[UK]
1. A lower form of life found on {talker system}s and {MUD}s. 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. 2. An experienced
talker user. As with the defiant adoption of the term geek in the
mid-1990s by people who would previously have been stigmatized by it,
the term "spod" is now used as a mark of distinction by talker users
who've accumulated a large amount of login time. Such spods tend to
be very knowledgeable about talkers and talker coding, as well as
more general hacker activites. An unusually high proportion of spods
work in the ISP sector, a profession which allows for lengthy periods
of login time and for under-the-desk servers, or "spodhosts", upon
which talker systems are hosted. 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.
3. [Glasgow University] An otherwise competent hacker who spends way
too much time on talker systems.
4. [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.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {Commonwealth Hackish}{geek}{handle}{tron}{warez d00dz}{weenie}]