@-party

<event, history> /at'par-tee/ (Or "@-sign party") An antiquated term for a gathering of hackers at a science-fiction convention (especially the annual Worldcon) to which only people who had an electronic mail address were admitted.

The term refers to the commercial at symbol, "@", in an e-mail address and dates back to the era when having an e-mail address was a distinguishing characteristic of the select few who worked with computers.

Compare boink.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 2012-11-17

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