. This most often occurs because one person has nothing constructive to add and is called a noob, or has a mini mod come by and insert criticism.

Flight

A collective noun for a group of dragons. Example: A flight of Skywings soared overhead, arching towards the city spires.

Forcing

The act of dropping an egg (using the 'Kill' action) in the hope of forcing it out alive and early.

Forumite

If you have an account on the forum, and you interact with the rest of us on this message board, you are a Forumite.

Fog

When an egg is fogged, it is hidden. It looks like it is covered in a cloud of fog. It will not receive any clicks or views.

The few weeks where the whole cave was covered in a fog. Dragons could not breed, no eggs were found at the cave entrance and dragons were covered in a fog sprite. This is the period of time between the copyrighted ("old") sprites, and the user-made ("new") sprites. Sprites were replaced at this time. Members were also in an uproar at this time. When the Fog of 2008 is mentioned, it makes members from before then feel old.
 * The Fog (of 2008):

Fresh Meat

A term used to refer to new moderators or future new moderators, often by current staff or members wishing to become moderators.

Freezing

Stopping a hatchling from growing up.

G
Gender

In a hatchling, to reach the second stage, causing the gender to be visible on the View page and players' scrolls.

Gender Heavy

When a scroll is primarily comprised of Dragons which contain the same gender. When scrolls reach/pass approximately a 2:3 ratio, they can be considered gender heavy. A female heavy scroll is comprised of primarily female Dragons, and a male heavy scroll is the opposite.

Gendered Wrong

When a hatchling turns out a different gender than expected/wanted/needed.

Getdragon code/link (before Teleport)

A link that when clicked on/typed in allows a user to adopt an abandoned or caveborn dragon.


 * You may still see this reference in some fansites but since the server changes, the correct link to adopt abandon dragons is now http://dragcave.net/abandoned/**** (CODE) - No longer relevant since Teleport was added.

GD

General Discussion section of the forums.

Gifting

A term for people coordinating drops and pickups on the abandoned page. Same as trading, but only one-way.

Glitch

Can refer to a problem in the gaming code, resulting in a problem with the site. (Similar to a bug.) It can also mean something that wasn't supposed to happen even if no bug is causing it, such as the rainbow sort revealing the names of dragons. Often people will take advantage of glitches, but if you find one it's best to report it, because many times you'll get in trouble if you take advantage of one.

GoN (*See BSA)

Guardian of Nature - A breed of dragon obtainable only through the Summon BSA - by combining the forces of the Legendary Trio (Magma, Ice, Thunder Dragons.) The chance of success is extremely low and the Summon action can only be performed once every 2 weeks.

H
Hard Refresh

The key sequence Ctrl + F5, refreshing and reloading the entire page instead of just some changes.

Hatchery

A very common name for a page inside Fansites where non-emergency eggs and sometimes hatchlings are listed, but due to the name, hatchlings are rarely accepted in hatcheries. They serve as a list of eggs members of the fansite can click if they feel like helping other members, and also as a ground for multi-egg viewing with hitting F5 as few times as possible.

Hatchling

A newborn baby dragon; just emerge from its shell.

An endearing term referring to a hatchling.
 * Hatchie/Hatchy

Haunting (*See Camping)

When someone sits around on the abandoned page or cave repeatedly refreshing, waiting for something they want to pop up.

Held Eggs

Eggs that have been produced by a breeder, but not dropped yet. In the past, a breeder would message a getcode to those interested in acquiring such an egg and then "drop" (in this case, select another egg to keep) the eggs at a prearranged time. This has since been replaced with Teleport.

Hide

The act of fogging an egg.

Hidden eggs

Eggs that are fogged.

Hoard

Informally, it means to collect multiple dragons of the same breeds; while the term can be applied to commons, it is usually dozens of rare dragons that causes the most anger among those who do not hoard.

The subject was finally banned by a resident mod on the Venting thread (and therefore everywhere) after multiple flame wars. Many people have one of two viewpoints: that hoarding is a natural right and the point of DC, or that hoarding prevents people without amazing internet from getting rares.

Holiday Dragons

Also used to be called "Seasonal Dragons" on occasion, but this has since died out after confusion with the Seasonal Dragon breed. Holiday Dragons which are special dragons only released during certain holidays, such as Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's Day. One of these, once called Christmas Dragons, are now called Holiday Dragons on the site, so the phrase can sometimes refer specifically to the dragons released near the end of December.

Hunting

The process of pursuing a greatly-wanted dragon, either from the cave or the AP.

Hyper egg

When the egg has a really big hole before day 4, and you have to wait a couple days for it to hatch.

I
ICU/Intensive Care Unit

A place where people who forget to post on normal fansites can post their emergency (*see Emergency) eggs. These places used to be often taken advantage of by unscrupulous/ignorant users who see them as easy places to get quick views, even though their eggs have large amounts of time. Often these people were well repaid by the soft-shell their 7 day eggs get from massive overviewing- now most fansites will reject any eggs with 4 days or more left on their timer. Also the name of a thread in Site Discussion, offering a specialized ICU service.

inb4.lock

In before lock. To post in a forum topic before it gets lock. Posting inb4.lock is considered SPAM and you will receive a 10% warning for this violation.

Inbred/Inbreeding

When a Dragon has children with a family member, such as a sibling or its parents. Inbreeding is often accidental, or done in order to maintain a purebred lineage.

Incubator

Image with small pictures of all or some of a user's dragons. They do nothing on their own, but most users use them to link to their scrolls. The incubators generated by the site look like pieces of parchment with the owner's username written on them. Some people make their own, and these have various forms. Sometimes, any dragcave-themed picture that leads to a scroll is termed "incubator," even if it does not showcase the user's dragons in the way that more common ones do.

Incuhatch

The act of waiting until an egg is down to 4 days, then using a Red dragon to incubate it down to 3 days. Once this is done, the egg may be added to any combination of ERs for an insta-hatchie.

In Queue (*See Limbo)

The state of an egg being in a place where all the hungry rare-searchers are attempting to find the code to snatch it off abandoned. Often used with the phrase "bred eggs" to indicate that extra eggs have been auto-abandoned by a breeder. This status is usually possible because no one wants all those extra pinks in queue on abandoned anyways. Technical explanation: Since there are too many eggs on the abandoned page, other eggs are "backed up" and only the oldest eggs show up. This is why no eggs with more than, say, 5 days will show up at many times. The eggs in the backlog are considered to be "in queue" or "in limbo".

IOU

Acronym for I Owe You. This term is widely used in the trading subforum. An IOU is when you or your trading partner make a promise to deliver part of the trade at a later time.


 * Please note that IOU is now not allowed in any trading posts you make. However, you may state that you accept IOU in your forum signature.

IRC (*See DC IRC)

Abbreviation for Internet Relay Chat.

K
Kill Limit

The coding that automatically burned your pixel scroll when you have killed ten eggs (note that hatchlings/adults do not count) using the kill button (accidental deaths do not count).


 * With the new server update, this limit has been replaced with a system where only five can be killed before the kill option cannot be used at all.

L
Lag

When pages take a long time to load or time out. 'How much lag' is usually measured in how long it takes a page to load.

Lagcave

One of the nicer terms given to DC when the cave and/or AP are lagging badly. Often the source of much frustration, hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing and wailing, especially during gift/trades.

Lagmonster

The physical personification of the lag experienced in the cave. First appeared on March 17th, 2009, causing users to suffer extreme excruciating pain waiting for the cave to load. Since it's appearance, many users have rallied behind the creation of a lagmonster dragon.

Leetle

From Urban Dictionary:

1. A very tiny and disgustingly cute and/or fascinating thing.

2. A whole lot!

Leetle Tree

A time period from December 29th to Dec 31st where tiny trees can be picked off of both the cave and the AP. They count as eggs, do not register clicks or views and are unkillable. There is a limit per scroll of one.

Leetle Trees have start dropping again in the main cave since Dec 28th, 2010. According to TJ, the first recurring drop was in commemoration of their 2nd Anniversary. No time frame has been given as to when the leetle trees would cease to drop.

Legacy Sort

The old custom sort, where users can sort their dragons by giving them a numerical value.

LiT- No longer relevant with the introduction of Teleport

An abbreviation for Lost in Trade. The LiT was a topic in the Site Discussion where you could go, following the first page rules, to post about a dragon you've missed in a trade. Hopefully, by posting in the LiT you can either get a replacement from a friendly forum user or even get the original dragon returned.

Limbo (*See In Queue)

The state of an egg being in a place where all the hungry rare-searchers are attempting to find the code to snatch it off abandoned. Often used with the phrase "bred eggs" to indicate that extra eggs have been auto-abandoned by a breeder. This status is usually possible because no one wants all those extra pinks in queue on abandoned anyways. Technical explanation: Since there are too many eggs on the abandoned page, other eggs are "backed up" and only the oldest eggs show up. This is why no eggs with more than, say, 5 days will show up at many times. The eggs in the backlog are considered to be "in queue" or "in limbo".

Lineage

1. A dragon's family tree. Only bred dragons have any kind of lineage, those picked up from the cave won't. Some people will pick up certain dragons because they like their lineage (like the names, breeds, etc of the dragon's family).

2. A family of dragons which follows a certain criteria or pattern:
 * All dragons are of the same breed (pureblood lineage)
 * All pairings are formed by dragons of two breeds only (for example, only gold x white pairings)
 * All dragons have a themed name or a family name (ex. Dorkface, Thuwed)
 * All dragons descend from the same dragon (ex. Dorkfaces all descend from Midas Dorkface)

Lister

A person who has followed the rules on The Giving Tree (tgt/TGT) thread in the Site Discussion forum to be put on a request list for a particular kind of dragon. Anyone with that type of dragon may contact them and offer it to them as a gift.

Locked scroll

Scroll filled with eggs and/or hatchlings, so one doesn't have room for anything from the cave or the AP.

Lurking

1. A user who reads and frequents the forum but doesn't post very often.

2. Where you're haunting the egg drops and/or AP.

M
Mass Breed

The very annoying condition when there is an overwhelming amount of eggs on the abandoned page (also known as AB or AP). The eggs are generally all one type, and in the past would sometimes block the main cave from releasing cave born eggs until the AP was cleared. Nowadays this term is often used to refer to the AP being filled with just a single breed of dragon, usually caused by scheduled "mass breeding" events on the forum from users trying to achieve this result.

Mature

When a dragon reaches its adult form.


 * Mature Hatchling (*See 2nd Stage Hatchling)

Minimod

What a regular user can get called, if someone else thinks that he/she is acting too much like a mod/correcting other users inappropriately.

Missingno

A dragon that doesn't have a species. There is only one in known existence, and it looks just like a cloud of fog. It is named after a glitch in the early Pokemon games.

Mod

Moderator of the forums. Depending on rank, mods may have the power to lock, delete, bump or sticky threads, edit posts that aren't theirs, and increase a user's warn level. Mods can be global, meaning that they moderate all boards, or confined to a certain board or category of boards. They also have the final say on whether or not a dragon's description is approved or rejected.

Mystery/Mystery Egg

The eggs that show up in the biomes during the the hour and 5 min drops. Only the egg description is included to give hint of what the mystery egg might be.

N
ND

An abbreviation for Neglected Dragon.

ND Experiments

An abbreviation for Neglected Dragon Experiments. This is a topic/group of people who are carrying out controlled experiments to try and find out how to create a Neglected dragon from various theories. The experiments are still being carried out. A topic on this can be found in the Site Discussion.

Necro-ing

Reviving a thread that has been inactive for months, often times with useless comments.

Newbie (NewB, NooB)

1a. A person with no adult dragons. This person has yet to show that they can raise a dragon and may often be termed as such until one or more adult dragons are on the scroll.

1b. A person who has fewer than 5 adult dragons. This person might still be considered new by many as they have only had one set of eggs grow up and may still be learning the ropes.

2. A person who doesn't read the rules before posting in the forum, often manifesting as egg spam.

3. A semi derogatory term for any stupid post made by a member of the forum community, even if that person has been here a while. This usage of the word is most often the cause for flaming on a forum.

Newspaper

A rolled up newspaper used by certain artists to keep n00bs in line. It has also been used to punish those who edit without permission and request while requests are closed.

NIB

An acronym used often in the trading subforum referring to Non In-Bred dragons.

Ninja'd or ph34r

1. A situation where someone posts the same information as you do just before you hit 'add reply'. Entries are often edited to say ninja'd.

2. When an egg is nabbed during an attempted trade/gifting (before Teleport was added) or finding out that an egg on the abandoned page or main page has already been picked up once you've clicked on it.

Nunnery

The figurative place where the female dragons who reject all attempts at breeding live. Male dragons can also be said to live in a nunnery if they reject all breeding attempts, but it is a rare usage of the term.

Nursery

A less common name for a page inside Fansites where emergency eggs, or eggs and hatchlings in general, are listed so that people entering it may give them views and also copy their codes and post them elsewhere if they feel like it.

O
Off scroll

Referring to when a dead egg/hatching will be removed from one's scroll. It takes 2 weeks for dead dragons to be removed.

OOC - also denoted by (( action ))

An acronym for "out of character", primarily used in roleplays when the roleplayer is making comments/asking questions not from the point of view of their character. Using too much OOC in literate/advanced roleplays is generally frowned upon, though in others OOC may make up the majority of the posts due to the roleplayers' natural inclination to chat instead of roleplay.

OP

1. Original Post: A way to refer to the first post created in the thread you're currently looking at or posting in.

2. Original Poster: A way to refer to the person that created the thread you're currently looking at or posting in.

Orphan

A abandoned hatchling, most commonly Dark Greens and Blacks from people trying for alts.

OT

A term that stands for "off topic". Most threads/topics/boards are related to a specific subject. However, when people deviate from that subject, it is called being off topic. Used in a way, when people are talking about a specific subject, but something of other matters may flicker across their mind, and their initial subject may change.

P
PB/Pureblood/Purebred (*See also Lineage)

Acronym for Pureblood/Purebred. PB dragons are dragons with all the same breed in its lineage. The lineage type itself can then vary such as being even generation or a staircase.

Perfect Gen Lineage

1. A Perfect Gen is one in which all dragons are of the same breed. Color variations and alt status usually do not count against the "perfect" status. Nowadays, this is more often referred to as "PB" or "Pure Bred".

2. Perfect Generation is when you have reached a specific goal with your Even Generation-breeding. A Perfect Generation is always an Even Generation but with a bonus. For example; each and every dragon in the line is a Magi, or it’s all made up of Water/White-couples. A special goal has been achieved, more than just being Even Generation. credit to Even/Perfect Generations V2 Thread

In essence, a Perfect Gen lineage is usually define by one's breeding goal and does not adhere strictly to any rules governing the Even/Stairstep gens.

A combination of Even Gen and Perfect Gen. In this case, to be even perfect, a perfect lineage dragon must also be even gen.
 * Even Perfect Generation

Phantom Clicks

What happens when you click an egg or hatchling and no new clicks (or no clicks at all) show up.

Phased out (*See Retired)

When a breed is no longer available in the cave. Adults and frozen hatchlings can still be seen on scrolls, but no new eggs of that breed can be obtained. Phased out dragons used to be the Old Pink/Bright Pink dragons and the Frill dragons.

Pillow shaded

A type of shading where the light source originates from the point of view of the viewer. This style of shading is typically frowned upon, as it makes sprites appear very 2D.

Pixel (*See Sprite)

A pixel is a small square of color of variable size and intensity that will make part of a grid of similar squares. The grid, whereas known as "Bitmap", is always either square or rectangular in shape, and it's measurements come in pixels, meaning that a Sprite with the 60x50 dimensions is made up of a bitmap with 60 pixels in width and 50 pixel in height. The pixel's color information is stored accordingly to to the intensity of three primary colors: Red, Green and Blue. The information about a color in a single pixel may be given by the design programs in two languages, where the red color may be said to either be the the "Hex" color #FF0000 or it may be the RGB (short for RedGreenBlue) color 255,0,0.

Poke/Poking

People will type that they are *poking* their eggs/hatchlings as a show of being frustrated that they haven't hatched or grown up yet.

Pokemon Invasion/Pokemon Night

A time period that started on December 27th and lasted for a mere 7 hours where some DC sprites were replaced with Pokemon sprites by TJ as a play on the similarities to its catchphrase "Gotta catch em all".

Progress List

The Progress List shows the current development of sprites for new dragon suggestions. However, not every single suggestion may be on the List.

PM

Private Message used in forum communication between members.

Q
QFT

An abbreviation for Quoted for Truth. Often used when someone makes statement so logical and true that another person cannot help but quote them to preserve the accuracy of the statement.

R
Rainbowsort

A secret link that got wiped after being found out a bug in it that could be used to tell a new breed's species before adults were released. It used to automatically save the dragons in a scroll like if they were forming a rainbow. Very eye-appealing when used and then scrolled through on bigger scrolls.

Rare

An egg/hatchling not usually found.

Rareflex Clicking (*See Reflex Clicking)

Similar as Reflex Clicking but occurs only when rares appear.

Reflex Click

When you see a dragon (egg or hatchling) on the abandoned page, that you may have been hunting before, and reflexively click on it. Even if you currently do not want it.

Rescue

Taking in an emergency or unwanted egg or hatchling.

Retired (*See Phased Out)

When a breed is no longer available in the cave. Adults and frozen hatchlings can still be seen on scrolls, but no new eggs of that breed can be obtained. Phased out dragons used to be the Old Pink/Bright Pink dragons and the Frill dragons.

Rick Scroll'd

The act of creating a fake incubator linked to a Rick Roll with eggs from the Progress List in order to lure people into getting Rick Roll'd. Usually followed by a facepalm.


 * Update: This practice has since been banned and any members who attempt to rick scroll another member will receive a warning.

Room

Space on a scroll for new dragons. If a user needs to "make room" for (a) new dragon(s), their scroll is currently locked. If they "have room" for (a) new dragon(s), their scroll is not currently locked.

RP (also known as roleplay)

An activity on many forums, and also in real life, where one pretends to be a "character" rather than speaking as themselves. Roleplays may be done with one other person or with large groups, and each person may control several characters. Most roleplay characters have a different look and personality range from average humans or have powers that clearly cannot exist in real life.

Roleplaying forums are generally subdivided by skill level (literacy), types of "intros" (first posts, which generally describe the "charrie" and setting/plot), rules, and settings (ex dragons, teenage mutants, angsty high school preppies w/ mutations that let them fly and kill people quickly, etc.)

RP Approvers

Their job is to patrol the Unapproved RP section. There, they critique RPs until they are ready to be moved to the Other or Dragon Cave RP sections. They have the ability to move RPs out of Unapproved to those two sections. Essentially, it is their job to make sure that any RPs that are moved to those two sections meet a certain standard, depending on what literacy rating the RPs are going for. They are there to help people improve and learn during the RP creation process.

S
Saurian

A bizarre language used in Star Fox Adventures that has been adapted by TJ, for the usage of announcing a new egg or some other important announcements. These announcements can be found in the "News" section of the forum. The language itself is basically a scramble of English letters. Announcements in the most recent years have dropped the use of Saurian.

Scroll

Refers to the link you can use to let others see your dragons. It is also your account on DC and where all your dragons are kept.

Scroll goal

Any goal a member has for his/her scroll, like collecting all kinds of dragons.

Scroll locked

Scroll filled with eggs and/or hatchlings, so one doesn't have room for anything new from the cave or the AP.


 * New users can have 4 eggs with 12 total growing creatures. Bronze badge brings you up to 5 eggs/15 total, silver is 6/18, and gold is a whopping 7 eggs at a time with 21 total living things.

SD

Site Discussion Section of the forums.

Secret Caves/Secret Links

Links to certain parts of the site that have no specific way to be reached from the site itself. Most got wiped as they were found and TJ wanted them left in secrecy.


 * Pages that are not published include:
 * A tool to maintain the S1 status in frozen S1 hatchlings (in the past, hatchlings would grow to S2 even when frozen- this tool was used to correct this after the site change was made)
 * http://dragcave.net/graveyard
 * http://dragcave.net/%E0%B2%A0_%E0%B2%A0
 * http://dragcave.net/makeallmyeggsgold
 * http://dragcave.net/thuwed
 * http://dragcave.net/wilderness
 * http://dragcave.net/wilderness/young

Site Maintenance

Occurs daily at 3am EST. Maintenance time varies and can take up between half and hour to more than an hour and a half. During site maintenance, DC will be inaccessible/unavailable.

Stalk (*See camping/haunting)

When someone sits around on the abandoned page or cave repeatedly refreshing, waiting for something they want to pop up.

Snag (before Teleport)

Commonly used term for what people do when they manage to get a trade-intended egg from the abandoned page.

Snap clicks

Another Internet add-on which allows a user to easily click on multiple objects at the same time. Deemed illegal by DC mods and TJ09 due to giving an unfair advantage in catching eggs (especially when used with an auto-refresher), and because it causes an additional (and rather pronounced) strain on the already-abused server.

Sniping (before Teleport)

The act of deliberately spying on an ongoing trade or gifting between two users and then attempting and succeeding to acquire the egg before its recipient, typically via getcode.

Soft shell

When the views and or clicks of a dragon are too high and the egg becomes sick, and will die if not taken care of.

Sort/Sorting

The act of arranging dragons in your scroll according to different preference.

Sprite (*See Pixel)

A sprite is a bidimensional pixelated image or animation that is used in computer graphics that is integrated in a bigger scene. Sprites have been used in old school video games as a way to improve performance, where individual animated bitmaps (the sprites themselves) for the main character or the enemies, would scroll on a fixed background. With the move to 3D gaming, sprites became misused, to be replaced by tri-dimensional models, however, sprites could still be found in 3D games, sometimes over textures, as rotating "flat" objects, or even on an object that looked the same regardless of the angle the game camera was looking at it from.

In DC, all the dragons are considered sprites, and thus, all of the cave's art is considered to be user-made pixel art.

Spriters (*See Artists)

Also known as artists, these are the wonderful creative people who have designed the dragons that you see here on Dragon Cave, often working in collaboration with others. Artists should always be treated with respect and will want you to ask permission if you wish to alter or use any of their sprites outside of Dragon Cave. Artist credits can be found at the bottom of a dragon's page when you are viewing their description and statistics.

SSS

Soft Shell Sickness. Refers to the condition of an egg, when it is sick and has a soft shell.

Staircase/Stairstep Lineage

Stairstep/Staircase is a lineage which starts with a caveborn pair and adds a caveborn dragon with each generation as the mate of the previous's offspring, causing the lineage to form a pattern resembling a set of stairs.


 * Double Staircase : A variation where you use second gens to build the stairs as opposed to cbs.
 * Spiral Staircase / Alternating Gender: A form of staircase in which the bred dragons alternate genders every generation. Say you breed a CB sunrise to a CB sunset. You get an egg and it grows up male. You breed male to a CB female, and influence the resulting egg to be female, and after that grows up female, breed it to a CB male and influence the resulting egg to be male. And voila, you have an alternating gender spiral shape.

Stats

Statistics of an egg/hatchling usually written in the form of Views/Unique Views/Clicks, ie 65/34/12

Swiping (before Teleport)

Accidentally interfering with a trade, this being different than sniping because it is an accident and occasionally the person who swiped the dragon will try and find out who the trade was actually meant for; though more often it is by someone who has no idea and thinks they just got lucky.

T
TJsort

A method of sorting dragons the same way TJ09 has them arranged on his scroll. This is done by by visiting this page and clicking "save custom sorting" at the bottom of the page. (Link may or may not work anymore.)

TGT/The Giving Tree

A popular thread for gifting eggs or hatchlings.

TL;DR

Too long, didn't read. Used when referring/replying to a prior post that is too long that one just can't read the whole of it.

TOD/ToD

Abbreviation for Time of Death, the exact time (usually down to the minute) at which an egg or hatchling runs out of time and dies. TOD is used mainly in ND Experiments.

Trading

Term for people coordinating drops and pickups usually by way of Teleport. One person gets x, and gives y back.

Trading currency

The "price" assigned to a specific dragon when trading, or asking for another dragon in trade of one's own. For example, usually traders that are looking to trade their rares ask for another rare in payment. Likewise, the commons are also traded for other commons. It is unlikely that a person trading off a rare will accept a common as trade.

Timing Out

When an egg or hatchling runs out of time and dies.

Trio/Legendary Trio

The three "elemental" dragons, released together in November 2009. The three dragons are the Ice dragon, the Magma dragon and the Thunder dragon. A complete adult trio (one of each breed, gender irrelevant) is required to perform the "Summon" BSA option.

Troll

A person on the forum posts their opinion on a subject and doesn't give any reasoning for their opinion, and usually doesn't believe in what they posted anyway. Can also be a person who makes easily defeated arguments on a subject and won't admit that they are being unreasonable or ignore all counter arguments.

Twitch Click or Twitch Hit (*See Reflex Click)

See Reflex click. Term is also used as Twitch hit when applied to refreshing when the person wanted to click an egg.

U
UFT

Abbreviation of Up for Trade (referring to an egg or hatchling which has been offered for trade for another egg/hatchling.

V
Views

The number of times an egg/hatchling is viewed. The max number of view:unique view ratio is 15:1.

One unique view is given to each egg/hatchling viewed from one IP address.
 * Unique Views

W
Wall of --- 

On the abandoned page, since the egg sprites are stacked in neat, impossible rows, they resemble a "wall". When many eggs of the same breed - usually dark green, black, mint, or pink - are on that page, it is considered a "wall of" that egg. Also frequently used as a vent to say that someone's preferred egg type is being blocked out by a wall of X dragons.

Warn

This is an official warning given by a moderator for an infraction of the rules (e.g. eggspam/spam posting, abuse or giving information about dragons which is not allowed). It is accessible in your mini profile, and will include a reason why you were warned. It is only visible to yourself and the moderators and will disappear after four weeks (however the note will remain in your history forever). It is measured in percentages, e.g. 1 warn is 10%.

Welcome Wagon

A group of people who post in newcomers topics offering information, tips and advice. Their posts are often C&P posts.

Whitelist

A list of users that meet certain requirements, which can differ on each site/topic. They are "good" users, those that contribute positively, either often or, when not as often, something very good (beyond the normal positive contributions of other whitelisters).


 * Whitelisted: to be added to the Whitelist.
 * Whitelistee/Whitelister: a user whose name is on the Whitelist. May sometimes (depending on the site/topic) receive special "bonuses" (a special badge/banner/icon/gift/etc).

Wipe

When a thread/board has all user posts 'wiped' by a moderator.

Wilderness

A secret link "inside" of the cave that shows up un-owned adult dragons and abandoned eggs that are in queue in a random fashion, sometimes leading into dragons appearing outside the boundaries of the webpage page itself. No purpose whatsoever was found for it, other than taking funny snapshots and staring at a bunch of dragons. TJ09 has said on many occasions that adoption of adult dragons from this Wilderness will not be allowed on the site.

Word Filter

The forum validator will check user-submitted words against banned terms or incorrect spelling. e.g. definitely (I, not A) and a lot (Two words, not one).

WSOD/White Screen of Death (*See Doom)

That horrible blank page you get where you know that all the rares are spawning while you madly hit F5.

Z
Zombie

Undead dragon. It can be obtained by killing an adult/hatchling and then reviving it.