If you’ve been on any social network lately, you might have noticed people talking about someone called “the OP”, and wondered What does OP mean? If you’re not sure whom we are talking about, read the article for a little more.
What Does OP Mean?
The acronym OP means “original poster” / “original post.” While both of these terms are widely used on message boards and internet forums, they indicate different things.
The original poster is the person who starts a discussion on a thread or a topic. They often spark a conversation or query. When other people have to refer to the person who started the thread, they tend to type “OP” instead of the username.
The “original post” is the first one visible when you open the thread created by the original poster. This is the one that is used less out of the two. This is commonly used when the post contains a lot of information, like “mega threads,” OR. Guides that consist of multiple important links, updates, as well as images.
“Opening” as well as “Overpowered”
OP also has two other usages you might stumble upon. Among anime communities, OP can stand for “opening,” indicating the opening credits at the start of each episode. Though, being a huge anime enthusiast, I never resort to using OP for opening.
In the gaming community, OP stands for “overpowered.” This means that a particular character/item/something else in a particular game is considered as too powerful. Being a gamer as well as a huge Anime addict, I can most definitely assure you overpowered is what we often mean when we use OP.
For example, Yujiro Hanma, the father of Baki Hanma, from the Anime Baki – The song of Ogre, is widely considered by the fandom as an OP character.
I typed in lowercase, then “op” stands for “opposition.” The plural form of OP is “ops,” which is used to indicate “operations.”
The History of OP
OP and its history can be dated back to the early days of online message boards in the 1990s as well as the early ’00s. The first-ever addition to the Urban Dictionary of OP was in 2003. The definition states that OP stands for “original poster.” After all these years, it’s a common term used on various websites which have a message-board format, for example, Reddit.
OP was often used instead of an original poster’s username and still is. Most accounts on message boards being anonymous, or obscure words, character names, numbers, as well as symbols, users used to refer to them as OP. Furthermore, these sites had provided no ability to tag nor did these have notification systems, as current message boards do. OP was a much faster as well as an easier way to indicate or refer to the original poster.
In the premature days of message boards, the OP of a thread might also use the internet acronym “ITT,” which stood for “in this thread,” in the post’s title. Though the appearance of ITT in titles has become less of an occurrence now, however, the term is still in use online.
The ties of OP and Reddit
The acronym OP is widely used on Reddit, which just so happens to be the largest online message board. In Ask Me Anything/AMA threads, people are informed to ask the OP questions. Unless the OP is a well-known public figure, commenters will resort to using the term “OP” to refer to the person who is being asked the questions.
Another usage of OP is when a poster shares a personal experience. When the story is discussed in the comments, people will often tend to refer to the poster as the OP. Let’s consider the example, someone may post “If I had to walk as far as the OP did, I probably would’ve given up.”
The use of OP on social media
OP is a pretty common term on social media, particularly Twitter. If a particular tweet has a long chain of replies from multiple people, it will become a Twitter thread. Therefore, “OP” is used to refer to the person who sent out the first tweet.
Threads are much more of a common occurrence on Twitter, thanks to the platform’s 280-character limit. When people want to type longer stories or if they want to post lots of pictures, they have to break them down into multiple tweets. If someone were to stumble upon an out-of-order tweet in a thread, they tend to look for the OP’s first tweet.
How can you Use OP on Forums?
OP is more of a colloquial term, it doesn’t belong or fit informal emails. You should resort to only using it on social media. OR. You can use it on online message boards.
Given below are a few ways in which you can use OP:
- “OP, please provide an update when the package arrives.”
- “The OP has a lot of information regarding nutrition.”
- “What is your favorite game on the Xbox One, OP?”
- “I find the OP’s story indulging, TBH.”
OP has ties to several other gaming terms. Something that’s OP might also be quoted as “broken”. This means that the item or the character is so strong that it seems to break the game, and defy the laws. For example, in 2018, in Fortnite, a new weapon called the Infinity Blade was introduced, which was so much stronger than any other weapon, that any player who found it was straight away favored to win the game.
Due to all of the players agreeing that the Infinity Blade is OP, the developers quickly removed it from the game.
OP is just one of the many acronyms you will find online, it is more like the tip of the iceberg. If you liked this article (or if it helped at all), leave a comment below or share it with friends, so they can also know What Does “OP” Mean Online? How Do You Use It?
