Self-hostable multi-gamemode quiz platform. Content (questions, packs, tags,
media) lives as PR-reviewable YAML; the runtime serves it to live multiplayer
game sessions. This glossary covers the runtime domain (live sessions,
participants, adjudication). Content-shape terms live in data-model.md.
Room: A single live game session. Players join it by its join code; it owns the game state for one playthrough and ceases to exist when emptied. Avoid: game (ambiguous with gamemode), lobby, session (use for the whole playthrough, not the container).
Join code: The 6-character code that identifies a Room and is the only thing a player needs to enter it. It is the Room's sole identity for its whole life. Avoid: room id, game pin, UUID.
Reconnect token: An opaque secret issued to a participant on join, stored client-side, that re-binds a new connection to the same slot, score, and grants after a drop. Avoid: session id, auth token.
Player: A participant who occupies a slot, buzzes, and owns a score — i.e. holds the Play grant. Avoid: contestant, user, guest.
Moderator: A participant who advances the game, manages participants, sees correct answers, and rules on answers — i.e. holds the Moderate grant. May also be a Player. Avoid: host (use for the human running the session colloquially, not the grant), admin, judge (a Judge is a mechanism, not a person).
Presenter: A participant whose view is the big-screen output (question, options, scoreboard, timer) — i.e. holds the Present grant. Typically a shared display. Avoid: screen, board, host.
Announcer: The participant currently entitled to read the question aloud. In a rotating setup this shifts each question. A use of the Present grant, not a separate one. Avoid: reader, narrator.
Grant: An atomic capability held by a connection: Play, Present, or Moderate. Authorization is a set of grants, never a fixed role — roles are just named bundles that compose by union. Avoid: role, permission, scope.
ClientView: The role-specific projection of game state sent to one connection. Sections (buzzer, question, correct answer, controls, scoreboard) appear only if the connection's grants permit. The point where server-only secrets are stripped. Avoid: state, snapshot (a ClientView is the projected snapshot), payload.
Judge: The mechanism that decides whether a submission is correct, in time, and valid. A pluggable axis independent of gamemode. v1: Auto (static matcher) and Moderator (human ruling). Avoid: scorer, validator, checker, referee.
Submission: What a Player offers in answer to a question. Nullable: present when typed, absent when the answer is spoken and only the Moderator's verdict is recorded. Avoid: answer (reserve for the correct answer on content), response, guess.
Verdict: A Judge's ruling on a submission: Correct, Incorrect, Void, or Pending. Avoid: result, outcome, judgment (reserve for the log entry).
Judgment log: The append-only record of verdicts. Score is folded from it, never accumulated, so a Moderator can revise an earlier ruling by appending a superseding verdict. Avoid: score table, history, audit log.
Floor: The right to answer the current question. Won by buzzing; lost on a wrong answer (see Lockout); may be open to all or follow a turn order. Avoid: turn, control, lock.
Buzz: A Player's claim on the floor. The first buzz to arrive wins. Distinct from a submission — a buzz claims the right to answer, it is not the answer. Avoid: ring, press, hit.
Lockout: Exclusion of a Player from re-buzzing a question after they answered it wrong. Orthogonal to whether the floor started open or turn-ordered. Avoid: ban, timeout (reserve for the clock), block.
Answer-input mode: The Room-level setting that determines how answers are given — spoken, typed, or hybrid — and thereby which Judge runs per question. Avoid: game mode (that's gamemode), online/offline mode, input type.
Gamemode: A set of rules and presentation for play (gridquiz, battle royale, …). Owns the buzz/order policy and scoring shape. Distinct from the Judge (how answers are ruled) and the answer-input mode (how answers are given). _Avoid: mode, game type, ruleset.