Should ACM Establish Membership Categories for Techies, Nerds, Geeks, Bit-twiddlers, and Propellerheads?

by Conrad Weisert
November 11, 1998

About every week I get some trade journal or direct-mail ad that refers to members of our profession by a demeaning slang term:

• A headline on the front page November Chicago Software News proclaims "Wanted: Techies". .
• Last week the Chicago Tribune's computer columnist called us "propeller heads".
• A direct-mail flyer from Microsoft addressed me as a "net geek". I protested to Microsoft that outrageous insult in a vigorous letter, to which I received no reply. (Maybe they're working up an expensive certification program for CNG's.)
• Even the dignified and presumably professional Communications of the ACM published an article referring to "techie-nerds". My letter of protest in the December, 1988, issue may have contributed to that publication's subsequent avoidance of terminology that demeans its own members.

Now, those references were not meant to be a parody, but reflected the authors' serious view of computer professionals. They then got past editors who, presumably, would have thrown a fit if an author had referred to "broads and chicks" or "fags".

Let's all let authors, editors, and vendors know that responsible computer professionals are deeply offended by such characterizations, and where practical, let's avoid any products or services from the perpetrators. Get your company or your professional society to protest on their letterhead.

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