By Amanda Gilchrist | 18 July, 2022
Across the world, something that defines a culture is language. Word choice and slang are just a few things that make each culture unique, even if they are speaking the same language at the core. The world of stan culture can be overwhelming with it’s numerous acronyms and phrases so, with the help of the Fan to Band’s Virtual Street Team, we are here to give you a crash course in all things stan vocabulary. Whether you’re new to stan twitter or are a veteran of the stan community, it can be a lot to process when you’re trying to understand what people are saying. That is why The News Stan(d) is here to help!
GENERAL
ANTI (n) – someone who attacks a person or ship online that they don’t like
CLOWNERY (n) – referring to when a fan or group of fans create theories about what they think could happen and they are proven to be wrong
ERA (n) – referring to specific time periods in an artist’s career and sometimes it connects to a specific album or age of an artist
JAIL (n) – often in good fun, fans will use this when artists do or say something that they don’t like
KEYBOARD SMASH / ASFSLDJK– any use of a series of random letters or numbers is used to convey excitement
LANE (n) – often connected with bands, this term refers to a fan’s specific favorite member in the group
LOCAL (n) – someone that isn’t a stan of a particular artist who probably only knows an artist’s popular songs
POV (n) - an abbreviation for point of view. It is used to set a scene in tweets, TikToks, etc.
ROB LIST (n) – jokingly referring to if someone has something that they like a lot that they’re going to rob them of it
K-POP
BIAS (n) – refers to a fan’s favorite idol in a group
CENTER (n) – the member of a K-pop group that receives the most support and publicity from their management
COMEBACK (n) – the period of time when a K-pop group is releasing and promoting new music
LEADER (n) - often an older member of the group, this is someone who helps guide the rest of the idols in the group and can serve as a bridge between the group and management.
LINE (n) – a subset of idols in a K-pop group that all have something in common (e.g. year born, role in group)
MAKNAE (n) – refers to the youngest in a group
SASAENG (n) – refers to a K-pop fan that stalks and/or harasses members of a K-pop group
SUB-UNIT (n) – refers to a smaller group formed from a larger K-pop group that forms for a music release, often the release is different in nature and concept than the original group
VLINE (n) - a defined shape of the jaw and chin in which the jaw line is narrow and sharp forming a V face shape
SOCIAL MEDIA
GC (n) – an abbreviation for group chat that appears on twitter a lot
MOOT (n) – short for mutual. This refers to two people who are both following the other, normally on Twitter
OOMF (n) – an abbreviation on twitter that stands for “one of my followers”
/SRS – a tone indicator, often put at the end of statements of tweets to show that what is being said is serious
THREAD (n) - a series of tweets building on each other to either explain an entire context or put together a series of tweets with common themes
TL (n) - an abbreviation for a twitter feed, also referred to as a timeline.
TROLLING (v) – making unwarranted and often controversial rude comments online
Y/N (n) – stands for “your name” and it is frequently used in fanfiction to connote when something extraordinary is happening for a fan
To close out, I want to leave you with a few general rules of thumb going into the stan community space
1. Fans love to abbreviate things, song titles, band names, album names, etc. As such each fandom is different and has different abbreviations for different things.
2. Almost everything is referred to with she/her pronouns. Eras, albums, songs, outfits usually all fall under she/her pronouns
3. If you have any questions, ask! Most people on stan Twitter and other social media spaces are super nice and helpful and will have no issues clearing things up for you :)
