# Why is the word "thread" not allowed on Meta?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156
**Category:** Site feedback
**Created:** [1 maart 2018 om 19:24 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156 "2018-03-01T19:24:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@dizzit](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dizzit)
#### Post date: [27 maart 2018 om 07:36 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156/21 "2018-03-27T07:36:51Z")
> [@riking](#):
>
> I’m viewing it from this perspective: some word needs to be banned to make sure the feature still works. This is a pretty good candidate.
Does this not cause confusion in discussions about server thr34ds? Using the word “process” is not accurate, because they’re not the same thing.
If I want to talk about a reddit thr34d … is seems silly to force me to use the wrong terminology to refer to that - same goes when talking about any other kind of forum software that uses the very-commonly-accepted word for this.
It’s causing the problem that it’s supposed to be solving: confusion
If somebody says “thr34d” here on the meta Discourse - what else could it be confused with?
> [@riking](#):
>
> I don’t think Topic and Post are quite as ambiguous as you make them out to be among the general online public.
Fair enough. That’s just my experience. All I’m saying is that there is some non-zero amount of confusion when using “topic” and “post”. As I’ve seen plenty of it personally over the last 24 years of building online forums. Both from non-technical people, and even from programmers naming things badly in DB schemas.
Whereas there’s virtually zero ambiguity when using “category”, “thr34d” & “comment”.
I’m just a fan of disambiguation in general.
But too late here obviously in this case to change the naming.
Anyway. Just my 2 cents on the subject in general. Appreciate all your work and feedback. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@ssvenn](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ssvenn)
#### Post date: [27 maart 2018 om 09:55 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156/22 "2018-03-27T09:55:28Z")
This is just wishful thinking, but I would love a new class of watched words that allowed you to write a custom text for each word to pop up over the preview box in the same style as the automatic “Your topic is similar to…” and similar notifications.
That would explain why usage of a word is discouraged right there when the user tries to type it. And I’m sure people could come up with other uses for it as well, pointing users in the right direction when they try to type certain things 🙂
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### Author:  [@HAWK](https://meta.discourse.org/u/HAWK)
#### Post date: [27 maart 2018 om 17:25 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156/24 "2018-03-27T17:25:52Z")
> [@ssvenn](#):
>
> This is just wishful thinking, but I would love a new class of watched words that allowed you to write a custom text for each word to pop up over the preview box in the same style as the automatic “Your topic is similar to…” and similar notifications.
[See post #13](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156/13) 😉
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### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [28 maart 2018 om 09:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156/25 "2018-03-28T09:16:21Z")
> [@dizzit](#):
>
> “thr34d” (singular) makes a lot more sense to flat forums compared to nested ones.
Good point. Very good point indeed.
> [@dizzit](#):
>
> these words are clear:
>
> Category
> thr34d
> Comment
You could add “Reply” to that list, which is the term discourse uses for “comments”. Indeed, “reply” is probably even a slight bit less ambiguous because discourse also has comments (when some replies in topic are displayed under a blog post).
> [@dizzit](#):
>
> These words are ambiguous:
>
> Topic - could be a category or thr34d
> Post - could be a thr34d, OP post, or any of the replies - not to mention things outside a forum like blog posts on the same website
I wouldn’t say “post” is ambiguous (it’s pretty clear what a post is and what isn’t), rather: it is _broader_ than, e.g. “reply”. But that is a good thing because it’s useful to have a term that includes both OPs and replies.
So what really remains as a point of contestation is the term topic and I don’t think it is really _that_ ambiguous, especially when the forun also uses the term category, which makes it pretty clear that topic _doesn’t_ mean category. So it means thr34d. Problem solved.
Besides, you have to admit that as much as “thr34d” is an established term in the online world, “topic” is clearly less technical and more common sensical, no? Just think of a person who has _not_ spent 19 years working with forums when they look the button “New Topic” vs “New thr34d”.
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### Author:  [@dizzit](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dizzit)
#### Post date: [28 maart 2018 om 09:56 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156/26 "2018-03-28T09:56:23Z")
> [@tophee](#):
>
> You could add “Reply” to that list, which is the term discourse uses for “comments”. Indeed, “reply” is probably even a slight bit less ambiguous because discourse also has comments (when some replies in topic are displayed under a blog post).
Yep agree with that. “Reply” is useful when you want to exclude the OP comment.
> [@tophee](#):
>
> I wouldn’t say “post” is ambiguous (it’s pretty clear what a post is and what isn’t), rather: it is broader than, e.g. “reply”. But that is a good thing because it’s useful to have a term that includes both OPs and replies.
Yeah, I also still continue to use “post” when talking about “all of the above”. It’s useful for that, but to be avoided as a specific term for thr34d -or- comment alone.
> [@tophee](#):
>
> Besides, you have to admit that as much as “thr34d” is an established term in the online world, “topic” is clearly less technical and more common sensical, no? Just think of a person who has not spent 19 years working with forums when they look the button “New Topic” vs “New thr34d”.
Yep agree with you here that it’s less technical. A lot of newbies won’t be overly familiar with the word “thr34d”, although it is fairly commonly used in regards to emails. Most people know what you mean by “email thr34d” without explanation or clarification being needed.
But just personally, the most confusion I’ve seen from clients not familiar with forums has been using the word “topic” interchangeably to mean both category & thr34d. More often than not, they actually meant category. Whereas they all seemed to knew exactly what I meant when I said “thr34d” - as there’s not really anything else it could be conflated with.
Gmail went with “conversations” which is pretty obvious too.
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [28 maart 2018 om 11:11 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156/27 "2018-03-28T11:11:25Z")
I often use the word “discussion” when referring to a topic on our site.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [28 maart 2018 om 23:44 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156/28 "2018-03-28T23:44:31Z")
Problematic, when the “discussion” meanders into 12 different actual _topics_, though 😉
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [10 april 2024 om 18:21 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156/31 "2024-04-10T18:21:27Z")
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