Media Re:public

I’m in no way the first to point out that UGC is an unlovely name for the small and large contributions that so many people make to the massive information sea in which we now swim.
Ed Kohler, aka technologyevangelist, has pointed out that “user” sounds like drug user.
Jimmy Guterman generated quite an active discussion on the ickiness of “user” on O’Reilly radar last year, but the comments led to the non-conclusion that many people don’t mind it and many people hate it, but no one has a better term.

Personally, I hate “user” (drugs, software, generally negative connotations) dislike “generated” (robotlike) and find “content” (bland) slightly annoying.

On the other hand, I have no good alternative name for stuff made by people and UGC, is an acronym that is actually not hard to pronounce or remember, so why not just re-purpose it, depending on the situation?

Unusually Great Contributions (for one’s own work and that of friends)
Unbearable Godawful Commentary (for other folks)

The possibilities are endless.
Persephone

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