Probably I should rename gossip.py to something else.

“Prate” is already taken (by my other chat system!).  Wordnet and
web1913 suggest report, rumor, discourse, colloquy, conversation,
dialogue, conference, communication, speak, utter, tell, tolkan (MHG),
interpret, tolka (Sw.), túlka (Icelandic), tulkas (Lithuanian), talien
(OE), speak, words, interchange, intercourse, confer, reason, consult,
prate, relate, tell, account, say, reprove, discuss, speech, lecture,
express, verbalize, language, spill, divulge, babble, blab, tattle,
peach (‽), and deliver, from “talk”; from “chat”, we have confab,
schmooze, chew the fat, chitchat, chaffer (‽), natter, jaw, visit;
from “chatter”, we have yak, cackle, prattle, piffle, palaver,
twaddle, gibber, blabber, gabble.  From “gossip” we have chin wag,
causerie (‽), scuttlebutt, dish the dirt, godsib (OE), and claver (‽).

But “gossip” and “talk” aren't really the only root metaphors.  We
also have the metaphor of a flood or a tsunami spreading everywhere,
or a plague, or a fire being passed from one candle to another.  And
then we have the slow growth of a bamboo rhizome which so inspired
Deleuze.

It seems like we could maybe combine a couple of these different
terms, especially if they are short.  Bál is “fire” in Icelandic, for
example.  (Or more nromally “eldur”, or “bruni”, “brenna” burn.)  OE
is “fÿr”.  Icelandic for “speech” is “tal”.  I think “fyrtal” should
work fine.  Or “gab”, which unaccountably seems to be unused.  From
Spanish, we have hablar, decir, and chamuyar; in Portuguese we have
falar.

Inside gossip.py (or fyrtal.py, or gab.py) we have several different
entities that need names:

- an “add” is an utterance.
- to “say” is to utter an utterance.
- the contents of an add are pairs of “names” and “values”.  The names
  are like field names.
- each “log” has its own “identity” and a current sequence of adds.
  “by” is a name that names the log an add originated in, and “at” is
  a serial number in that log.
- When we connect two logs together so that stuff syncs, it's
  “syncing”.
- An “ask” is a query that can be run against the adds in the log.
- A “hi” is the message sent over the sync connection with “me” and
  “has” properties.  (Maybe should be “got”.)
- Sometimes a “log” is called a “node”.
- The collection of all the nodes that habitually and transitively
  sync with you should have a name, like “room” or “net” or “mob” or
  “bus”.

The obviously problematic names here are “add”, “name”, “value”, and
“identity”.  “Sync” is probably okay, though “tug” might be better.
“val” is probably fine for “value.”  “Add” could be “rec” or “line” or
“bag” or “row”.  “name” should be “tag” or “key”.  “Identity” could be
“ego” or “id”, which is the traditional abbreviation but is perhaps
too ambiguous.  “Lad”, “guy”, “gal”, “seed”, “self”, “sib”, or “dup”
could work for “node”.  "Watch" could become “see”, but “listen” or
“hear” fits the metaphor better.  Maybe “pub” and “sub” instead of
“say” and “hear” or “listen”.

So, in Gab, you pub a bag of key-val pairs to your dup of the log of
your mob, which gets synced to every dup in the rest of the mob, so
anyone who has subbed to the log in the mob gets the bag?

The one thing I'm not happy with there is “dup”.  Maybe “clone”.