Words We Don’t Need: Bacn
August 20th, 2007 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy 33 CommentsTweet This
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.
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
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?
Dude, you are just curmudgeonly….
As one of the Pittsburgh Podcampers, I personally kind of heart it!
::runs and hides::
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. ;)
*nomenclature… sorry!
Sounds to me like you are upset that you didn’t think of it first. Bacn is you friend not your enemy.
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!
Bacn FTW!
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!
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
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
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…
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?
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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/
“…would someone please buy Web 2.0 a vowel?”
Haha…
but seriously, please be iCareful what you iAsk for.
You are so correct. Major waste of bandwidth on this. Please – this needs to die now.
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.
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!