IPFS jargon: the double meaning of "node"

Yesterday I tried to explain my IPFS experiments to a colleague, who was quickly confused by the double use of “node” for (1) a computer in the network and (2) a piece of data in the DAG. Is there accepted concise jargon for unambiguously referring to one or the other?

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not sure, but what about peer when referring to network nodes?

This one is really tough! I ran into this problem a lot when I was attempting to help organize the IPFS docs a while back. We tried to start using “IPFS node” or “peer” when referring to an instance of IPFS running on a computer, and “IPLD node” or “DAG node” when referring to the piece of data (and avoid ever using just “node” by itself). I’m not sure it ever stuck very well, though.

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Here’s some of the results of a conversation we had about it at last year’s IPFS Developer Summit: https://github.com/ipfs/docs/issues/92

Thanks for the pointer! It’s kind of reassuring that the IPFS developers notice the confusion as well.