Dating, work & life

☠ Deadphr.✎ 2

One Weird Trick

A promise of a secret that doctors hated. Ran the advertising economy of the low-quality web for four years and was banned by the networks it had funded.

▸ 2010peak 2012†2014

● Aliven.✎ 3

Passive Income

Money earned while asleep — passive income — as the promise of every finance influencer, from rental yields to an e-book about passive income. The record's entry for the dream, and for the fact that the only reliable passive income is selling the dream.

▸ 2010peak 2021still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Quick Question

'Quick question' — the opener that precedes a question that is not quick, and the record's entry for the message that steals an afternoon while claiming a minute. 'Quick call?' is its voice-enabled sibling and is worse.

▸ 2010peak 2020still up

● Alivephr.✎ 2

Sorry for the Late Reply

The apology that opens a reply sent weeks late, and the meme about it — 'sorry for the late reply' after eleven months — as the record's entry for the guilt that every inbox carries. 'Apologies for the delay' is the same in a suit.

▸ 2010peak 2019still up

● Aliveabbr.✎ 3

WFH

'Working from home' — a rare privilege in 2010, everyone's situation in March 2020, and a battleground by 2023, when companies wanted it back. The record's entry for the acronym that changed the office, and for the 'WFH fit', which is a jumper.

▸ 2010peak 2020still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Google Wave

Email, chat and documents merged into one live-updating thing nobody could explain. Invited only, then abandoned in fifteen months; every collaborative tool since has quietly rebuilt it.

▸ 2009peak 2009†2010

◐ Dyingn.✎ 5

Crowdsourcing

Getting the public to do the work for free, as a business model. Fading as a word because it is now simply the model.

▸ 2006peak 2010still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Bandwidth (Corporate)

'I don't have the bandwidth' — time and energy, as a network metaphor — as the corporate way of saying no, and the record's entry for the word that made a person into a cable. Also 'capacity', which is the same with less engineering.

▸ 2005peak 2019still up

● Aliveabbr.✎ 2

EOD

'End of day' — the deadline that means 'today', without saying which hour, and the record's entry for the acronym that has caused more late nights than any other. 'EOD' at 5:15 p.m. is a specific cruelty. 'COB' is the same for the older.

▸ 2005peak 2018still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Let's Take This Offline

'Let's take this offline' — the phrase that ends an argument in a meeting by promising to continue it privately, which never happens. The record's entry for the corporate way of saying 'not in front of the others', and for 'offline', which now means 'in a different call'.

▸ 2005peak 2018still up

● Aliveabbr.✎ 3

OOO

'Out of office' — the automatic reply, the status, and, since 2020, the boast: 'OOO until Monday, do not contact me'. The record's entry for the acronym that became a small act of resistance, and for the auto-reply that is funnier than the person.

▸ 2005peak 2020still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Ping Me

'Ping me' — send me a message — from a network diagnostic into every office, and the record's entry for the verb that turned a person into a server. 'I'll ping you' is a promise; 'ping' as a noun is a notification; both are a small headache.

▸ 2005peak 2018still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 5

Orkut

Google's first social network, enormous in Brazil and India and invisible to the people who built it. Closed in 2014 so Google could focus on Google+, which is the saddest sentence here.

▸ 2004peak 2008†2014

◐ Dyingn.

Second Life

A virtual world with land, an economy and a Reuters bureau. Peaked when newspapers opened offices in it; still running, still profitable, and still confused with the metaverse it predated.

▸ 2003peak 2007still up

↺ Undeadn.✎ 7

Clippy

An animated paperclip that interrupted you. Hated in life, beloved in death — the earliest documented case of the internet forgiving software once it could no longer harm anyone.

▸ 1997peak 1999†2001

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

SixDegrees

The first social network, profile and friends list and all, seven years before anyone was ready. Closed for the reason everything closes when it is early.

▸ 1997peak 1999†2000

▲ Fossiln.

Slashdot

News for nerds, stuff that matters, with the first comment moderation system that worked. Still publishing; last mattered around the time it was sold, twice.

▸ 1997peak 2002†2012

● Alivev.✎ 1

Shipping

Wanting two characters to be in a relationship. The founding verb of fandom, and now also what you do to real people you have never met.

▸ 1996peak 2012still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Match.com

The dating website that went live in April 1995 and turned a personals column into a database with photographs. Every swipe-based app of the 2010s is a descendant, whether it admits it or not. The record's entry for the moment the internet started introducing people on purpose.

▸ 1995peak 2005still up

↺ Undeadn.✎ 5

Under Construction GIF

An animated workman, digging, forever. Admitted that a page was unfinished — a form of honesty the modern web has not replaced.

▸ 1995peak 1998†2001

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Friend Zone

The place where a person is kept as a friend by someone they wanted more from — the friend zone — from a 1994 sitcom into 2010s internet culture, where it became a grievance, then a joke about the grievance. The record's entry for the zone, and for the argument about whether it exists.

▸ 1994peak 2013still up

● Alivephr.✎ 2

Touch Base

'Let's touch base' — to have a brief conversation — as the meeting request that never says what about, from baseball into every calendar, and the record's entry for the phrase that is also a small threat. 'Touch base' at 4:45 on a Friday has never been good.

▸ 1990peak 2015still up