…what’s the first thing you think of?
A waiter/waitress?
A computer?
I’m an engineer so of course my mind immediately went to “computer”.
With no context at all: machine.
But obviously my answers vary when used in sentences like, “My name is Alicia, and I’ll be your server this evening; can I get you something to drink?” and “We need a new NAT rule to allow ssh to this server from outside the subnet.”
Tennis.
Computer, although conducting this poll online may be introducing some subtle bias. 
If I’m at a restaurant, a waitress. All other times, computer.
A computer. Probably down.
Since I work in IT, it’s a computer.
But it depends on context. In a restaurant,I know it means a waiter/waitress.
You know sometimes words have two meanings.
I’ve worked many years as a busboy, and currently work as a computer programmer who sshs into remote servers everyday, and the first thing I thought of was… volleyball.
Computer. I learned that meaning years before ever hearing of it to refer to a person.
Aside: Spanish has a similar duality for servidor, but the person-meaning refers to a specific meaning of “servant”, not to a waiter. It’s only encountered in extremely old-fashioned expressions where the speaker refers to himself as “your humble servant” (su seguro servidor) or to himself in the third person in a “this person does not thing he is Gaius Iulius Caesar” kind of way (nurse to waiting room: “Joe Smith?” Joe Smith: “¡servidor!”); the two usages are regional and used in different regions. That one I’d encountered first to refer to people.
Really? Thanks.
Not sure where the hostility is coming from. I always think of a PC when I hear that word which makes me do a double take sometimes when I read some tweets or other things out of context where it means the other thing and I thought it would be an interesting question.
I am intelligent enough to understand the context of the conversation and choose the appropriate definition.
so…Why not both??
Is that a stairway I see WHOOSHing its way to heaven?
‘In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings,
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.’
They can call themselves servers all they want, but it’s not the first word I associate with them. It is, however, the first (and likely only) word I can think of for the computing concept.
Is “server” for waiter/waitress a new thing? I don’t remember it from the last time I was in the States.
It’s not brand new, but it’s part of the gender neutral language push. Like using flight attendant instead of steward or stewardess.
I work for a restaurant chain, so I thought waitperson first.
Server sounds much better than waitperson.
Fun fact: In English server means one who serves. While in Ottoman Turkish سرور server means ‘one who rules’.
This.
And when I first read the thread title, I thought, oh, this is gonna be about waitpeeps vs computers.