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iovan · 02-28-2011, 03:38 AM

First off you could do without a lot of the arrogance that seems to flow from your responses. Cuteness on your "choice" at the end aside.

Your analogy doesn't hold water for one simple reason I can address right now. What MUD can stand for and what 4WD can stand for are completely different. Why? 4WD has always been established to mean 4 Wheel Drive and no other definition for it has ever been made (that I am aware of) or reached permeation throughout the general populace. Where as MUD has many different meanings throughout the general populace that is aware of MUDs in the first place.

For you to find a better analogy you would be fighting against your own point of course. Seeing as a better more fitting analogy to this scenario would be evidence for the general way meanings are ascribed to acronyms. Regardless of what you may want, or how you may want things defined. The original meanings of things are not always the most valid. Language and the meanings of words evolve independent of their original sources.

This doesn't give excuse for just anyone to come along and hijack the meaning of something though. However that situation is FAR different from the one we are discussing where a vast amount of people are involved with no agenda of their own (for the most part). MUD's original meaning is justifiably Multi User Dungeon but it's valid meaning is not locked down to that. It just isn't and to argue against it is about the same as arguing that the word "cool" just means a lower temperature than lukewarm instead of also; good, nice, hip, etc. etc. etc. etcetera...

02-28-2011, 03:38 AM	#7
iovan Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Name: Elijah Location: Noneya Home MUD: DBAT Posts: 30	Re: MUD - What can it validly stand for? First off you could do without a lot of the arrogance that seems to flow from your responses. Cuteness on your "choice" at the end aside. Your analogy doesn't hold water for one simple reason I can address right now. What MUD can stand for and what 4WD can stand for are completely different. Why? 4WD has always been established to mean 4 Wheel Drive and no other definition for it has ever been made (that I am aware of) or reached permeation throughout the general populace. Where as MUD has many different meanings throughout the general populace that is aware of MUDs in the first place. For you to find a better analogy you would be fighting against your own point of course. Seeing as a better more fitting analogy to this scenario would be evidence for the general way meanings are ascribed to acronyms. Regardless of what you may want, or how you may want things defined. The original meanings of things are not always the most valid. Language and the meanings of words evolve independent of their original sources. This doesn't give excuse for just anyone to come along and hijack the meaning of something though. However that situation is FAR different from the one we are discussing where a vast amount of people are involved with no agenda of their own (for the most part). MUD's original meaning is justifiably Multi User Dungeon but it's valid meaning is not locked down to that. It just isn't and to argue against it is about the same as arguing that the word "cool" just means a lower temperature than lukewarm instead of also; good, nice, hip, etc. etc. etc. etcetera...