JargonFile/entries/spod.txt

spod

n. [UK] 1. A lower form of life found on talker system s and MUD s. The spod
has few friends in RL and uses talkers instead, finding communication easier
and preferable over the net. He has all the negative traits of the computer
geek without having any interest in computers per se. Lacking any knowledge
of or interest in how networks work, and considering his access a God-given
right, he is a major irritant to sysadmins, clogging up lines in order to
reach new MUDs, following passed-on instructions on how to sneak his way
onto Internet ( Wow! It's in America! ) and complaining when he is not
allowed to use busy routes. A true spod will start any conversation with Are
you male or female? (and follow it up with Got any good
numbers/IDs/passwords? ) and will not talk to someone physically present in
the same terminal room until they log onto the same machine that he is using
and enter talk mode. Compare newbie , tourist , weenie , twink , terminal
junkie , warez d00dz. 2. A backronym for Sole Purpose, Obtain a Degree ;
according to some self-described spods, this term is used by indifferent
students to condemn their harder-working fellows. Compare the defiant
adoption of the term geek in the mid-1990s by people who would previously
have been stigmatized by it. Spods in the positive sense are talker users
who've accumulated a large amount of spod time, that is, they spend a lot of
time logged in to that talker (for example, my spod time on Uberworld as of
this moment is 131 days, 15 hours and 20 minutes). Spods are generally
highly knowledgeable about talkers and SGXStalker coding, as well as
computers and the internet in general. 3. [Glasgow University] An otherwise
competent hacker who spends way too much time on talker systems. 4. [obs.]
An ordinary person; a random. This is the meaning with which the term was
coined, but the inventor informs us he has himself accepted sense 1.