Negoboo

Negoboo is a scientificombination of negative egoboo, which can result from criticism or censure. This is to egoboo what “Die soon and wither” is to “Live long and prosper.” If the egoboo of fame is unobtainable, notoriety is better than no egoboo at all. (Occasionally referred to in the late 1950s and the '60s as “The G. M. Carr Theory of Negoboo.”)

However, according to Tom Perry in Starling 36 (May 1977, p. 10):

This negative egoboo, or negoboo, does not consist as the neophyte fansman might suppose, in adverse comments or criticism of the subject. Rather it is generated when the subject reads a fanzine which has NO MENTION OF HIM AT ALL. The more frequently such a fanzine arrives the greater the negative charge induced. Dr. G. Benford on his recent visit to Cambridge has calculated that receipt of three monthly issues full of negoboo will drive the biggest of BNFs to his typer, lest he become one with Ninevah and Tyre.... However it's intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that the effect of three monthly issues of a fanzine filled with negoboo can be precisely canceled by the arrival of three monthly issues of a similar fanzine (same size, circulation, etc.) crammed with egoboo. 

Erroneously, the term negoboo has been attributed to Sandi Bethke in APA-X in the early 1960s, and Victoria Vayne and Taral instituted the Negoboo Poll in 1979 and claimed to have independently coined the word.

At no time was it ever in widespread use.

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Fanspeak

1950s—

This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.