No we don’t.
No you haven’t.
You haven’t shown which form is older.
The term that is used universally except here?
That’s your argument?
Well…I have provided cites.
You haven’t except “SDMB said so 18 years ago.”
You seem to have missed post #10.
Whereas, your argument seems to be, “hey, SDMB, some people use the term differently now, so you need to stop using it the way you always have, and come up with a different term, because I don’t like how you use it, and it makes you look archaic”? Is that the gist of it?
Doing what you want does not make it right.
I’ll tell you it’s an obscure term everywhere. I’ve been on hundreds of forums over decades and I’ve never even heard of the term outside of the SDMB. If you want to go by what is “universal” we wouldn’t use the term at all.
Again, the basis of your argument is flawed. The community has no obligation to try to curb its language to fit some imagined norm outside of it. You’re arguing for something that is not needed and would be incredibly disruptive to the board if attempted.
Not some people.
Most people.
And arguing purely for the sake of arguing, as you are doing here, is pretty pointless.
That’s dismissive.
Indeed…by your definition that is threadshitting.
Mod yourself.
It doesn’t matter that the word “threadshitting” is used in a slightly different way on different boards. What matters is that the instructions to posters says “don’t do this”. The “This” is called threadshitting, which is IMMEDIATELY defined to explain how the word “threadshitting” is being used on this board.
If you want to argue that we ought to change the rules to use some other word, sure, go for it. But if you want to argue that behavior that is expressly forbidden in our posted rules should be okay because other people use the word “threadshitting” differently, well, that argument holds no merit.
This is not a new or obscure rule for the forum. As Colibri says, it’s been posted for ages. And if you can find any of the rules, you can find how it’s defined here.
So, your argument really is, “hey, SDMB, most* people use the term differently now, so you need to stop using it the way you always have, and come up with a different term, because I don’t like how you use it, and it makes you look archaic."
Okay, then.
*- evidence for “most” seems to be “a couple of posts on the internet.”
We use words. Words mean things. Words we all understand.
Making up unique definitions is not helpful to anyone.
Can you make your own definitions for words on your own website? Sure! Of course you can. But why would you want to?
Words also sometimes have different meanings in different places, and in different cultures. I’ve been a member of many other discussion boards over the years (not so many now that they’re an endangered species), and most of those boards had a few words or terms that seemed to have a unique meaning there, because it had evolved as part of the particular culture that developed on that board.
In this case, the SDMB-specific definition of “threadshitting” is something that most members of this board seem to understand, because it’s part of the unique culture of this place, and because it’s been part of the board’s particular vernacular for a long time, just like “Hi, Opal” or “conch.”
Did someone set out to give us a made-up definition for that word, 18 or more years ago? I kind of doubt it. More likely, the definition to which @Colibri pointed you was a codification of what was already being used.
Unless we’re talking about codifying a rule or law, or having some other very specific discussion, in which case making up unique definitions is both helpful and commonplace.
~Max
See my post 29.
Also, I never heard the word “threadshitting” before using this board. I don’t think it’s a word that’s universally known. If it were, I would argue that we should change the name we give for the forbidden behavior in the SDMB rules, not that we should change the rules to match a definition that presumably wasn’t what TPTB had in mind when they wrote those rules.
Again…definitions change.
Clinging to archaic definitions is not helpful.
Perhaps the older members of the board get it but people new to the board won’t and pointing them to a lengthy rules page probably won’t help much.
What gives? Haven’t you been here for twenty years?
~Max
Yes…
Of all the things that might be a disincentive for new people to join this board, the fact that we might have a unique definition for a term that doesn’t appear to be widely used outside of the SDMB anyway (and a definition which can be easily and quickly pointed to and understood if a question arises) has got to be pretty damned low on the list.