Nerd, Geek, Dork...Deca Help!

[Meenstreek]

Okay Deca...ever since you explained this to us at DC, I've been trying to tell other people. The thing is, I've forgotten what you've said mostly. Please feel free to clarify this:

"Geek" is someone who gets geeked about technology, science, whatever.

"Nerd" could be a geek, but dresses oddly and is somewhat lacking in social skills.

"Dork" could be a geek and/or a nerd, but has an annoying habit of acting like a nerd-jock and spouting off facts when people dont care, or trying to "one-up" people with knowledge. Dork is totally lacking in social skills. Unfortunately for geeks and nerds, they are often equated with the dork.

[Decavolt]

Overall, you're pretty damn close. Here's the long-winded version:

Nerd: intelligent but obsessed with one (and in some rare cases two) subjects, and totally incapable of having a conversation with anyone unless it involves this subject. Severely lacking in social skills, unless those he's interacting with are nerds of the same subject or one very similar. If the nerd in question is a geology nerd, they will *always* talk about geology and little to nothing else. A simple conversation about grocery shopping will take less than a minute to devolve into how some agates looks just like fruit salad, but are much more dense and don't taste as good. The nerd's subject of choice is all that matters in the world, they eat, sleep, shit and breathe it. Most all nerds are spoons, although some very very rare nerds are knives.

Geek: often mistakenly confused with the nerd and dork. Intelligent, but without the single-mindedness of the nerd. Geeks seek knowledge of any form, about anything. Geeks are "geeked" about things, usually a handfull of main subjects but they easily get excited about anything that involves thinking beyond the cognitive level of a tree toad or the typical american redneck. Geeks usually have large social circles and have no problem talking about biochemistry one minute and the tastiness of the Irish Car Bomb they're about to drink the next. Geeks love knowledge and still know how to party their asses off.
Normals (the majority of the populace) initially cringe at the idea of being a geek, but after hearing the defintion would like to think of themselves as geeks when they just aren't. Every fratling and sorrostitute I've ever explained this to has promptly chosen the geek definition and proudly proclaimed him/herself as one, but didn't have the slightest clue about anything that he/she wasn't fed by the worst that cable tv and mass marketing have to offer.
Most geeks are forks, some knives, but almost never spoons.

Dork: not anywhere near as intelligent as the nerd or geek, with even worse social skills than the nerd. The dork wishes he could be a geek and would even gladly settle for nerd-dom, but sadly is just too brick-stupid to pull off either no matter how hard he tries. Dorks are the sort that "just don't get it", but never stop trying or pretending that they do in hopes that somehow they'll ascend out of their dorkness. They'll stand on the outside of the circle of conversation and loudly repeat sentences they've just heard in an attempt to join a discussion they can't possibly comprehend. Dork's are the masters of "not getting the hint", no matter how hard you drop it, and have an incredible knack for showing up without ever being invited to or even told where a gathering is taking place.
Nerd and dork paths intersect often, but usually result in the dork playing sidekick to the nerd merely because the nerd lacks the social skills to rid himself of the dork. They're usually persistent little buggers.
Some incredibly rare dorks lean toward fork tendancies, but mostly in a "hey look at that monkey smoking - it's trying to be human" sort of way. This is why dorks can make excellent pets, so long as you can train them properly. Dorks are spoons, all the way.

** I have a comic book (series?) in the works that's based around all of this.

[Vallikat]

*cries*

I'm such a dork!

*burries her face in her pillow*

[Innari]

Yeah...it's official I'm a geek.

[Vallikat]

*taps foot impatiently*

This is the part where someone is supposed to tell me I'm wrong.

[FoxyJama]

I think it's definitely possible to have different aspects of your personality all 3. At first glance (when Deca described this at Dragoncon), I thought "God, I'm a biology nerd", but the truth is, I'm a geek minus the social skills. I guess if I had to label myself as anything in this list, I'm a nerd whose speciality is random useless trivial knowledge. I don't tend to have broad social circles, but I can get along with people when forced to.
Generally, however, I end up not getting along with large groups because I get accused of being a Hermoine Granger type.

[Darth Bootay]

Wow do we ever define these words differently.

/gives up on trying to share the English language and its American offshoot with the rest of humanity and retreats to her cave in the swamp.

Valli, you're a dork, but not by the Decadefinition. You lean more into the Baltimore vernacular context of being kinda spazzy in a sweet and agreeable (and usually funny) kind of way.

I entirely don't get the silverware references and have no clue who or what a Hermoine Granger is. But then, I've extricated myself almost entirely from popular society and anything resembling mainstream culture and have become the modern equivalent of a hermit for all intents and purposes until my sense of utter disgust with modern society resumes its normal, bearable level of general contempt.

[Decavolt]

You didn't get the silverware references because they don't exist anywhere else (that I'm aware of) in the rest of society. It's just another chaper of Decanese that we talked about at DragonCon.

[Nicodar]

Hermoine Granger is a character from Harry Potter. Can't explain more because I am not a fan of the books and movies.

[Darth Bootay]

You didn't get the silverware references because they don't exist anywhere else (that I'm aware of) in the rest of society. It's just another chaper of Decanese that we talked about at DragonCon.

Care to recap for those of us who don't fly south in the summer? Or is this yet another in-joke that will end up becoming corrupted and spread through dewddom to infect netspeak and eventually muddy the language even further?

Nicodar, Harry Potter you say? Has the disease spread that badly then? Ugh....

[Decavolt]

Care to recap for those of us who don't fly south in the summer? Or is this yet another in-joke that will end up becoming corrupted and spread through dewddom to infect netspeak and eventually muddy the language even further?

Rather than risk muddying and infecting the language as you say, no, I think I'll hang on to that one for now =P

[Innari]

*taps foot impatiently*

This is the part where someone is supposed to tell me I'm wrong.

Oh...and no Valli you aren't a dork

[Vallikat]

Boo, Hermione Granger = Queen Know-it-All.

Valli, you're a dork, but not by the Decadefinition. You lean more into the Baltimore vernacular context of being kinda spazzy in a sweet and agreeable (and usually funny) kind of way.

This I can live with. Quite honestly I read Deca's definitions and I didn't think I specifically fit into any of them. But I sure as hell am not "normal" either.

[Jugsmalone]

Well I dont think I am a nerd I am to dumb to be a Geek and as for being a Dork well I guess thats debateable but if I am a Dork Im a loveable one

[Riot_Red]

i'm probably a geek or a nerd, probably a computer nerd
/me hugs her computer

[Nicodar]

I'm a nerd whose speciality is random useless trivial knowledge.

What is useless trivial knowledge to one person may not be to someone else. Like knowing there are nine species of bats in Michigan is useless to a lot of people. But was useful to me in identifying this bat

[Lykeios]

hmm Nerd - IRL, Geek - Online. IRL I have the social apptitude of a very seclusional thing. Online I witter on anything and everything and run round places/dance the YMCA in a thong... go figure...

[Gridfan]

Hmm! What is the step beyond geek?

I tend to act like a dork at times,
and I'm quite the nerd about things,
but I'm very geeky about most subjects.
And I think that ThinkGeek(tm) is not geeky but just geek wannabie.

Blend Geek, Hacker, Coder, Inventor/Creationist, Philosopher, Dreamer, Writer/Musician/Artist, Escapeism, etc etc. and you got what I am...

Hmm! Weird or freak seems to apply I guess! *shrug*

[Jugsmalone]

Huggles Gridfan.. Well I am certain thier is just no catagory for some of us and for sure we are all a bit Different in RL than we are online..Most of the People I have met on line are Quieter and more reserved than they are in game..Tho I can surely see the personality of their game character in thier real ones..It is the Gamer that is truely a role player that I find most interesting ..Their abillity to totally leave themselve behind and become another intregues me ..I love role play but I find too much of the real me often materializes and comes threw..I supose it is why I can not hide in an alt all my characters seem to have too much of me in them and are so easy to spot ...Even when I try to be nasty or mean or change my personality I find it very difficult ..I also forget who i am playing and forget who has not met me or knows me as the new one ...yep Dumb very very Dumb but also very honest and loyal I dont think i could ever decieve anyone..

[Mynka]

hmmm, I'd have to say geek for me. I can be obsessive but it's certainly over more than one thing. I think I might be riding on the edge of dork on one level though... **loves D&D**
**giggles**