I've thought about this a lot...
I've heard many people (wrongfully ashamed of their geekness) demand to be
called "Engineers". (Disney, by the way, takes this a step further and calls
its people "Imagineers". This, of course, eventually gets modified by
someone in marketing to "Imaginerds" and we've essentially come full
circle.)
Others will throw the term "Hacker" around like it means something and
launch into uninvited tirades about the vast differences between "white
hats" and "black hats".
Still others allow others to define them and hide behind their official job
titles. "eCommerce Consultant", "Network Specialist" and "Senior Associate"
are all results of this. Others will take this as a cue and move into this
area on their own which is why we has so many freelance "Presence Managers"
and "Information Designers".
Of course a good number simply refuse to apply labels to themselves. Of
course this doesn't stop others from applying labels to them.
When discussing this aspect (the labels that others apply) the polite one
seems to be "works with computers". There's also a tendency to misapply
more general high-school labels as when somebody technical is called a
"Brain", "Dork", "Dweeb" or even a "GearHead" (which is just wrong).
Respectful ones include "Guru" and "Whiz".
There are hundreds if not thousands of attempts to coin new terms. Most are
combination terms like "Web Monkey" but some are just misapplied words or
just made up. I've heard the terms "keystroker", "wombat" or "gonzo" used.
Once I was called an "electric slut" (but I still don't know what it means).
In moments of pique I've called myself a "Code Skull" and have also heard
"Code Wrangler" (or, more generally, "Computer Wrangler"), "Code Maven",
"Code Roller" and many others.
I've also been geeky enough to call the burgeoning Carpel Tunnel Syndrome in
my fingers "a failure of the digital interface".
The Japanese term for a "comics/games/computer/animation" fan is "Otaku" but
this specifically refers the persons lack of a social life (the word
literally means "always home") and is generally negative. However like
"geek" and "nerd" the term is being appropriated as positive by the
community it's used to revile.
All labels have potentially good and potentially bad connotations depending
on who you're talking with at the time. The most obvious examples of this
are racial, ethnic or sexual slurs.
Words like "Nigger" or "Queer" are now used by those both for and against
their negative representations. In both cases the word began as purely a
slur. Now, however the words define the subjects only at an incredibly
basic level ("black man" or "gay man" in these examples) but not generally
the emotive force behind its use.
Is "You're such a queer" a hateful attack or high praise? You won't know by
reading the sentence out of context. You'd need to know who said it, and to
who, to determine that.
Another issue here is that all these labels reflect only specific aspects of
the subject. Those using the labels in a negative way generally try to
"wrap" the word around the whole person. For these people calling somebody
a "Nerd" or a "Nigger" or a "Queer" is the end of the story. In their minds
they've fully described everything about the person.
Of course people on the positive side know that these terms don't define the
entire person. They also know that the terms don't even define the aspect
of the person they're concerned with very well. The groups labeled will
then come up with specialized terms such as "UberGeek", "Web Geek", "Network
Geek", "Lipstick Lesbian" or "Queen".
These latter specialized terms are used almost exclusively by targeted group
themselves. Those using the general terms negatively generally don't want
or need to see a difference.
Personally, when describing myself, I feel most comfortable with "Geek". It
was and still is negative amongst some, but none that I regularly interact
with. Within that group I'm generally a "Game Geek" or a "Web Geek". To
describe my love of video games I've also used the term "Vidiot".
Professionally, when called for, I'm a "Web Application Developer" or "Human
Factors Consultant".
I've been called a "Geek" and "Nerd" both hatefully and respectfully. But
in my case if people want to be hateful it's generally simpler for them to
move right to "fat bastard". The externally applied label I enjoy the most
is "Daddy". ;^)
Jim Davis
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