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Comment by afandian | Hacker News Reader

I had to look up "having a moment" in American.

In British English it means being distracted, having a brain-fade, being a bit down. I think this article probably means the opposite...

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It's interesting because as an American I'd find "having its/their/etc. moment" more common than "having a moment"

The original title was "WTF is Happening to OpenStreetMap" but I decided it was too clickbait-y. Interesting to learn that I used a uniquely American idiom--didn't realize that.

As a AmEng speaker, I think of "having a moment" as being a fairly recent idiom, maybe from the past decade or so. My personal classification of it is that it's used by the same generation that uses "bae", "cray", "totes", "YOLO", and terms of similar vintage.

I have no idea if that's true or I'm just out of touch, but that's my impression of the phrase. Basically I feel like I tend to see it in titles of thinkpieces about newly popular things from people who are around 30.

In American English it can mean either. Usually the use you mentioned would be if you said "I'm having a moment" or something along those lines.

Good to know, thanks. Maybe I'm pre-conditioned to look for idiom-bending uses in blog post titles!

"Needing a moment" or "I need a moment" in American English is the negative version.

"I'm having a moment" (I'm being dumb, I was being thoughtless, I am confused) and "I need a moment" mean two different negative things to this American.

I think it just means something different than the norm. "I'm having a moment" can be something positive in certain contexts.

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