Better Word than User?

One of my favourite blog authors (and podcasters), Jon Udell, raised the possibility of finding a better word than ‘user’, particularly in the context of ‘user-generated content’. Jon in turn refers to a blog entry from Jimmy Guterman of O-Reilly Radar who was more emphatic, ‘Don’t Call Me a User‘, with the oft-quoted ‘there are only two industries that refer to their customers as users: high tech and illegal drugs’.

Jimmy invited his readers to suggest alternatives and at the time of writing had received 47 replies. A collection of the more serious suggestions as they arrived is:

Customer	Actor	Member	Publisher
Viewer	Photographer	Investor	Student
Consumer	Lurker	Community member	Participant
Co-creator	Author	Artist	Critic
Creator	Reviewer	Organiser	Editor
Contributor	User 2.0	Reader	Person
Visitor	Patron	Individual	Client
Typer

Most surprising of all was a strong consensus to retain the word ‘user’! Apparently librarians prefer ‘patron’.

Jon proposes the term ‘webjay’ which is new to me. What do you think?

Published with Word 2007.