nouns - What would be a polite way to say "eyeballs"?


For radio, we have listeners. For TV, we have viewers. For newspapers, we have readers. For the internet, we become uncouth and regularly refer to our target as eyeballs.


My question is: What is a polite way to refer to those who visit your website? Once they visit, these people not only read, but also listen and view and click and write, etc.


I would like something more specific than the obvious 'visitors,' which is very generic, and doesn't really reflect the activity of the visitors. I'd like something more along the lines of gamblers in a casino, or diners in a restaurant.



Answer



Sometimes the word visitor is overly generic, but sometimes that term gets customarily used nonetheless.


What would you call someone who visits a museum, or a zoo? Not everyone who visits a planetarium is an astronomer. You might call them a guest, or a patron, or a customer – or you might decide visitor is about as specific as you can get.


As for websites, I would think browser might be an apt term, except that word is already used to refer to the software that allows the user to visit the website.


The best term I can think of is user. It may be a bland term, but it's the word software developers customarily employ when referring to the individual who is typing at the keyboard, and clicking with the mouse.


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