Common Acronyms...
Since the birth of the internet, there have been online BDSM groups. You can find them just about everywhere, and with every imagineable kind of kink.
But there are some strange things going on here. What's this whole unique capitalization stuff? What do all of these weird acronyms mean?
Let Me help you here. It's not as complicated as it may seem and soon you'll be cruising along just as though you'd been doing this all of your life.
First, the differentiation in capitalization. Most of the online groups find it very simple to distinguish between submissives and Dominants by watching capitalization. The general rule of thumb says that anything referring to a Dominant is capitalized, while anything referring to a submissive is done in lower case. Thus, something that reads, i am looking for... is seen as being written by a submissive due to the lower case i.
Very often you will see something that looks like this: Hello A/all. This particular example can be found in chat rooms, and it addresses both Dominants and submissives and is a general greeting.
Simple enough? Excellent. Let's move on.
Some of the most commonly found acronyms will include:
BDSM Bondage, Domination, submission, sado-masochism (this is the generally accepted translation, though there are variances).
D/s Dominant to submissive. This is a type of BDSM relationship where a submissive is claimed/owned by a Dominant. This can also be seen as M/s, which indicates Master (or Mistress) to slave, a deeper form of this relationship.
SM Sado-masochism. A small portion of this lifestyle, this is simply the pain/pleasure portion.
R/t (also seen as r/l) Real time or real life, as opposed to virtual reality or online relationships.
V/t (also seen as o/l) Virtual time or online, as opposed to real time or real life. This generally applies to relationships that form as a result of roleplaying online.
These are the very basic acronyms and will generally give you a good foundation upon which to build when dealing with online lifestylers. There are many more that could not possibly be listed here without writing a novel see for yourself and enjoy the learning process.