Welcome to the Vent! You’re going to have more fun than you ever thought you could have without legal trouble. As with most life missions, there’s a small learning curve.
Very small, don't worry. We recommend taking a day or two just to enjoy the news stories, information, and posts on our forums, and you’ll be ready to run with the Big Dawgs.
But let’s see if we can get you up to speed a little faster. What follows is a cheat sheet for those little things that might prove confusing at first.
Abbreviations. You probably know some of the basic ones:
LOL is “laughing out loud.”
IMO is “in my humble opinion” (sometimes
IMHO for “honest opinion”; which doesn’t mean the plain
IMOs are dishonest. Just sayin'.
ROFLMAO is “rolling on the floor laughing my abs off,” except for the part about the abs.
TLDR or
TLDNR both mean the dude wants you to know it was “too long, didn’t read.” For many other abbreviations, try
this list.
Ventisms. But some lingo, you'll notice, is Vent-specific. Here's just a brief list of some of the more common ones, to help un-confuse you:
Bake Ham or Baked Ham. In the South, we "bake ham" for someone who's lost a loved one. On the Vent, we bake ham for those with losses of all kinds. Bake Ham for the Ole Miss football program, for example. Usually accompanied by a nice .gif of a honey-baked or other ham. No one knows who thought of this; some ham or other.
Computer Davy. Venters often struggle with how to do this or that on their computers. Which is why some handy-dandy how-tos are offered in this post. One Venter, in the midst of his confusion, admitted that he's "not computer davy." Theory was that autocorrect changed "savvy" to Davy, but Computer Davy was too good to let go, and still pops up occasionally.
DGD is “Damn Good Dawg,” a traditional compliment of the highest order. All former players are DGDs. Those serving our country are DGDs.
@Roe DAWG is a DGD.
@sweetriverdog , for example, counts down the days to first kickoff, so he's one, too.
(By the way, Type the @ symbol and any poster's handle, such as
@Saxondawg, and you'll give them a shoutout.)
Germans.This is a reference to a line from the movie Animal House, and, to make a long and confusing story short, it means you’re telling us something that is old news. Just trust us on this.
Insiders. “Insiders” are people who have (or are thought to have) information not available to ordinary mortals. These folks “know someone” or “someone who knows someone.” Are they legit? Is ThisDawg or ThatDawg a true insider? In some cases, UGASports staffers vouch for them; in other cases, it's hard to tell, so use your discretion. And remember, nobody can guarantee the future—even genuine "insiders.” If they get it wrong, cut 'em a little slack. Then you'll be a DGD.
MNC. "Mythical" National Championship. This shorthand dates to before the BCS and the present playoff system. Some referred to that year's national champions with a kind of asterisk by using the N, since in college football, it's more difficult to determine a true champion. Is "MNC" still a thing? It's your call.
ND. When you see these two initials, the post is "non-Dawg," in other words, off-topic. There are times when an important news event breaks, for example, that a non-Dawg post is permissible. Such items as politics and religion, of course, are best avoided (and likely to end up in nuked posts). In general, we make the effort to talk about UGA Sports on UGASports.com.
NM and **. "No message." That is, the subject line is the only message, so you don't need to open that post. Asterisks have generally been the most common way to quickly make that note. The newer board format, adopted a while back, has rendered both of these less common.
This Pleases the Gary. A poster, presumably named Gary, responded to good news with this phrase, and for unknown reasons, it stuck. When you read good news, you're likely to also read, "This pleases the Gary."
TOS. "The Other Site." Yes, we have heard rumors of the existence of competing sites. People may mention "TOS is reporting" this or that. We don't allow cut-and-paste info from them, and they have the same policy.
Trolls. You know about trolls. Trolls are common Internet household pests, and Orkin has no sopray for them. Trolls try setting fire to a discussion just to see it burn. Experienced Venters understand that trolls are best handled by ignoring. As a matter of fact, click on any Venter’s name, and you’re given the option to ignore their posts. Their words will become invisible to you, though you’ll see all surrounding posts by others. Better idea: Just move on to another post.
What time is the Dawg Walk? (And another older one, What are the Black Bones for?) Reference to questions asked over and over on the Vent. A good rule of thumb is to check the front page, read a bit of the Vent, and also use Google to help answer easier questions. But it’s also true the Vent can be a snark-ridden place, so don your flame-proof silver britches before entering the fray.
"Who is XYZ?" People often
abbreviate names of recruits, coaches, and players. CKS is Coach Kirby Smart, and HW might be Herschel Walker, based on context. But no decoder ring is available. You can look at the
list of Georgia targets if you think a recruit is being discussed. If it’s a current player, go to our
home page and click on the roster under the sport.
Go to Start, Go Directly to Start. While we’re talking about the
home page, it’s always a good idea to start right there when coming to our site. Many users all but live on the
Dawgvent, our main discussion forum, but remember, you'll get the big news quickest on that page, because we have
great reporters.
Forums. Let’s talk about some of those forums. The
Vent is our famous board for all things UGA sports.
The Vault is committed to recruiting. Both of these cover various sports, but the heaviest talk is always about football, the lifeblood of Dawg fans.
Hoop Dawgs is for those who follow basketball closely;
Kudzu Hill is all about baseball. All these forums and more can be found under the drop-menu marked “forums” on any of our pages. For a very good (and official) list of forum rules,
click here.
"How do I post a picture?" All-time most popular question. If you’d like to share a photo to accompany your post, the first requirement is that it must already be online.
1. Go to the photo and copy its URL or web address. Right-clicking on the image and selecting “copy image address” from the selections will make that happen.
2. While you’re writing your post, click on the image icon (just to the right of the smiley face, on the second row above your words in your posting form) and paste (ctl + v) into the box. Click “insert.”
3. Then hit “post message” or “post reply.”
The best formats are .
gifs and .
jpgs. But
GIF can also refer to a file that contains motion (animation). All these are sometimes called
memes as well. These are often used to provide a quick and funny response to another post—see examples at
this site, for example. When a
GIF Party is announced, everyone pulls out their favorite reaction memes for whatever the subject of the day is.
DESKTOP:
1) find .gif in external site (ex: Giphy)
2) copy link
3) go to Dawg Vent posting box
4) click on the photo (between smiley and film strip)
5) paste link
6) preview to ensure steps have been done correctly
7) post
MOBILE:
1) find .gif in external site (ex: Giphy)
2) Tap and hold to share gif
3) tap again and select "copy image"
4) Go to Dawg Vent posting box
5) click on the photo (between smiley and film strip)
6) paste link
7) preview to ensure steps have been done correctly
8) post
How to change your handle. If you want to change your username, you need to reach out to Rivals. Email
subscriptions@rivals.com with your name change. Send them three options, in order of preference, just in case someone has already picked your preferred username. BE SURE to email them from the email account associated with your Rivals subscription as they won't take requests from a different email (security reasons).
Your avatar and personal details. Want to personalize your presence? Your
avatar is the little picture that accompanies your profile and messages. Your “
signature” is a short, written statement or quote that will run beneath all your posts. You can add both of these, plus other details about you, by selecting “personal details” on the pop-up as your mouse goes over your name up to the top right of the main screen.
Private messages, Alerts, etc. Also notice that you can take your conversation one-on-one, or to a selected group, by clicking on the envelope icon (
"conversations") next to your name up on the top right. The other icon, showing an exclamation point in a speech bubble (
"alerts"), sometimes carries a number. Mouse-over and you'll get a rundown of people who may have “liked” or replied to your posts, and whether you have any new followers. If someone
quoted you (see below), then you can click right here, under
alerts, and go right to where that happened.
Like, Quote, and Reply. As you open a Vent message, you’ll notice three clickable options.
Like obviously means what it says. Just like Facebook.
Reply is your simplest option to talk back; notice that when you hit
Reply, the full post you're replying to is automatically quoted. Most of the time, this is what we do.
Quote, however
, gives you the opportunity to highlight, then select,
specific text you’d like to include in a post--maybe a snippet of something somebody said. "
Quote" appears when you highlight those words--click it. You can actually select portions of
several posts--one after the other--save them all as you go, and then, on
your post, click
Insert Quotes to show them all. (This all simpler than it sounds; trust me.)
Civility. Totally good manners are just a dream on any Internet board. but we encourage every poster to say only what you'd say to a person face-to-face. Rudeness isn't well received. Keep disagreements to the subject, and not the other person's personality. Use reasoning rather than sarcasm. And before hitting the Reply button, think: Am I going to be glad I posted this a couple of hours from now? Civil, patient posters over time are highly regarded on this site.
War Room. You're going to love War Room. It's a recurring feature
for subscribers only. In a War Room post, you’ll receive the freshest information and a bit of gossip not available to the rest of the public. Solid reporting, amply-sourced, is usually public quickly; but sometimes we have tidbits and items only for our subscribers.
And confidentiality is key. War Rooms continue only as long as subscribers resist the temptation to pass along this information to non-subscribers. If caught doing so, a Venter may be
blacklisted (lose subscription privileges).
Search. See that magnifying glass to the top right, just beneath the exclamation point/bubble? That allows you to find what you want quickly, whether it’s in an article or a post. Type in a recruit’s name, a poster’s name, or a topic—whatever you want to find. It's handy.
"Why do the posts move around?" When someone makes a new post, it goes to the top of the board. If someone makes one after that, the new one replaces it. However, replies “
bump” older posts back to the top. If a post moves downward or off the front page, that means it isn’t generating discussion. And an “ancient” post can keep returning like the zombie in a bad movie! People reboot oldies sometimes by writing, "
bump," as a new reply.
Nuked and blacklisted. Deleted posts are referred to by Venters as “nuked” ones. Our
terms of service obligate all our members to follow certain rules. In general, profanity and obscene images should be avoided. Abusive or threatening language always means an instant
nuke. We try not to get personal, whether with a fellow poster or about a public personality. Our board moderators reserve the right to delete posts for these and other reasons. When a post is deleted, it may cause the deletion of other posts on the same thread, though they didn’t violate any terms of service. In very rare cases, UGASports or Rivals may
blacklist a poster for persistent bad behavior.
Staff. Notice the Vent has
several attentive staffers, including reporters. They’re here to help make your experience perfect. Learn who they are, open their posts, and message them if you’d like to ask a question. Ask recruiting questions, for example, to our recruiting reporters, and general football questions to our analysts. You can also "@" another member in a post, to call them forth--such as an "insider"--to ask questions.
Classic Vent. UGASports.com and the Dawgvent have a rich history—a wonderful backstory--and you’ll want to know more about that. It just so happens that your current reporter and longtime poster
@Saxondawg has written a book,
Sax Attacks, that will tell you much more about the entertaining history of this site, and also catch you up on some of the special humor from over the years.
