I’d learned about this last week, and this stuff is a bunch of Wikipedia searches so forgive me if I miss anything :]

Similar to git master and whitelist/blacklist having addressed racist origins, I’ve just learned that “ricing” – i.e. way-far-from-default, colorfully souped-up *nix customizations – came from a derogatory word for Asian “riced out” cars.

(click to enlarge spot where I came to learn about this)

Example in the lemmy.ml/c/linux community.

The linked Wikipedia article doesn’t list *nix ricing specifically, but it’s probably not a far reach – for example, tech’s master-slave came from cars too.

Now I’m not here to start a debate on whether the term itself is bad. The arguments are done to death and predictable (old threadhope I can link here). Rather, I posit that we could probably invent a new term if we forced it hard enough.

For example, 4chan forcibly invented the use of the ok hand for “white power”, as a collective prank (Wikipedia).

Further, Tumblr invented 'then beg' as an insult response to 'I beg your pardon/to differ'. (click to enlarge)

Based on Pukicho.

So why can’t Lemmy invent something too?

Here are some earlier takes. (click to enlarge for source, but they are listed below anyway)

I surmise it has to be (1) somewhat unique and (2) short and nounable/verbable.

  • Customization doesn’t fit – it’s too broad. Changing the wallpaper is a customization – diagonalizing your screen is a rice (term to be replaced…).
  • Bespoke doesn’t fit either. That’s for a duct-tape script you hack together.
  • Pimping out… is not a good alternative. It preexists(citation needed?) and has inertia but it’s not any better.
  • Souping up… doesn’t roll off the tongue so much. But it’s food-related (and thus not far from “rice”). Though I can’t see myself saying “Yo, check out this epic soup.”

Brainstorming welcome :P

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.mlEnglish
    20·
    5 days ago

    This will and probably has got a bunch of flak but I’m with you. There’s nothing wrong with recognising when we can pick a better term for something we enjoy.

    Like, I get why people use “-porn” as a suffix and it isn’t offensive to me but I still won’t use that in a workplace. It’d be cool if someone thought of a better neologism!

  • comfy@lemmy.ml
    17·
    5 days ago

    Spice/spiced could work. But it’s still an allusion, not sure if that defeats the point.

    For example, 4chan forcibly invented the use of the ok hand for “white power”, as a collective prank

    Which, outside of specific contexts where you’re already confident someone is a WN, was quickly forgotten and never really took off. It’s not a great example of a social shift.

  • Eyedust@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    7·
    4 days ago

    I thought hard on this (I just like naming things). I came up with gemming. Graphical Environment Management. Unixgems.

    It sorta works because customizing your environment is sort of like putting the finishing gems on it.

  • kbal@fedia.io
    47·
    6 days ago

    Personally I’d put a higher priority on stamping out that use of “porn”.

  • inzen@lemmy.world
    19·
    6 days ago

    Pixel polishing. A term we use for frontend code at work (all backend developers).

  • zod000@lemmy.ml
    11·
    5 days ago

    This is a tough one, because to me “ricing” or “riced out” carries additional negative undertones (racism aside). I have always heard it used in a way implying that it was referencing enhancements done in a cheap or gaudy/classless way. Think of the most Razer-like LED adorned gaming PC setup, that could have easily been described as being “riced up”.

    I think the phrase “decked out” works OK, and seems to also lack the negative connotation, which may or not be in line with the goal here.

    Also, seeing your example ideas you shot down, I am not sure you full understand “souping up” phrase. The term “souped up” has been in use for over a century and I still hear people use it pretty frequently. It is generally meant to imply something has been made faster or more powerful, frequently with cars, and probably why some people argue it is a shortened version of supercharged. I agree that it probably isn’t a good fit here, but not being of how it sounds.

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
    16·
    6 days ago

    Isn’t it the same as tuning?

    Although it’s unclear what tuning is because it depends on who says it:

    • It does mean doing modifications to a vehicle for actual performance improvements
    • It’s used extensively by ricers to describe themselves and their hobby and they think it’s a positive term
    • It’s used extensively by people who dislike ricing and most definitely as a derogatory term

    Yet for all its faults, I believe that’s the closest word to ricing you’ll find that is universally understood, neutral and isn’t rendered hopelessly bland and meaningless by the process of political correctness newspeak.

    • tuna@discuss.tchncs.de
      1·
      4 days ago

      a different comment was saying ricing has a sense of being overdone. So with this I was thinking of “overtuning.” I think it fits more as a hobbyist term than a pragmatic one.