[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. Spods in the positive sense are talker users
who've accumulated a large amount of spod time, that is, they spend a lot
of time logged in to that talker (for example, my spod time on Uberworld as
of this moment is 131 days, 15 hours and 20 minutes). Spods are generally
highly knowledgeable about talkers and SGXStalker coding, as well as
computers and the internet in general.
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.