Stan

Half the disagreement in this thread is between people defining Stan by what it meant in 2000 and people defining it by what it meant at its peak. Both are right. Neither is the current meaning.

Logging a live specimen: a railway platform departures board, overridden by staff, 11 January. Stan in the body text, twice, once misspelt. The second use is the more interesting one.

The state is defensible but the life span is not. 26 yrs & counting assumes the 2000 date, and if the birth moves — see the thread above — the span moves with it. These fields should be linked, not typed.

Best short gloss I have heard for Stan: the thing everyone knew about for about eighteen months and then agreed, without discussing it, not to bring up again.

My first encounter with Stan was a friend sending me a link with no explanation at all, which was the etiquette then. You did not say what it was. You said 'look' and let it happen to the person.

Filed as evidence: a car dealership's radio advert, 20 February. Stan, with quotation marks around it, which is how an institution says it has heard of something.

I was on a dial-up connection when Stan started going round, and the thing I remember is waiting for it to load, knowing it would be worth it, and being right. That combination has not happened to me since.