No, because an old and crusty term like that isn’t common knowledge anymore.

You're saying that gaming term is "crusty and old" therefore your misinterpretation of his statement and your emotional outrage is justified?

What is the cutoff date for terms we can use that won't confuse and emotionally outrage you?

I’m clearly saying, like others are in this thread, that just because you associate calling someone a “farmer” with an anachronistic gaming term doesn’t mean that almost everyone will read it in a different way, nor does it mean that your interpretation is correct.

‘What do you do for a job?’

‘I’m a farmer’

‘Oh right what’s the best quest to farm on in WOW?’

Said nobody ever.

It reads very poorly, in short.

Why do you think he put it in quotes?

Did you read the full context, or just rage at the cut out sentence that someone else here provided to you?

It's very clear in long form what he was talking about.

He has no control of people taking one sentence out of a long opinion that he has written.

It's up to you to inform yourself before joining the mob and sharpening your pitchfork.

> Why do you think he put it in quotes?

Because they are not actually farmers, but have similar negative stereotypical traits?

Why are you so eager to accuse everyone of blind rage? I read the whole thing. It’s bog standard “these kids on my lawn” stuff which isn’t worth any brain power discussing.

However, you not being able to understand why people didn’t assign some convoluted meaning to the word farmer is quite interesting.

> I'm pretty certain that intelligent people who comment here are aware of it,

It has nothing to do with intelligence. I don't game. I don't consume media that would constantly expose me to gaming memes either. Mind you, I have heard of gold farmers in passing. Though when I read the word 'farmers' the definition I am familiar with is older than all of us put together. Nice try at an insult though.

a) For what it's worth, I did not immediately think of that meaning of the term, despite being familiar with it. I suspect that despite your claims most people would not. Using quotes just means that the author is not claiming that programming is done by literal farmers.

b) Even if that's what the author meant, it is still a derogatory term when you consider its origin. Why do you think gaming culture picked "farmer" as the word used to describe someone who performs mindless repetitive tasks?

> A "farmer" (note the double quotes) is a gaming/internet culture term that denotes someone who does repetitive, boring tasks in order to accumulate some kind of value.

Question for you: where did that come from? Oh, that's right, by implication that actual real life farmers do repetitive boring tasks in order to accumulate some kind of value.

Your counterargument literally proves the point.

To act as the devil's advocate: I've always taken it to be reference to Farmville players.