toor n.
The Bourne-Again Super-user. An alternate account with UID of
0, created on Unix machines where the root user has an
inconvenient choice of shell. Compare avatar.
Node:topic drift, Next:topic group, Previous:toor, Up:= T
=
topic drift n.
Term used on GEnie, Usenet and other electronic fora to
describe the tendency of a thread to
drift away from the original subject of discussion (and thus,
from the Subject header of the originating message), or the
results of that tendency. The header in each post can be changed
to keep current with the posts, but usually isn't due to
forgetfulness or laziness. A single post may often result in
several posts each responding to a different point in the
original. Some subthreads will actually be in response to some
off-the-cuff side comment, possibly degenerating into a flame war, or just as often evolving
into a separate discussion. Hence, discussions aren't really so
much threads as they are trees. Except that they don't really
have leaves, or multiple branching roots; usually some lines of
discussion will just sort of die off after everyone gets tired of
them. This could take anywhere from hours to weeks, or even
longer.
The term `topic drift' is often used in gentle reminders that
the discussion has strayed off any useful track. "I think we
started with a question about Niven's last book, but we've ended
up discussing the sexual habits of the common marmoset. Now
that's topic drift!"