I first saw it on the Straightdope home page, about 5 lines down from the top. And I basically haven’t found the term any place else. I can’t find it in my regular or slang dictionaries. A Google search brings up very little. I am posting my question in GQ because I assume it is a term used in other places than just on these boards. So,
What does “Threadspotting” mean?
It means, “Oooh! There’s one!”
More specifically, it means, “Ooh, there’s a GOOD thread! All must read it!”
It’s a pun on “Trainspotting”, the well-known anorak activity, not to mention book and film.
Since this is About This Message Board. . .
Off to ATMB.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
It means that the Powers that Be liked a thread on the message board enough to bring it to everyone’s attention on the front page. So far as I know, it’s unique to this board.
On Googling, I still think that it originated here, but it looks like it might have been adopted by other boards as well.