Words We Don’t Need: Bacn
August 20th, 2007 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy 33 Comments
Neologisms spread through the internet at the speed of, well, the internet. A new one appeared over the weekend, reportedly originating at the Pittsburgh Podcamp event, but already showing up in my RSS feeds and Twitter timeline and email: bacn. Apparently this is the term the cool kids are using now for stuff that falls in between e-mail and spam: low-priority messages that you really want, but not right now: Facebook notifications, newsletters you signed up for, things like that. There’s even an official web site for bacn now.
Color me curmudgeonly, but I’d like to see this one stopped in its tracks right now. Even apart from the spelling (would someone please buy Web 2.0 a vowel? I’ll chip in ten bucks right now), I don’t see any reason for a term for “low-priority e-mail.” Is there supposed to be something cool about having a lot of bacn? Do we compete in a bacn sweepstakes now? Is bacn management software next?
There are, of course, well-worn strategies for dealing with these e-mails. Routine notifications are not a problem if you don’t let them interrupt your workflow. If you’re plagued with an inbox full of “TomFool is now following you on Twitter” then it’s time to learn how the rules interface of your email client works. Shove those messages off to another folder where you can peruse them at your leisure. For the truly routine ones, move them and mark them as read the moment they arrive, then set up a daily (or weekly) task to scan the folder when it’s convenient to do so. If there are routine notifications you never read, unsubscribe from them or turn them off.
Of course, one big corporation will be happy if “bacn” catches on: Hormel, which had been fighting a valiant rearguard action to protect its Spam trademark. But the rest of us, I think, might benefit from letting this one get nipped in the bud.
33 Comments Post your own comment
datter says: August 20th, 2007 11:38am
Throw me into the “curmudgeonly” category too, this bacn business is stupid if only because it’s going to lead to more and more of this crap if it catches on. Seriously, it’s the internet annoying enough as it is?
G.J. Head says: August 20th, 2007 12:59pm
Dude, you are just curmudgeonly….
Amie Gillingham says: August 20th, 2007 1:01pm
As one of the Pittsburgh Podcampers, I personally kind of heart it!
::runs and hides::
No Bacn for Me, Please. Thanks. says: August 20th, 2007 1:21pm
[...] I’m with Mike Gunderloy on this one. [...]
D.M. Papuga says: August 20th, 2007 1:24pm
I find the fact that anyone would shake their fist at any new nomencalture hilarious. Every so often new phrases, new means of catagorizing things, pops up. Remember when “Spam” was just “junk” mail? People want definition. They crave order and things to label.
I dislike the whole “shortcut” mentality when it comes to posting ( “how r u” for example, and without the punctuation, mind you), but one of the signifiers of many Web 2.0 users is not (and I can’t believe I’m making this argument) because they can’t spell, or are too lazy, but that it feeds into the instant gratification, speed of light information mindset. Let’s not forget that messages conveyed in that way, and the people sending them, have developed their own jargon. Every subset of culture has one, it’s not surprising that this one does too. It doesn’t mean I can’t hate it, or ignore it when I see it.
But the fact of the matter is, acronyms have been around for ages, and they won’t go away. People use acronyms to facilitate communication. True, bacn is not an acronym, but its spelling was born from the l33t speak mentality that made commercials who complain about time spent texting “my bff jill.” It’s part of the culture. Love it or hate it, it’s still there, and it’s out there for everyone to see, adopt, or abandon. Plus, I saw it on the internet, so it must be true. ;)
D.M. Papuga says: August 20th, 2007 1:26pm
*nomenclature… sorry!
Bill Alexander says: August 20th, 2007 1:28pm
Sounds to me like you are upset that you didn’t think of it first. Bacn is you friend not your enemy.
Serge Lescouarnec says: August 20th, 2007 1:49pm
Fits right there with a piece I wrote today Out of Office reply , the Do Not Disturb for E-Mail
On another topic, you can start checking the Panelpicker for South by Southwest 2008.
I offered Just Over 50 and not dead yet….Vote for your favorites!
Jim says: August 20th, 2007 1:57pm
Bacn FTW!
john says: August 20th, 2007 2:06pm
I think we need a new term for all of you creepy old people who can’t deal with the pace of change in today’s world!
Cathleen Rittereiser says: August 20th, 2007 2:09pm
I hadn’t thought of the e-mail filtering option and was ready to roll out my Web 2.0 Bacn Software Solution: Fryr.
Also see Twitter postings earlier today from twitter.com/badbanana and twitter.com/cathleenritt with other suggestions. Here are some examples:
Non personal email from pastry chefs: bakn
Non personal email from commodities traders: Prkbellies
Chris Wilson says: August 20th, 2007 2:16pm
ROTFL! “would someone please buy Web 2.0 a vowel?” I love it!
Thanks for the write-up. Bacn has been all over the twitterverse today, and I needed to find out what everyone was talking about.
The absolute worst is stuff you can’t junk, like phishing emails from ebay or amazon or paypal, because you really DO have accounts there, and don’t want all of it going to Junk. Especially your domain registrar. Need to know when your domain is up.
So, let’s call stuff you can’t delete, but don’t want, FrutCak. :D
dan says: August 20th, 2007 2:24pm
What strikes me as odd is that bacn sounds like just as much of a time-waster and productivity-sucker as spam.
Though I am hungry now…
Susan Reynolds says: August 20th, 2007 2:37pm
Oh yes, Mike Gunerloy is decidedly geezerly. Geesh can’t even let us kids have a little bacn fun. And just when Cathleen Rittereiser had me signed up to fund her fryr software too. I thought I was going to make a killing in one of the hot necessities of web 2.0
Which brings me to numbers. We’ve got missing vowels and too many numerals Anyone see a correlation?
Mike says: August 20th, 2007 2:50pm
I totally see a need for this word, though perhaps not for the lack of a vowel. There is definitely a class of email that you want to see, but is not written directly for you. It is stuff that is better left to an RSS feed, but they aren’t smart enough to set one up.
jaime says: August 20th, 2007 3:15pm
I like simplicity, I try and keep off as many mailing lists as possible. I only just heard of bacn, but I think I’ll create a folder for all of those pesky little items. I can then flip the bacn when I’m taking a break.
Aaron Sneary says: August 20th, 2007 3:37pm
For the person that requested a term for old folks that don’t follow every whim of the slightly witty, I present you with:
GeezR
Aaron Sneary
Justin Kownacki says: August 20th, 2007 3:48pm
I’m cool with people hating the word bacn. To each, his (or her) own. I just wish people had valid reasons for tearing something down, rather than passing off one’s own (limited) opinion as a rule of law for how everyone should be allowed to act / speak.
JoeC says: August 20th, 2007 4:06pm
I thought I posted this once before, but perhaps I fat-fingered the “do it” button. At any rate, here are my thoughts on the matter posted on my blog.
PodCamp Pittsburgh with a side of Bacn « Lip Smacking Wit says: August 20th, 2007 7:59pm
[...] my e-mail. In the short time since, bacn has grown to discussions all over the Internet, even criticism. The writer said he doesn’t ”see any reason for a term for “low-priority [...]
buchstaben, wörter, sätze & mehr ::: andreas streim says: August 21st, 2007 12:34am
Bacn
Jeder, der eine Email-Adresse hat, kennt inzwischen Spam. Eklige Werbebotschaften, sinnfreie digitale Belästigung. Spam steht dabei ja ursprünglich für einen Markenname für Dosenfleisch, wie Wikipedia weiß:
Ganz allgemein exis…
Mosley says: August 21st, 2007 7:58am
I will have to agree… the term Bacn is something we can live without. I wrote a post telling the world that mrbaconpants want to make a stand against bacn.
http://www.mrbaconpants.com/bacn-needs-to-be-stopped/
Bacn: de correos y tocino says: August 21st, 2007 11:46am
[...] Web Worker Daily – Words we don’t need: Bacn [...]
Boxbe Blog » Blog Archive » What about bacn? says: August 21st, 2007 12:58pm
[...] few people in the blogosphere have protested the term, but as good as the real bacon might taste, it sure is something you shouldn’t eat [...]
matthew says: August 21st, 2007 2:47pm
“…would someone please buy Web 2.0 a vowel?”
Haha…
but seriously, please be iCareful what you iAsk for.
Fakn says: August 21st, 2007 4:04pm
You are so correct. Major waste of bandwidth on this. Please – this needs to die now.
Sabe says: August 21st, 2007 7:09pm
I agree completely, although just the fact that so many people are talking about the word “bacn” is depressing in and of itself.
Also, while low-priority email can get tiresome, the funny thing is that this sort of email is the sort you usually get the most control over. You can just tell Facebook, or whatever site it is, to keep their mail to themselves. You don’t get the same level of control over most other forms of email.
It’s a topic worth discussing, but definitely not one worthy of such a ridiculous catchphrase.
Mysterious vowel movement - bacn — Life’s a bit like this… says: August 22nd, 2007 12:01am
[...] grammar police have been called following the mysterious disappearance of the letter ‘o’ in a new Web 2.0 [...]
Levi Blackman says: August 23rd, 2007 11:34am
I have a folder in my emal box called bored…and it is kinda a home for email messages that don’t require an immediate response. I think there might be a need for low priority email classification, but you are right, bacn is a horrible term for it.
I love bacon! What are you people trying to do to my favorite food!
My emails « Yassine’s blog says: August 30th, 2007 5:01am
[...] through my daily read I stumbled upon on one my favourite blogs that talks about Bacn. The definition given is the following: low-priority messages that you really want, but not right [...]
FaceTooth | Mobile Messaging 2.0 says: September 10th, 2007 1:27am
[...] Though ostensibly an interesting mashup, Cityware is part of a broader study into ubiquitous and pervasive computing, particularly in urban spaces. What such experimentation may give rise to is some interesting developments in machine messaging as our mobile devices silently negotiate and discover people in our vicinity…perhaps a kind of mobile bacn! [...]
The Problem With Hating Bacn | TechBurgh says: September 29th, 2007 1:21am
[...] own site and its own merchandise. And, of course, it has detractors. The loudest thus far has been Web Worker Daily, which states, unequivocally: Color me curmudgeonly, but I’d like to see this one stopped in [...]
Web Worker Daily » Archive Battle Against Spam Moves to a New Front? « says: November 30th, 2007 4:33am
[...] At least he didn’t call it Bacn. [...]