This software has been discussed on HN before and each time several people make that same comment.
Moot (apparently) issued a C&D some time ago.
The software creators are fully aware of people's confusion over the name, but do not care.
They claim that 'moot' means 'up for discussion', even though that's an archaic use of the word and no-one uses it like that any more. The only modern use is 'closed to discussion', or 'discussion has no point'.
I think it's gently sleazy to use the name.
But Internet discussion is broken and I welcome anyone trying to fix it.
They claim that 'moot' means 'up for discussion', even though that's an archaic use of the word and no-one uses it like that any more. The only modern use is 'closed to discussion', or 'discussion has no point'.
This isn't even slightly true. I use it as a verb a lot to indicate the introduction of a point, and when I use it as a noun I intend that the matter, while of interest (and therefore debatable and open to discussion), is of academic—or at least orthogonal and relatively insoluble—interest at that time. As an adjective, for example "a moot point", it means that the point is open to discussion, perhaps too much so, and in the context of saying it's "moot" you're saying that it's not appropriate to discuss.
Several different meanings, depending on verb/noun/adjective, but all of them suggest that the topic is eminently (perhaps too) debatable.
Do yo uhave any links to places where people use it as a verb?
And your third point - that something isn't suitable for discussion at that point in time, although is debatable, seems to be a weird choice for a discussion forum name.
