We all know the general definition of sticky, from onelook:
# adjective: moist as with undried perspiration and with clothing sticking to the body (Example: "Felt sticky and chilly at the same time")
# adjective: hot or warm and humid (Example: "Sticky weather")
# adjective: hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment (Example: "A sticky question")
# adjective: having the properties of glue


But has anyone else heard it referred to as something that is good? It's like an advertising term, for instance, if you make a flyer to advertise something, you want to make it sticky so the people won't throw them away immediately, but rather hold on to them. You want the idea to be sticky so that it stays in a person's mind.

I believe it's from the book _Good to Great_ by Jim Collins. Is he the first and only to use it this way?

You want the idea to be sticky so that it stays in a person's mind.

Isn't this from the noun sticky which is the generic term for PostIt™-like items?

Oh yes, that makes sense. Think that's the only history of this term?

Online discussion boards like this one also use "sticky" to refer to a thread that is felt important. Administrators can mark a thread "sticky" so that it appears at the top of the list of threads, regardless of how many posts have been made to other threads since. An example is the "Tips for new members" thread in Community.

I think that the sticky thread meaning is an extension of the sticky postit one. Could be wrong; could be right.

Arnie - I had never heard it used in the technology sense before. Very cool!

Webspeak (please forgive the terminology) also uses "stickiness" as a measure of popularity of web pages. Roughly it refers to how long people spend looking at your page once they've found it (how long they stick around I suppose) and how often they come back to look again.
I believe people have devised mathematical formulae to calculate a site's stickiness.
Personally I always find those formulae ridiculously contrived. (Just today the papers are reporting a derived formula for the onscreen chemistry between actors. As a mathematician I resent this debasing of mathematics almost as much as we all resent debasing of the language - though of course we have differing views on what constitutes debasement.)


PS I shall certainly never speak again to anyone who suggests that debasement is de room in de bottom of de house.
CJ and jerry, that means you !

Bob said "I believe people have devised mathematical formulae to calculate a site's stickiness.
Personally I always find those formulae ridiculously contrived. (Just today the papers are reporting a derived formula for the onscreen chemistry between actors."

Similarly, people are constantly trying to quantify what service industries do. I would never be able to find numbers to portray the kind of quality customer service a good library can provide. Neither can you use a mathematical formula to quantify what a good nurse is able to do for a patient.

Neither can you use a mathematical formula to quantify what a good nurse is able to do for a patient.

Oh, sure you can. X(A - B) + 2Z - X (squared) = a good nurse; however, Y-2(X + 3) - Y (squared) = a bad nurse. That equation for mediocre nurses we are still working on.

I knew you'd have a comment on that!

Oh, sure you can.

Coming up with a formula is the easy part. Retrofitting the variables to reality is the real challenge.