splat out
= S =
spoiler
spod n.
[UK] 1. A lower form of life found on talker systems and MUDs. 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.
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.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.