The term CTB

[roguetrader]

How did the term get so popular on this forum?

 

[LaVieEnRose]

It's a relic from the very beginning of suicide forums on the Internet (or rather what even preceded that, that's how far back it goes back): the old ASH groups on Usenet. Both suicidal contemplation and participating in those groups were likened to waiting at a bus stop and completing suicide was called "catching the bus". So it's a custom that is older than probably the majority of users on this site.

Personally I think it is kind of neat to have that bit of continuity.

 

[roguetrader]

Out of curiosity, what other terms have been commonly used on those forums?

The strangest term I've heard is "soap the rope"

 

[DeadHead]

I don't like it, it trivialises something extremely important.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

I don't like it, it trivialises something extremely important.

Well, you're definitely not the first person to have that opinion about the acronym and that's totally fair. For me the presence or absence of understanding about the actual reality of suicide goes beyond using that acronym, which is why I don't have that same objection to it.

 

[Ironweed]

Alt.suicide.holiday was a usenet user group; commonly abbreviated ASH. Catch the Bus was slang for ending your life, from the group. Oddly, both have Wikipedia entries. This stuff goes back decades, to the early 1990s.

Spoiler: off topic rambling

alt.suicide.holiday might even still exist. I'm too lazy to download Thunderbird to find out. Going through Google Groups gives you a banned content message, not a no messages found, which surprised me. I figured it was long gone. Can't tell if it was banned as in Google Groups won't let you see it or it is gone for real. alt.suicide exists but looks like nothing but spam. I'm guessing alt.suicide.holiday is the same way. Assuming it exists. Damn. Usenet and Usenet groups literally preceded the WorldWideWeb; talk about OG.

 

[Immensevoid]

Since I have been frequenting the forum I have noticed that this term is always used but honestly I thought that the acronym actually stood for "cease to breathe" but I'm not sure now reading the other comments:/