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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)