The word "spod" is now used as a semi-compliment in telnet talker circles, in much the same way as some people refer to themselves as "geeks". Spods are users of talkers 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 140 days, 13 hours and 57 minutes). Spods are generally highly knowledgeable about talkers and talker coding, as well as computers and the internet in general. Most of them work in IT and are online during office hours, hence the high spod times. Those spods who work at ISPs or large companies will often run a computer called a spodhost specifically for the running of talkers, MUDs, MUSHes and the like, as well as providing shell accounts for their spod friends.