Pizza Discussion FAQ

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Discussion board FAQ
Purpose / Posting / Reading / Other / Pizza delivery lexicon

A word to the wise
As a note of caution, be warned that some of the posts on this board contain shop talk and brutal honesty. The delivery drivers are off-the-clock. They may voice themselves much differently than if they spoke to a customer at work. The views expressed on this board do not represent every driver in every store, but they should. :)

If you have a question or comment, please check to see if it was covered elsewhere in this website. Do a site-wide search or visit a section that might be relevant. Search the board to see if it was discussed earlier.

Donations
Some people have asked if they can send in a donation without buying something from the online store. To send a one-time donation, see the donations page.

PURPOSE
1. What is the purpose of the discussion board?

Simply put, to discuss pizza delivery.

To let drivers talk about their jobs, share stories, vent frustrations, offer improvements, and help and support each other.

To let people see the truth about pizza delivery. We can't tell the truth when we deliver. Store rules prohibit that. We don't have time, on a delivery, to explain some issues even if we were allowed. Here, the drivers are off the clock.

To let people ask questions about pizza delivery.

To let drivers ask questions to those who might order delivery.

To have discussion and debate about the many aspects of pizza delivery with drivers, customers, and others participating.

Just relax and have fun!

2. What is considered inappropriate?
Things that disrupt conversations:

a. Ads, spam. If you want to post a link to your site, please put it in your sig.
b. "Pizza is cool" or "Get a real job" or similar idiotic comments.
c. Trollery. To lure someone into responding for the sole purpose of mocking them for responding and perhaps assuming false superiority over the responders. This typically involves an inflammatory post about a volatile issue for the sole purpose of evoking a response, and then perhaps stating, "I was kidding," and assuming false superiority over those who responded seriously or were annoyed by the post. To mess with people through dishonest postings violates the spirit of the discussion board.
d. Babbling within a topic. Sometimes a poster ignores that their point was soundly defeated only to reassert it later to needlessly continue conversation. Other times, they make a deliberate illogical or otherwise absurd twist within a topic meant to perturb posters. This means you have nothing to say and want the last word just to infuriate other people.

e. Cascades, floods, duplicate posts, and junk character posts.
f. Excessive flaming. This is an attack on the poster instead of the content of the post. It involves a post totally lacking in actual facts or content, dedicated solely to personally insulting the heritage, mentality, and capabilities of the poster. It's okay to rant and debate but let's not abuse one another. Let's not get ugly. This typically means you are defeated and have nothing real to say.
g. Mocking someone's board name by posting with one that looks very similar to the victim's board name. This typically involves ridicule by imitation and perhaps also to create confusion. If you think someone is doing this, please it. Offensive user names in general are not appropriate.
h. Excessive quoting, such as quoting an entire post only to make a brief response at the end. (Please see the quote guidelines.)
i. Very off-topic subjects unless they develop within a topic. Users with more seniority have more leeway in this matter. There is so much under the umbrella of pizza delivery, we expect conversations to wander everywhere under the sun. However, a topic shouldn't really begin that way (i.e. starting a topic about underwater basket weaving with no connection to pizza delivery.) Please put "Off-topic" or "O/T" in front of the subject line.
j. Off-color, disgusting, or pornographic pictures and videos.
k. Posting a customer's address, phone number, or other personal information. Try to be vague. If you must allude to the address, use pseudo-street names like 2326 Scumbag Ln. Be creative.
l. Inside trade information that your company deems confidential. This generally refers to secret plans or a new item about to be released to the public.
m. Responding to a rant with, "If you don't like your job, then quit." Sometimes people come to this board to vent so they can get frustrations out of their system. That's a lot better than storing it up inside. Blowing off steam does not deserve a serious ultimatum. If a poster hates one particular thing, it usually does not mean they hate the entire job in general. If the ranter was really serious, they would have quit their job already.
n. Forming an opinion about a company, store, franchise, or individual based on rants from this board. Posts should not be taken too seriously and should not be the sole basis to form an opinion. This forum is used to blow off steam.
o. Rants that are too specific by including proper names or exact locations. Keep it vague or obscured. It's best to omit these kinds of details altogether.
p. Posts longer than a sentence with no sentence structure (punctuation and capitalization) are inappropriate. It reads like one incredibly long run-on sentence, often difficult to decipher. It is very hard on the eyes. Texting slang is not appropriate, too. Pizza delivery drivers are sometimes falsely portrayed as illiterate high school dropouts and therefore such posts are considered pranks to make us look stupid.

The appearance of an inappropriate post does not mean it was approved. It takes at most 24 hours to notice or at least until a moderator logs in. The post could have possibly been missed. If you see a post that is inappropriate, please do not respond to it. Instead, it to a moderator. If you believe someone is trolling this board, do not respond to any of the offending posts. It's best to ignore everything so the troll won't gain any satisfaction. The moderator will notice and remove it.

3. Why is the board moderated?
A cursory look at alt.pizza.delivery.drivers and its history around 2001 will show that moderation is necessary. It's sad that there are people who make fun of others just because they deliver pizza. They think it's fun to troll, flood a newsgroup, and disrupt conversation so that discussion is impossible. They think we're a target for mockery because they heard a false stereotype about pizza delivery drivers. There is nothing wrong with debate. Trolling or luring people with dishonest obnoxious posts is unacceptable and a waste of time.
Pizza delivery drivers are hard-working individuals who do not deserve to be heckled.

4. How is the board moderated?
Posts are reviewed by a moderator before and after they appear on the board. New members are moderated until they reach a certain number of approved posts. Once posted, the moderator can delete a message, edit, and erase a topic. It might take a day or two before a post becomes noticed.
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POSTING
5. How do I register a board user name?
At the top of the page, click where it says "Join the board." The name you choose can not have an underscore "_" character. It will become with a space. Two or more consecutive spaces turns into a single space. Leading and trailing spaces are removed. Any HTML code will appear as text. This was done to conform to page design and web appearance. Enter your email address to receive an instant confirmation message and be able to receive automatic password retrieval messages. Once you choose a unique board name and password, you can login immediately on the next page.

6. How do I reply to a post?
Click the reply button    at the top of the post after the time stamp. The button to reply with quote    appears next. After that, the button to reply with itemized quote    appears.

7. How do I start a new topic?
Log in, go to the left navigation bar, and click where it says "New topic." If you are inside a topic, click "New topic" whether you are logged in or not. You can login from there.

8. Can I edit my post?
Click the edit button    at the top of your post. You must login before you can edit.

9. How do I delete my post?
Click the delete button    at the top of your post. If your post starts a topic, it will delete the topic if there were no replies. You must login before you can delete.

10. Why was my post sent to a moderator?
If you are a new member, your posts will be moderated until you reach a certain number of approved posts. You will no longer be moderated after that point unless you make too many inappropriate posts. It's possible that everyone is moderated, but that would be done only in a temporary emergency.

11. How soon will the moderator see my post?
If approved, your post should appear in less than 24 hours. The exact delay depends on when you and the moderators are online.

12. Why do my posts appear immediately?
a. As a relatively new member, you posted enough to skip the moderation initiation. It's possible the moderator might have deactivated any moderation. The board can still be moderated after new posts appear.

b. The moderator has decided that you are a familiar user. This is a privilege that can still be revoked.

13. Is HTML allowed in my post?
HTML code is not allowed, but there are several built-in codes for text enhancement (see 14-18.) When you post, click the "text formatting tips" and a reminder of more involved codes will appear. If you have any doubts about how your post will look, see the preview page. It shows you exactly how it will appear.

14. How do I enhance the text in my post?
Highlight the words you want to enhance and press the boldface, italic, or underline button    . If you press the buttons first, type (or drag) the words you want between the starting code and the ending code. You can combine two or more of these buttons.
You can enter the following codes manually between the words you want to enhance.

[b] your text [/b] your text in bold face
[i] your text [/i] your text in italics
[u] your text [/u] your text underlined

Hitting the enter/return key twice forms a paragraph break. If for some reason you can't send a paragraph break, type [p] to insert one manually.

15. How do I put a link in my post?
Two ways

a. Type http:// and a URL. Together, they must be one word with no spaces. Put a space at the end unless it's the last word in your post.

b. Highlight a URL followed by a description and then press the link button    or type (and perhaps drag) the URL and description between the [link] and [/link] codes.

This creates a link with clickable description text. You don't need the "http://" in the URL and the description can be one or more words.

For example, if you type:
[link] tipthepizzaguy.com pizza site [/link]
it will display:
pizza site

Links appear underlined in blue and open in a new window.

16. How do I put a picture in my post?
Enter the picture's URL, highlight it, and then press the picture button    or drag the picture's URL between the [pic] and [/pic] codes. The "http://" in front of the URL is not required. If you want, you can type [img] and [/img]. Only GIF, JPG and PNG files are allowed.

Pictures are displayed at a maximum width or height of 400 pixels. Larger images are scaled down to 400 and retain their aspect ratio.

17. How do I put a thumbnail in my post?
If the picture is much larger than 400 pixels and you want people to see it at full size, highlight the picture's URL and click the thumbnail button . Typed manually, the code will be [thumb] http://imageURL [/thumb]. Thumbnails have a border and load the image in a new window. Only GIF, JPG and PNG files are allowed.

18. How do I put an image link in my post?
Type the image's URL followed by a space and the link's URL. Then highlight both URLs and click the thumbnail button . The code should resemble [thumb] http://imageurl.com/image.jpg http://link.com [/thumb]. Links open in a new window.

19. How do I embed a YouTube video in my post?
Highlight the URL of a YouTube video and press the YouTube button . Either that, or type [youtube] and [/youtube] around the URL. The video's URL is not the embed code found on YouTube's website. The URL can be found in the address bar in your web browser. From inside YouTube, see the right side of the page where it says URL and click the field. Copy and paste the URL into the text area. If the video does not allow embed, the video window will display an error message. Please check for that in preview before posting. Double-clicking the video takes you to the video's YouTube page.

20. How do I quote from another post?
Highlight the words you want to quote and press the quote button    or type/drag the words between the [quote] and [/quote] codes. This is done automatically for you if you decide to reply with quote. Otherwise, it's best to copy and paste from the post you are responding to. Please see the guidelines about quoting.

21. How do I put an emoticon in my post?
Use the drop down menu. It will show the names in order as seen graphically above the drop down. If you want to repeat the same emoticon, you will have to reset the menu first.
Manually, you can type [emoticon] with the name of the emoticon between brackets. For example, [smiley] displays a .
The list of emoticon names can be seen by hovering the mouse over the group of emoticons above the text area. Also, the drop down menu contains the list of names.

22. What are the guidelines for quoting?
Quoting is not necessary, in general, because there are ways to trace the parent post.

Quoting is necessary if (1) you wish to respond to only part of a post and it has other points you don't wish to address or (2) you wish to itemize a list of responses to several parts. If you don't quote, people will not know which part you were responding to.

Please attribute the quote by having the name of the user followed by "writes:" in front of the quote. It will look like, "username writes: [quote] blah blah blah [/quote]." Please remove irrelevant parts by replacing it with [...] or <snip> inside the quote. With a snip, it becomes, "username writes: [quote] <snip> blah blah blah [/quote]."

If you are the first poster to make a response in a new topic, don't quote the starting post in its entirety. When people view the topic, the starting post will appear directly above your response. Your quote will create a useless repetition and a waste of vertical space. This rule does not apply to partial quotes and itemized quotes.
Always put your reply below the quoted material. Top posting is not acceptable. The flow of the web page is top-down and top posting interrupts that design. Top posting is like posting backwards. People should not have to scroll down and back up again to read your post. The board does not have the look and feel of an email list where top posting is common. Bottom-posting and in-line posting is acceptable.

23. When I respond, why do I see only the post I was responding to?
Scroll down and you will see the place to respond. The original post reappears on the response page. This helps you remember it and makes it easy to copy and paste for quoting. If the post was long, you won't see the response area until you scroll down a tad.

24. How do I respond in a new topic?
Reply and then click the "new" button in the topic line on the far right. Do this before typing your response. Please do not follow the new topic with "(was: old topic)" because this is done for you.

25. Why was my session terminated when I moved to another page?
Your browser is not accepting cookies. In Internet Explorer, set the Privacy rating to Medium High. Then try to log in. If you choose not to allow cookies, the board will still function but you will have to login each time before you post. You won't be able to mark posts read, change viewing options, have a personal profile, or respond in "look back." To start a new topic, you will have to login again.
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READING

26. Why does it say "new" after a topic name?
The tag means the topic started after your last logout. All the posts inside the topic are new. The tag can be turned off in "My options."

27. Why does it say "update" after a topic name?
The tag means there was a reply after your last logout. The topic was not new but there was recent activity. The tag can be turned off in "My options."

28. Why is there a yellow dot in place of the topic emoticon?
The yellow dot    indicates that you posted inside the topic at an earlier time. This lets you keep track of your active topics.

29. Why does it say "new" above a post?
The post was made after your last logout. The tag can be turned off in "My options."

30. What is a sticky topic?
A topic of great importance or urgency can be flagged by the moderator. It will appear in the topic list at the top of the first page. The ignore function does not work in a sticky topic. Every post in the topic will show, even if you decide to show new posts only and even if you ignore someone. Sticky topics have a unique emoticon    in the topic list. The rest of the topics will appear below the list of sticky topics.

31. What does the up button do?
It takes you to the top of the page. This is a shortcut to save you from scrolling all the way to the top or all the way to the bottom to click "return to top."

32. How do I mark posts read?
When you logout, every post on the board will be marked read. If a post was made after you logged out, it will be considered new the next time you login. This is done automatically.

However, you can manually mark posts read after a point in time. Go to the post you want and click the "go out the door" button that looks like this: It will log you out. Every post that was made after that post will be considered new the next time you login. This is useful for people who want to logout in mid-session.

33. How do I jump to the most recent post in a topic?
On the main board, click the number of posts in the topic. This works if you view posts "by date" and works most of the time with "threaded" view. It works even if you have people in your ignore list.

34. Why are some posts indented?
In thread view, responses are indented so you can tell the difference between a post and its response. A post (parent) is followed by a list of indented responses (children.) If any of the responses have children, they appear under it and are indented again.

To read a post in thread view, click the post and it will expand. If you click another post, it will collapse the earlier one and expand the newly clicked post.

35. How can I ignore a person I don't like?
Login, go into a topic and find the username you want to ignore. Toward the left and below the username, click the ignore button    and select "yes" at the next screen. Go back to the topic or back to the main board. Posts made by an ignored member won't appear on your screen.

If the ignored person started a topic, the entire topic will be ignored. If you return back to the topic, none of the posts will appear. The topic will no longer appear in the topic list on the main page and will be skipped by the arrows inside the topics. The 10 most recent posts will skip the ignored person.

Ignored posts will still appear in "look back" and in the search results. The main page will continue to display new topics in their normal order, so it might be best to use the "new" and "update" topic tags. Your newest topic might not be the first one. Ignored users will still appear in sticky topics.

36. How can I stop ignoring a person?
Go into "My options" and select "Ignore list." You can select a name to remove from your ignore list or you can delete the entire list.

37. How do I turn the "new" and "update" tags on or off?
Go into "My options" and look under "Tags." You can activate or deactivate the tags for new topic, updated topic, and new post. The three tags can be selected independently.

38. Can I use "look back" inside "look back?"
The "look back" feature displays the post that was responded to, otherwise known as the parent, in a pop-up window. If the little eyes    appear in the pop-up, you can click on that and another "look back" pop-up will appear on top of that. It will display the grandparent. You can continue to trace the post's lineage all the way back to the first post in the topic. The original post does not have the little eyes.

You can respond inside "look back" if you are logged in. It will open a new window. You will have to close this window after you send your reply.
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OTHER
39. How do I see someone's profile?
Click the author's name. The profile will appear in a small pop-up window.

40. How do I update my profile and sig?
Login and click "My Profile" in the top left navigation bar. A pop-up window will appear. Fill in the fields you want. Everything is optional. After that, click the "update" button. The window will reload and display the update.

Your sig appears at the bottom of "My Profile." Click the "update" button after you enter a new sig.

41. How can I receive an email notification if someone responds to my post?
Login, visit the topic and look at the upper right corner where it says "email notification off." Click the message to toggle it. The message will change to "email notification on." Click the message again to turn it off. This will send you a brief email notice if someone responds. Notifications are not limited to a response to your post. It covers all replies in the topic.

You will need to provide an email address in your lost password retrieval. This is not the email address that appears in your profile. This one is private. See "My Options" and click "Change name/pass" and see where it says "Email for lost password."

Email notifications are not sent if a person in your ignore list responds. They are not sent if someone edits a post. Deletions are not notified.

42. Why do stars appear under someone's user name?
They represent seniority. The number of stars corresponds to the number of posts.

Stars Number of posts Rank

(none) 1-99 Board Newbie

100-499 Apprentice Poster

500-999 Loyal Poster

1000-2499 Veteran Poster

2500-4999 Delivery Specialist

5000-9999 Delivery Tycoon

10,000-19,999 Delivery Jedi

20,000+ Grand Poobah

43. How long will posts stay before they are deleted?
There are no plans to delete old posts but it will have to happen eventually. They will be deleted by topic and not by date. There could be an archive on another site but no plans have been made at this time.

44. What's the difference between the discussion board and the guestbook?
The guestbook was designed for one-time messages without feedback. It's for evaluating the website instead of holding a conversation. The guestbook will no longer be used for questions or conversations. It was the board's predecessor.

If you have any more questions or notice any bugs, please the board master.
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Pizza delivery lexicon

Here are some terms you might see on the board unique to pizza delivery. This list is not meant to be exhaustive.

AM: Assistant manager. A rank below the store's general manager and above shift manager.

area manager: A rank above the store's general manager, oversees a group of stores in a city or across several towns covering roughly 12 stores.

bank: Money for making change. A set amount drivers receive at the beginning of a shift and return to the store at the end. This is usually $20.

Big3: The three largest national pizza chains: Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Papa John's. (Sometimes called B3.) They tend to think alike, imitate each other, and operate the same way. (Sometimes called Pig3 or P3.)
cartopper: 1) A magnetic sign on the roof of the driver's car that advertises for the store. 2) Any advertisement placed on the driver's car. (See also: window wing.)

CC: 1) Credit card. 2) Call center, a centralized office that receives redirected telephone calls from customers and relays an order electronically to a local pizza store.

commission: 1) A percentage of delivered sales applied to mileage reimbursement. 2) Pizza Hut's old term for mileage reimbursement even though it was a flat rate. (See: mileage.)
CSR: Customer service representative. An in-store employee whose job is to answer the phones, basically.
cut (cut table): A place in the kitchen where pizzas are cut into slices immediately after they leave the oven.

DC (delivery charge): A surcharge imposed on delivery customers to increase company revenue. This is a price increase for the store, corporate tip-stealing, and a dishonest business practice of gouging with a hidden fee. This fee is not to be confused with something that goes to the driver, such as mileage reimbursement or tips.
delivery time: An estimate of how long it might take to make a pizza and get it to your location. This is cook time + cut time + in-store lag time + actual drive to location.
dispatch: The assigning of deliveries to drivers in an orderly fashion.

DP: Domino's Pizza.

drive time: The time it takes a driver to leave the store on a delivery and return.

drone: A customer who always tips one dollar no matter the size of the order, the bad weather, or distance from the store. This person is someone stuck in the '80s who still thinks the tip is a dollar. They are named after the Borg drones on Star Trek: The Next Generation since they seem pre-programmed not to think for themselves about what a proper tip should be.
double: Two deliveries to two different locations in one trip, a double run.
GM: General manager, the head manager of a store, also known as RGM.
IC: Idiot customer. A customer who gives us a hard time or doesn't understand how things work.
indie: Independent store. Not part of the Big 3 or a regional chain. A mom-and-pop store.

make table: A long table in the kitchen with an array of toppings and tools useful for making pizza before it goes in the oven.
manager: The driver's boss.

MOD: Manager on duty. This is a vague term that refers to any manager currently in charge of the shift.

MR (mileage, mileage rate): The store's attempt at reimbursement for vehicular expenses incurred on the job. An attempt to bring the driver back up to minimum wage or sub-minimum wage.

OTD (out the door): The amount of time it takes to get an order dispatched to a driver. This is cook time + cut time + in-store lag time. It is sometimes expressed as a percent of the night's total deliveries below a target time.
PH: Pizza Hut.
PJ: Papa John's.

prep: The task of preparing dough for the next day.

promise time: An archaic term, hopefully, that Pizza Hut had for a delivery time estimate. (See: delivery time.)
RGM: Restaurant general manager, or simply GM for general manager of a store.

run: (1) Another name for a delivery. (2) A single trip that could include any number of delivery destinations.
rush ("the rush"): A sudden, unpredictable increase in simultaneous orders over a short time resulting in more business than the store can handle. This often happens at dinner hours, sports events, or in bad weather.

scammer: Someone who tries to get free or extra food with a bogus complaint.

single: A delivery to one customer in one trip, a single run, solo run, lonely run.

slammed: A condition whereby employees are overwhelmed by a large amount of business and cannot catch up over a long period of time or the entire shift.
SM: Shift manager. A manager under the AM who works part-time.
snake: A driver who snakes. (See: snaking.)
snaking: Stealing a delivery that should have gone to another driver.

stiff: (1) To pay with no tip. No payment for the service. No respect. (2) A customer who is a stiffer. (See: stiffer.)

stiffer: (1) Any customer who doesn't tip. (2) A specific customer known for a history of not tipping.
triple: Three deliveries to three different locations in one trip, a triple run.

TTD (to the door): The amount of time it takes to get a delivery to a customer after it was ordered. This is cook time + cut time + in-store lag time + actual drive to location.
walk-in: A walk-in refrigerator in the back of the store.
window wing: A removable sign above the driver's car door that advertises for the store. (See also: cartopper.)

Last updated: February 21, 2010

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