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<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.
(2012-11-17)
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