Structural Nomenclature

This page lists jargon used on this wiki and elsewhere regarding how EGS is structured.

Arc	See story arc.
Arcid	A relatively rare and presently non-functional URL scheme, using relatively small numbers and which was presumably used for the starts of story arcs only (hence, "arc ID").
Backgrounds	A PayPal-donation incentive section which Dan was running some time ago, when EGS was still on Keenspot. The index pages were lost in the move to 910CMX, but the images can still be retrieved from an indexable directory at http://www.egscomics.com/bg/.
Canon (noun), Canonical (adjective)	In context of a fictional work, material officially considered part of the primary continuity. See Canon.
Date	The date of a comic.
EGS:NP	The El Goonish Shive NewsPaper, now labelled EGS:NP in the site navigation. Sometimes clipped to "NP". A section running parallel to Main Story, comprising a combination of canonical storylines, non-canonical storylines, Q&A lines and stand-alone or semi-standalone comics. Main article: NewsPaper.
Filler	Literally material which is released to "fill" some sort of hiatus. In the context of EGS, an older name for Sketchbook.
ID	A unique, not always sequential, number assigned to each comic within a section (it is not unique between sections) which was used for the URL scheme for several years until 2018, after which it stopped being assigned (but still works for those that received them). Not to be confused with the IDs used internally by the Ookii database, or with sequential numbers.
Main Story (or, Main Comic)	The first and foremost section; visible on the home page which (with a few early exceptions, mostly predating EGS:NP) is almost entirely canon or Q&A. See also: List of main story arcs.
NewsPaper	See EGS:NP.
NP	See EGS:NP.
Number	Sometimes a reference to the ID. Other times, may refer to a comic's actual sequential number (which is not actually given on the EGS main site, but is useful for transcript organisation on this wiki). Might also refer to the sequential number within an arc, e.g. within a filename or URL slug. If used in the formation "(date), number (n) of (total)", it distinguishes multiple comics posted on the same day to the same section (usually Sketchbook).
Pinups	A Patreon incentive offered by Dan, starting late 2015, largely focused around fanservice. Are not hosted on the main site, but otherwise amounts to a section.
Section	Such top-level groupings as Main Story, Sketchbook or EGS:NP. Unlike groupings within a section, sections cannot be set into an order with respect to each other, are browsed separately and are updated in parallel.
SB	Abbreviation of Sketchbook.
Sketchbook	A section used by Dan Shive for miscellanea which is neither main story nor EGS:NP. Main article: Sketchbook.
Slug	A unique URL section identifying a specific comic. Over much of the archives equal to the ISO date of the comic, but may contain (additionally or instead) incorrect dates, titles, arc names, numbers within arcs or other details. Used for the current URL scheme, replacing ID.
Story	Refers to a story, or to the Main Story section.
Story arc	Term used by Dan to mean a grouping of story lines. Sometimes also used by fans interchangeably with "story line", especially in the context of EGS:NP where this causes no ambiguity.
Story line	A grouping of comics, which may or may not be grouped into a story arc, depending on the section.