Drawar

Better than nerd or dork. Geeks are where it's at.

Yeah, I have no problem with Geek... Nerd and Dork sound snotty and condescending.

I've been called worse ;)

Given the derivation -- 'Nerd' was coined by Dr. Seuss (If I Ran The Zoo), 'Geeks' used to bite the heads off poultry in circus sideshows.

Given the choice, I'll take 'Nerd.'

And to agree with RightOn... I've been called worse either way.

Geek is chic nowadays. You can be a geek and still have social skills.

I'm a geek. If a client is complaining about that, just imagine how much he'd complain about a web designer who WASN'T. He'd get totally shitty results!

I don't like the phrase geek when someone actually means it, if you get me. If someone says to me "What do you do?" I'll say, "Oh, I'm a web developer - a bit of a geek really."

It seems to kind of break the ice around "WTF is a web developer?!"

Still not too keen on it though, 'cos I don't really see myself as a geek...

But I am a geek. When Wordpress 2.5 was released I jumped up and down and told the first friend I could get hold of in Live Messenger to tell him.

That didn't really go well ...

Explains it all.

I'm a geek.

I was trying to figure out where dork fit into the whole mess. That fits pretty well with my preconceptions.

Nice one Mike, that pretty much sums it up!

Diagrams always help :). Anyone that understands how the internet works will probably be considered geekish for a while to come now, but eventually it will all change, and we will become the new paragons of industrial growth. GEEKS NEVER RETREAT! GEEKS NEVER SURRENDER! *cough*

I hear it as a term of endearment because they say it to mean I can help them due to being more in-depth with it. Otherwise, it just seems a bit like the next best thing to getting called the lowest step on the ladder. It is just like middle school. They called me a geek as a use of segregation so that everything stayed split into the dumb cliques.

I don't personally like it, but I live with it every day so I got used to it.

It sounds like it's being used as a pejorative here. I've ran across the same thing from time to time, but usually try to co-opt people by referring to myself as a geek whenever I do anything unusually sophisticated at work.

From the context of the conversation, it sounds like the old web designer was more of an ASSHOLE than a geek/nerd/dork/whatever.

Socially inept, easily frustrated, elitist types are Grade A ASSHOLES.

Everyone here knows the type of person I am talking about. The "I use a lot of jargon when I talk to clients" or "I look down on end users who do not know what Web 2.0 means" types.

The client complained that "he was a total geek", not a savior of Web technology.

Honestly, the clients I encounter are people who know their business/trade/hobby and they want Web Professionals to help guide them through creating simple, yet effective websites.

My clients call me "the computer guy". See, that sounds MUCH better.

:)

@Mike - I'm a GEEK! What a relief! As I was reading the comments I was concerned that I was getting close to Dork or Nerd, but your diagram sums it up nicely.

BTW, does obsession=mild OCD? 'cause that's where my obsession lies...

When normal people such as clients or businessmen use the word, it's usually derogatory. Maybe the person had a lack of social graces and was not good with clients, maybe he was simply an arrogant prick. Many self-proclaimed geeks/intellectuals don't seem tor realize that a) almost nobody likes that kind of person and b) anymore, forming good business relationships and reputation is tantamount to how well you can network with people. If nobody likes a person, then he'll never form a solid network of people who can go to bat for him when it counts.

Thing is, a geek may be more intelligent than the average Joe, but a certain degree of respect (or at least cordiality) for Joe will go a long way, often when it's least expected and/or when it counts most.

I'd agree that geek is preferred. The venn diagram that Mike posted is pretty spot on.

Well...to sum it up. The geek shall inherit the Earth.

I don't hear anything about nerds, dweebs or dorks.