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Comment by franga2000 | Hacker News Reader

franga2000

Am I the only one with strong objections to using Zoom as a verb?

Putting aside the fact that it's already a verb, which courses plenty of confusion, I can go along with using Photoshop as a verb, because it is objectively the most powerful and widely used tool with a very long legacy.

But Zoom is a clunky insecure mess with impressive, but not nearly leading market share. Is this really who we want to be gifting the recognition (and money) that comes with generic verb for all videoconferencing? At least Adobe did something to earn their verb...

P.S.: I see no mention of Zoom in the page. Does this fall under the "don't mess with titles too much" rule of HN?

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I genuinely thought this was about controlling the cameras zoom function remotely.

Unfortunately you can't do that, but you can do nearly everything else with Entangle! It's great.

Until recently "to Skype" was the generic term for video calling among most of my friends and family. Given that nobody has actually used Skype for that purpose for 5 years, this crisis has accelerated it's decline and Zoom/WhatsApp/facetime is creeping into our vernacular.

So one crappy clunky video conferencing verb being replaced by another.

The advantage of "to skype" is that it doesn't collide with an existing verb.

What's wrong with just"video call"?

Yeah that's what I've been using, guess I'm turning into an 'old' as evidenced by my hair now approaching ponytail length.

"Teams-meeting" has become the norm for video-conference. One of my annoying pet peeves is pointing this out and calling it "meeting on Teams" - if that's where it is.

Since I use up to 5 different platforms each day...

I think you have to accept it. Zoom was in the right place at the right time. Now it's a verb. The good news is that once a brand becomes a word, it doesn't really mean much about the company itself. I blow my nose into CVS brand Kleenex. I have a Xerox machine made by Canon. I've captured many a "Kodak moment" with my iPhone's camera. Windows users routinely "Google it" by asking Cortana, which actually uses Bing. And I Zoom with my friends on Discord.

All in all, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a lot of strange victories. Would Tiger King, Animal Crossing, and Zoom have been popular if they rose to prominence at a different time? Probably not. I think the pandemic forced niche things onto people that don't normally encounter them. Adults have video conferences at work, but the pandemic brought them to kids. That is a recipe for a cultural moment and genericizing their trademark. (Animal Crossing I can't explain. I assume that the people that were going to play it were already going to play it, and I assume that the people that were going to reverse engineer the code to figure out how turnips were priced were going to do that anyway. But maybe not.)

You are right, Zoom was a right place right time thing. Doesn’t bother me other people saying it, but I’ve never used Zoom once, nor do I have any plans to, so I don’t see it making it into my vocabulary.

I don’t get it either, but Animal crossing was already one of the most beloved and best selling franchises in Nintendo history, so the pandemic didn’t really do much there, except give people more time at home to play and crack the code faster!

>Am I the only one with strong objections to using Zoom as a verb?

People will use it or not use it regardless of objections...

That is neither relevant or entirely true.

I was not yelling "hey everyone, stop using this word!", I was asking whether anyone else sees the same problems in its use as I do. And even if I were, telling people why you object to something in hopes they agree and maybe do something about it is literally how discourse works.

I webex with people. I have teams meetings. I zoom with people. I have hangouts. I'm meeting on discord. I have sob conferences (that's what we call old lync/skype for business calls).

I don't care what verb you use as long as the link is correct.

If we couldn't stop people from literally using "literally" figuratively, what makes you so optimistic about stopping them from zooming?

> telling people why you object to something in hopes they agree and maybe do something about it

It's fine to object, but the "do something about it" part is not as simple – it's really hard to police discourse. Previous attempts for the most part have either completely failed or catastrophically backfired

Yeah, I couldn't find a better way to say "do something about it". I meant in the sense of "don't use it themselves and maybe occasionally point out the problem". Kind of like Stallman's infamous GNU/Linux copypasta. I have no intention to police anyone, but I see no reason to not object. At least then people know that not literally everyone uses it - although they will point out that "literally" everyone does.

>I meant in the sense of "don't use it themselves and maybe occasionally point out the problem".

The "problem" of using Zoom as a verb for teleconference?

In 2020, you really want people to concern with not "using it themselves" and occasionally "pointing out" this "problem"?

I was just waiting for someone to go for the "there's more important things going on" bullshit.

Did I ever say this was the most important thing in the world? Did I even say it's important? Even slightly? You're acting like I'm asking healthcare workers to drop what they're doing and become the language police.

I shared an opinion. How dare I?!? Give me a break...

>Did I ever say this was the most important thing in the world? Did I even say it's important? Even slightly?

You don't have to say it explicitly, there's this thing called context. If you ask people to worry about it and maybe "do something", then you give it importance.

I'm not saying something has to be the most important thing in the world to care about it. Plenty of things that are not "the most important things in the world" are still worthy caring about. Heck, most things we have to care about (like our rent), are not "the most important things in the world" either.

What I'm saying is that this particular thing is so unimportant that we shouldn't care about it.

>I shared an opinion. How dare I?!? Give me a break...

And I shared mine on that first opinion.

>And even if I were, telling people why you object to something in hopes they agree and maybe do something about it is literally how discourse works.

Yes, but not how language works (same way it's not how the laws of physics work).

Language doesn't develop through discourse, but through actual discussions people have (not meta discussions, about what words are right, just plain discussions about whatever).

> Language doesn't develop through discourse, but through actual discussions people have

True, language is mostly shaped by people speaking it, but the way those people speak is also influenced by their opinions and the way people around them speak. The fewer people use the term, the fewer new people will start. It also provides some pressure to not use it because someone they know doesn't.

For an example of the latter: If a term is offensive to a certain group, they will tell people about it. Some of those people might stop using it as a result. The people around them might never even be exposed to the original term, and if they are, would be told that some consider it offensive and they might stop using it too. (for practical examples, see racial slurs, curse words, etc.)

I'm genuinely surprised how many people had a problem with my comment, as I've seen plenty of similar discussions around "GNU/Linux", "Googling", "Windows key", "sending a Gmail"...

title is 200% wrong: its not zoom inc. Also, only works with Canon.

DSLR are a shitty closed market that prey on the few professionals that still need it. It's like the printer ink cartridge all over again.

Canon had the fortune of being "hacked" (to use proper legal terms after DMCA) and their cameras sales soared because of the free publicity and improved product. Now they are the only ones that maintain a modicum of interoperability that make projects like these a little easier (but still far from decent or stable). From other "DSLR but for now only cannon" projects: this will never support anything else.

Zoom is a verb.

Oh really? I was not aware! Thank you...

> Putting aside the fact that it's already a verb, which courses plenty of confusion

Haha, sorry, just had to.

Actually, I totally agree with you. To Photoshop can't be that much misunderstood, but I think a lot of us read the heading as it used zoom in it's original meaning.

If it's already a verb, confusion should come from people using "Zoom" as a noun, the use of it as a verb is the expected situation not the confusing situation.

Either way, citation needed - who has been confused?

"zoom" is a verb (also sometimes a noun), "Zoom" (the company/product) is a noun.

I agree that "Zoom" as a noun is already confusing as capitalization isn't a very reliable way to differentiate words, but "Zoom" (the noun) being used as a verb that is completely different from "zoom" (the verb) is a whole other level of confusion on top of that.

For citations, see your sibling comments. And besides, confusion clearly wasn't my main point.

"zoom" the noun as in "zoom level/factor", not the company

“Let’s zoom” means just that; let’s get on Zoom and have a meeting. I’ve never had somebody say, “Let’s Zoom,” and contact me on FaceTime, Google Meet, WebEx, or another service.

Can you facetime with it? or skype? :)

We webex pretty often.

We should freeconferencecall later.. I think this has the best ring to it.

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