[thebear]

First off, I admit that I am hypersensitive to any form of bastardization of language. So please don't hate me for I'm going to say, I'm just a victim of my hypersensitivities. But: the word "stream" in the English language means "a steady flow or succession." Or, if you prefer the CS definition, it means "a sequence of data elements made available over time." When I'm looking at a set of boxes of different heights arranged in three columns with no apparent ordering, then I'm not looking at a stream. As other commenters have pointed out, the multi-column layout is more than a different way of displaying things. It redefines the entire experience of receiving posts as something different, something Pinterest-like. Maybe that's a good idea. But please, let's don't call it a stream.

[archgoon]

I would normally let this go, but I really dislike the holier than thou attitude with your "bastardization of language". Computer Science and mathematics would be much poorer if it didn't allow for people to generalize concepts. So let's get started.

1) Streams branch and merge all the time.

http://www.mightystreamradio.com/PHOTOS/STREAM%20PHOTO%202.j...

If anyone's bastardizing the language, it's computer scientists being overly restrictive with their allusions.

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphrys_law

> But please, let's don't call it a stream.

"But please, let's not call it a stream."

[thebear]

You live and learn. I always thought "Let's don't" was a joke, something you say facetiously to indicate that you do care about grammar. It turns out that "Let's don't" has arrived in that grey area between grammatically right and wrong where many consider it just non-standard, but not wrong:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/let%27s

What I find really interesting is that in British English, it's "Don't let's." How does that happen? But we digress.

[transient]

"Don't let's" is grammatical - "do not let us" is the opposite of "let us". A bit old-fashioned, though.

[thebear]

Ah, of course, I should have seen that. Now it all makes sense. Thanks for explaining!

[ceras]

It's surprising and bizarre to me how comments like this are common in the CS world. If you are okay with "stream" now being more than just a small river, why are you artificially drawing the line as to what exactly the term may refer to?

[omaranto]

In a real stream fish aren't forced to swim single file.

[Samuel_Michon]

But it’s a stream of water, not a stream of fish. Fish swim in schools. I guess the G+ ‘stream’ could be renamed to ‘school’, but that’d be confusing.