velveeta
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]After Velveeta, a brand of processed cheese (itself from velvet), perhaps likening its spreadability to the spreading of a post across newsgroups. Coined by Usenet user Charles Daniels in 1995.[1] Compare spam (“junk e-mail”) (named after SPAM, brand of processed meat).
Noun
[edit]velveeta (uncountable)
- (Internet, rare) The crossposting of a message to an unreasonably large number of newsgroups. [from 1995]
- 1996, The Lone Warrior, “Alt.Barney.Dinosaur.Die.Die.Die FAQ (tentative)”, in alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die (Usenet):
- Massive velveeta and spammage are highly frowned upon.
- 2002, edward ohare, “The real points?”, in us.config (Usenet):
- As a matter of summary the us.* hierarchy limit of 5 groups has substantial outside support as being reasonable due to velveeta.
- 2003, JT, “OT - Re: Please do not cross-post!”, in alt.tv.young+restless (Usenet):
- But a double cross post to applicable groups is not velveeta, spam, or bad netiquette.
- 2004, Joe Curry, “Trip Report - RAF Museum Cosford!”, in alt.airports.uk.edinburgh (Usenet):
- My newsreader (Zimacs) displays aaue and I reply accordingly, perhaps the designer of the software was more aware of velveeta.?
References
[edit]- ^ Charles Daniels (1995 January 13) “NYTimes article on Netiquette -- misdefines spamming”, in alt.current-events.net-abuse[1] (Usenet):
- Then we simply need to identify 'a single message, excessively crossposted to more or less non-relevant newsgroups' as "Velveeta"tm, and there should be no trouble whatsoever distinguishing between them, right?
"Yo, you just spammed the Usenet, dude."
"Oh yeah? Well you got Velveeta all over my newsgroups, you cheese-head."