A Guide to NSA

Note:

Hey there! Welcome tø NSA! I hope you’re ready for the iNSAnity you’re about to read (don’t worry…I think you can handle it ;) )

The following tips are from NSAer’s of old (however, the information has been slightly updated since we’ve transferred to Microsoft Teams/Outlook). If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Welcome Committee or the Student Council!

Be careful out there, fellow NSA-ers! *bolts off in search of a quest*

Step 1 - People

Everyone looks crazy and insane here. But remember, the internet deceives. So, thou shalt not be warded off by crazy seeming people.

Students at NSA come from many different countries all over the world. They're all different, but I'm sure once you talk a bit here and there you'll get the hang of it!

If you need help with anything on NSA/Teams/Outlook, you can contact a Student Council member or someone on the Welcome Committee (check out the Meet the Welcome Committee document in here). We would love to help you! Don't hesitate to email or DM (Direct Message) us!

Step 2 - Talking

Most important thing: You can't see if people are joking or not. You can't see people's reactions. Take everything negative as a joke just in case.

You should just be yourself when chatting with others! We've all been newbies once and had to take a leap of faith to talk to someone. But with over 1,600 students at NSA, you're sure to make friends in no time!

So, starting off, try introducing yourself in this channel by filling out this form and then posting it in a new thread:

• Name:
• Nickname (or name you would prefer to be called):
• Age:
• Grade:
• Location:
• Hobbies:
• Siblings:
• Would you like an NSA Sibling?:
• Favorite Bible verse (if you have one):
• Optional: Add a picture of yourself:

Then I suggest checking out the Channels in Teams!

Step 3 - Channels

The best way to make a friend on NSA is to start a thread in the Student Channels or to add them to a Teams chat.

The Student Teams/Channels are places for the students to get together and enjoy themselves. Depending on your grade, you will either be automatically added to the Elementary School, Middle School, or High School "building." (I think the technical name is team?) Each of these buildings contains channels that you can post in, such as the Courtyard for general discussion, the Flagpole for pictures of meetups, and more. High Schoolers also have the option to join clubs, such as the Music Club, STEM Club, and others!

Note on Spam:

Spam is sending too many unnecessary e-mails, or chat messages. This is not tolerated by NSA, and can result in disciplinary action, so we advise you not to do that! Also, zapping someone is sending someone way too many chat messages.

Step 4 - Ok, so how?

Sooner or later you'd want to take a little dive into the technicalities of Teams.

Setting your status

In the Teams desktop app or website, click on your profile picture in the top right-hand corner. Then, click "edit status."

Notification settings

In Teams, go to Settings, and then Notifications. You can change your preferences there.

Step 5 - :P

NSAers use a lot of emoticons to express emotion.

Emotions, as most of you know, are basically facial expressions. Since this is an online school, and you cannot exactly tell emotions over the Internet, we use emoticons. Read on to see the common expressions we use here at NorthStar.

The most used faces are xD, :P, :O, :D, and u_u.

xD is like a laughing face, or a really happy face. It's used after most funny comments.

:P is a face in which you're sticking out your tongue. It's not intended to be rude though.

:O is a surprised face, as is :0

:D is a regular smiley face, like :)

u_u is hard to explain - read about it here

Read more in depth about acronyms, faces, and asterisks on the Acronyms, Faces, and Asterisks Explained page!

Asterisks

Students of NSA will use ** around action words such as *runs away* to tell that they are doing that action. Articles [a, an, the] are optional. Generally, this is in the first-person, but names are used if it applies to someone other than you. ("I have a sword now! *pulls out shining sword and points it at Bob*" or "*Bob trips over a branch*)

Balance of powers:

Originally from the role-playing games that used to be on NSA, the term balance of powers comes from the mutual respect of power that two people must have when fighting using **. This basically means you can't just guarantee yourself a win or dictate someone else's actions, the people fighting ALL have to adhere to the balance of powers to have a fair fight.

Terms

Here are a few of the basic terms commonly used around NSA and by NSA students.

Elbow pic - Not exactly a 'term,' as much as it is a tradition. When two NSA students by the names of Christe Bout and Raegan Allinder met up in the physical world, there was a picture they took in which Christe was awkwardly touching Raegan's elbow. Since then, it has been a tradition (aka, requirement U_U) for two NSAers who meet to take an elbow picture, in which they touch each others' elbows, touch elbows together, etc., just anything featuring elbows, really.

Glowing - If someone is glowing, it means they're multitasking (doing something else and chatting at the same time) and might not reply right away. Another term for this is "flickering."

iNSAne - an extremely clever pun playing off of the words insane and NSA.

Boomer - An NSA term for a 12th grader. The code is 74275.

Newbie - The word for a student who is new on NSA, and typically doesn't quite know their way around Teams/Outlook yet.

Newb/noob/n00b/etc. - The word used for a student (who is not necessarily new, but often is), often does not know his/her way around either, the difference between a newbie lies in being while newbies are ignorant of how a lot of things work, they are open to learning, while noobs do not respect authority (or people in general, sometimes), are not willing to learn, and act on what they do know, without seeing the whole picture.

Note: The definitions for newbie and newb are not set in stone, they are my definitions and the definitions I use when saying those words. As a result, many other people have taken up using these definitions as well, but the meanings will vary. So please don't be immediately insulted if someone calls you a noob or something... they might not mean what I would mean xD

NSA Sibling - Also called "older sibling." They're not your blood relation, of course, but a more experienced NSAer who acts like an older sibling to a newbie, helps them learn the ropes, and teaches them about stuff they don't understand. They're like a guide. If you don't know who your sibling is, or if you want one, please post!

Post - To make a post in a public channel, such as the High School courtyard.

Spam - 1. Excessive, unwanted, seemingly purposeless emails. 2. Random emails without a real subject, the good kind of spam us NSAers love.

(The) Game - The game is a game that everyone in the world is playing, willingly or not. The rules are simple, if you think about the game, then you've lost the game. It is, in essence, impossible to win.

Thread - replies to a post. For example, if someone posted that they liked ice cream, and a few other people replied, that could be called collectively a thread.

Status - A customizable paragraph of text attached to your teams profile. You can put whatever you want in there - your favorite Bible verse, a little bit about you, etc.

For more definitions of terms and NSA-related words, check out the Dictionary category.

Note

This is NOT a complete guide for a few reasons. Firstly, because we didn't make it like that. xD It's meant to be a general guide. Secondly, because the language is almost constantly changing, new acronyms are becoming common, new terms, new faces, etc. As such, if you think anything should be added to this guide, please go ahead and add it, we wanna keep up with the times, after all. :P

Updates

Version 1.0

12/1/2012

~ Initial guide posted

Version 1.4

12/2/2012

+ Added to the acronyms section

+ Added "Terms" section

~ Corrected wording on "CRTN"

~ Corrected minor grammar errors on asterisks and face sections

Version 1.5

12/3/2012

~ Further correction to asterisks section

Version 1.6

12/5/2012

+ Added cheerleader face and description

Version 1.9

1/10/2013

+ Added AFAE acronym

+ Added iNSAne to terms

+ Added Thread to terms

Version 2.0

1/17/2013

+ Added Sig to terms

Version 2.1

1/22/2013

+ Added The Game (you just lost it, btw) to terms

Version 2.3

3/13/2013

+ Added Binoculars face to faces

~ Capitalized the E in the title

Version 2.4

3/28/2013

+ Added Elbow Pics to terms

Version 2.6

3/30/2013

+ Added Newbie to terms

+ Added Newb/noob/n00b to terms

+ Added a note on the previous definitions to terms

Version 2.7

8/28/2013

+ Added NSA Sibling term

~ Changed document title

Version 2.8

2/8/2014

+ Added DIAFOGL to Acronyms

Version 2.9

4/4/2014

+ Added "._." and ".-." to faces.

+ Put spaces in between in the "Version" section. *hack*

Version 3.0

08/13/2019

~ Removed references to FirstClass to apply to Teams/Outlook

Version 3.1

08/16/2019

~ Removed more references to FirstClass

+ Added \OoO/ to surprised face variations

+ Added Xd to laughing face variations

9/9/2023

! Added to the wiki website, moved "Acronyms, Faces, and Asterisks Explained *^_^*" to its own page, and formatted the page