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 (see
computer geek). 3. [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.
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