Letterboxing Glossary: S
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- scavenging
- The process of looking for letterboxes in 'likely places' without the use of clues. This is most common in Dartmoor where many tors are dotted with several dozen letterboxes at a time. Most letterboxers on Dartmoor start this way since the official clue book isn't available until you've already found 100 letterboxes and scavenging is the quickest and easiest way to get your first 100 finds.
- signature stamp
- The stamp letterboxers use to identify themselves, both in the logbooks of letterboxes they've found and for exchanges. Also called personal stamps.
- SitRep
- Military lingo for 'situation report'. In the letterboxing world, it is slang for reporting the status of a letterbox that someone recently found. This tends to be a controversial term, however, that many letterboxers do not like. If you use 'status report' instead, you have to type a few letters, but you won't annoy anyone.
- slack-boxer
- Someone who has mastered the art of doing as little work as possible in order to find a letterbox. A slack-boxer will hike with others and let other people actually find the box while they watch, perhaps with a few encouraging words in order to appear as if they're helping. Slack-boxers will let others ink up the stamp in the letterbox so they don't have to do it themselves. Slack-boxing is the goal of any lazy letterboxer.
- slank-boxing
- A combination of slack-boxing and slink-boxing. A group will slink to the box, then a designated person or two will ink up the stamp for everyone to make the stamping process go faster for the slack-boxers. Sometimes the slack-boxers won't even log their own stamp into the logbook due to limited logbook pages and the time involved.
- slink-boxing
- Often seen at large events when large numbers of letterboxers look for a limited number of boxes. They stretch out as they walk to a box, then snap together when they stop to log in at the box, not unlike a human slinky.
- Smithsonian Magazine
- It was the April 1998 issue of Smithsonian Magazine that pushed letterboxing beyond the borders of Dartmoor. Within a short period of time, a loose alliance of adventurers and rubber stamp enthusiasts, coordinating activities using the Internet, picked up the letterboxing torch and introduced letterboxing to the United States.
- snag
- A dead tree that is still standing.
- social trail
- An undesignated trail that diverges from an existing trail as a shortcut to a destination. It usually cuts through a vegetative barrier, such as woods, scrubs, or grass fields. It is called a social trail because it often leads to a social gathering place. Social trails maybe not be easily noticed at first but become more prominent as more people recognize and utilize them. And in case there is any misunderstanding, social trails are very bad. Avoid planting letterboxes in locations that may cause social trails, and if you have planted a box that is creating a social trail, move the letterbox somewhere else immediately.
- Speedball
- A company that produces many stamp carving tools and supplies including Speedy-Carve.
- Speedy-Carve
- A popular carving medium sold by Speedball. The most prominent characteristic is its pink color, and most letterboxers refer to it as "that pink stuff." Back on the old days of letterboxing, Speedball called this product Speedy-Stamp, so you may still here references to that.
- Speedy-Cut
- A white carving medium produced by Speedball and hated by letterboxers everywhere for its ability to crumble without provocation. Look for Speedball's other carving product, Speedy-Stamp, that is highly regarded.
- spoiler
- When a letterboxer—usually by accident or through ignorance—gives away information about a letterbox that was supposed to be kept secret. Especially common when locations to mystery boxes are released publicly. Spoilers are very frowned upon in the letterboxing world. What should be a secret should stay a secret.
- S.P.O.P.
- Short for Suspicious Pile Of People. Typically seen during large events where there are considerably more people than letterboxes. The people tend to cluster around the limited number of boxes, and at a certain point, you don't even need to follow clues anymore. You just look around for suspicious piles of people. "There must be a box over there—13 people are logging into something!"
- S.P.O.R.
- Short for Suspicious Pile Of Rocks. Often, a letterbox needs to be hidden with a few extra rocks and when you see a rock (or several rocks) in a position or location that is clearly not natural, you'll often find a letterbox hidden behind or under it.
- Staedtler Mars
- A company with a popular line of carving medium (MasterCarve) that, to quote their literature, 'cuts like butter'.
- stamp-in
- The process of exchanging stamp images, either with the stamp found in a letterbox or with another letterboxer's signature stamp during an exchange. For stamping tips, visit our Art of Stamping tutorial!
- stile
- Steps or bars for people to climb over a fence. Frequently found near areas were cows or other farm animals graze, but they can be located anywhere a trail needs to cross a fence such as this one found along the Appalachian Trail.
- store-bought stamp
- A commercially sold stamp. Hand-carved stamps are preferred in the letterboxing community, but store-bought stamps seem to endure a minority status. Somewhere in between are custom-made stamps, not quite generic as a store-bought stamp, but not exactly hand-carved either.
- stuff
- A techincal term for those that do not understand real technical terms concerning computers and other electronics.
- switchback
- A sharp reversal in the direction of the trail, allowing the trail to maintain a reasonable grade as it climbs a steep hillside. Switchbacks also help to reduce erosion. Don't be tempted to cut the corners of a switchback, because doing so tramples the vegetation and creates erosion problems.
