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From the [jargon file | JargonFile:luser]: |
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__luser__ /loo'zr/ n. |
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~[common] A [user | JargonFile:user]; esp. one who is also a [loser | JargonFile:loser]. |
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([luser | JargonFile:luser] and [loser | JargonFile:loser] are pronounced identically.) |
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This word was coined around 1975 at [MIT]. Under ITS, when you first walked up to a |
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terminal at MIT and typed Control-Z to get the computer's attention, it printed out some |
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status information, including how many people were already using the computer; it might |
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print "14 users", for example. Someone thought it would be a great joke to patch the system |
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to print "14 losers" instead. There ensued a great controversy, as some of the users didn't |
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particularly want to be called losers to their faces every time they used the computer. For |
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a while several hackers struggled covertly, each changing the message behind the back of |
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the others; any time you logged into the computer it was even money whether it would say |
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"users" or "losers". Finally, someone tried the compromise "lusers", and it stuck. Later |
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one of the ITS machines supported luser as a request-for-help command. ITS died the death |
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in mid-1990, except as a museum piece; the usage lives on, however, and the term `luser' is |
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often seen in program comments and on [UseNet]. |
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Compare [mundane | JargonFile:mundane], [muggle | JargonFile:muggle], |
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[newbie | JargonFile:newbie], [chainik | JargonFile:chainik]. |
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Note that popular history of [IRC] suggests (possibly independently) calling users "lusers", an abbreviation for "local users". An [IRC] network may consist of many interconnected servers; each of them has its local users, ie those who are connected directly to the server in question as opposed to those who participate by connection to another server. A server's "lusers" have additional information associated with, like a socket handle, a ping time etc. |
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The existance of [Luser]s interacts with the NetworkEffect. |
