Maving — Definition, examples, FAQs, and more

Maving: a brief history

The term is generally traced to a specific player remembered by the nickname Maverick, shortened to Mav, in the TinyMUD and early MUSH era of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Accounts of exactly who he was differ. One version describes a TinyMUD player who put a stray colon in front of a whisper, turning a private message into something the whole room could read. Another frequently repeated version places Maverick on a Vampire-themed MUSH in the early 1990s, where he had a habit of paging complaints about people directly to the people he was complaining about.

Whatever the precise origin, both stories agree on the important part: the mistake got named after a player famous for making it. Other players began calling the misfire “pulling a Mav,” and before long mav had become a verb in its own right. It appeared in MUSH glossaries and newbie guides through the 1990s and has stayed part of MU* slang ever since. The mistake itself has outlived the games that named it: sending a message to the wrong window is now an everyday hazard in group chats and Discord servers as well.

How it's used today

Maving is still everyday vocabulary on MUSHes and other roleplay-focused text games. Typing “mav” immediately after a misdirected message is standard shorthand for “ignore that, it went to the wrong place.” Etiquette is forgiving: acknowledge it, laugh it off, and move on. If a mav reveals something a character should not know, most groups expect everyone to treat the message as never sent rather than act on it, which keeps the slip from turning into an IC/OOC crossover problem.

Because so much play now happens across several windows at once (the game, private messages, Discord), mavs are easier to commit than ever. A good MUD client helps by color-coding channels and keeping separate input areas for different destinations.

Types of games where the term is commonly used include:

MUD, MUSH, RP MU, RPI, Chat, Social

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Maving examples

• A player means to page a friend “This scene is dragging, want to wrap it up?” but types it as a say, and the entire room reads it.
• Someone drops “brb, pizza just arrived” into a tense in-character scene instead of the OOC channel, then follows up with “mav, sorry!”
• A player pages a complaint about a staff ruling straight to the staff member it concerns instead of to a friend.
• Meaning to whisper battle plans to one ally, a player says them aloud, and every character in the room hears the whole scheme.

Myths and misconceptions

1. A mav is just any typing mistake. A mav is specifically a message delivered to the wrong audience. Misspelling a word in a message that lands where you intended is a typo, not a mav.
2. Maving breaks the rules. A mav is an accident, and communities treat it with humor rather than punishment. What does draw criticism is faking a mav on purpose to leak information while keeping deniability, which many groups treat as cheating.
3. Characters know whatever gets mavved. Most groups treat a mavved message as never sent, since the characters were never supposed to hear it. Expecting characters to react to one misreads how the in-character and out-of-character boundary works.

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Maving FAQs

Where does the word mav come from?

It is generally traced to a player nicknamed Maverick, or Mav, in the TinyMUD and early MUSH era of the late 1980s and early 1990s, who was famous for sending messages to the wrong place. The mistake got named after him, and mav became a verb.

Is maving the same as making a typo?

No. A typo is a spelling or typing error inside a message. A mav is a message that reaches the wrong audience, even if every word in it is spelled perfectly. A typo in the command is often what causes a mav, but the mav is the misdelivery itself.

What should you do after maving?

Own it quickly. Typing “mav” or a short out-of-character apology tells everyone the message was an accident. Most groups ignore the stray message and carry on, so a fast acknowledgment is usually all it takes.

Can players use information revealed by a mav in the story?

Usually not. Most communities treat a mavved message as if it were never sent, because the characters were never meant to hear it. Having a character act on mavved information is generally considered bad form and a breach of the line between player knowledge and character knowledge.

How do you avoid maving?

Slow down when switching windows, glance at your input line before pressing enter, and use client features like channel colors or separate input areas for private messages. Even so, nearly everyone mavs eventually, so the real skill is recovering gracefully.