Luser

SVensson's ITS on KLH-10 Welcome to SV! SV ITS.1648. PWORD.2660. TTY 11 2. Lusers, Fair Share = 2%

One example of the usage of "luser".

In Internet slang, a luser (sometimes expanded to local user; also luzer or luzzer) is a painfully annoying, stupid, or irritating computer user.^[1] It is a portmanteau of "loser" and "user" and is usually pronounced as "loser".^[2] The word luser is often synonymous with lamer. In hackish, the word luser takes on a broader meaning, referring to any normal user (in other words not a guru), especially one who is also a loser. This term can also signify the user as a layman, as opposed to power user or administrator; for example, end luser. This term is very popular with technical support staff who have to deal with lusers as part of their job, often metaphorically employing a LART (Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool, or "clue-by-four").

The Jargon File states that word was coined around 1975 at MIT. Under ITS, when a user first walked up to a terminal at MIT and typed control-Z to get the computer's attention, it printed out some status information, including how many people were already using the computer; it might print "14 users", for example. Someone thought it would be a great joke to patch the system to print "14 losers" instead. There ensued a great controversy, as some of the users didn't particularly want to be called losers to their faces every time they used the computer. For a while several hackers struggled covertly, each changing the message behind the backs of the others; any time a user logged into the computer it was even money whether it would say "users" or "losers". Finally, someone tried the compromise "lusers", and it stuck. Later one of the ITS machines supported "luser" as a request-for-help command. ITS ceased to be used mid-1990, except as a museum piece; the usage lives on, however, and the term "luser" is often seen in program comments and on Usenet. /lusers (which abbreviates "list users") is also a common IRC command to get the number of users connected to a server or network.^[3]

Notes and references

^ McFedries, Paul (2001). The Complete Idiot's Guide to a Smart Vocabulary. Alpha Books. ISBN 0028639979.p. 214
^ Jansen, Erin (2002). Netlingo: The Internet Dictionary. NetLingo Inc. ISBN 0970639678.p. 244
^ irchelp.org

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See also