content-free

content-free
 adj.

   [by analogy with techspeak context-free] Used of a message that adds
   nothing to the recipient's knowledge. Though this adjective is
   sometimes applied to {flamage}, it more usually connotes derision for
   communication styles that exalt form over substance or are centered on
   concerns irrelevant to the subject ostensibly at hand. Perhaps most
   used with reference to speeches by company presidents and other
   professional manipulators. "Content-free? Uh... that's anything
   printed on glossy paper." (See also {four-color glossies}.) "He gave a
   talk on the implications of electronic networks for postmodernism and
   the fin-de-siecle aesthetic. It was content-free."
    

content-free
zero-content

   1. (By analogy with "context-free") Used of a message that
   adds nothing to the recipient's knowledge.  Though this
   adjective is sometimes applied to {flamage}, it more usually
   connotes derision for communication styles that exalt form
   over substance or are centred on concerns irrelevant to the
   subject ostensibly at hand.  Perhaps most used with reference
   to speeches by company presidents and other professional
   manipulators.

   See also {four-colour glossies}.

   2. Within British schools the term refers to general-purpose
   software such as a {word processor}, a {spreadsheet} or a
   program that tests spelling of words supplied by the teacher.
   This is in contrast to software designed to teach a particular
   topic, e.g. a plant growth simulation, an interactive periodic
   table or a program that tests spelling of a predetermined list
   of words.  Content-free software can be more cost-effective as
   it can be reused for many lessons throughout the syllabus.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1998-08-26)