I was a newbie once. Everyone was. I don't mind reading repetitive posts so much. I have the choice of reading them or not. You always have to use your filters on the internet, right?

Anyway, I consider it a tour if it involves an overnight. My shortest tour was when I took a bunch of 6th graders to our local state park. They wanted to try "touring". We rode 2 miles, camped, and rode two miles home. Total mileage: 4 miles. Total fun: lots!

Vituperative!

I can't define it, but I know it when I'm on it.

Yep. That's my definition too.

No, I meant defiantly. I was trying to be humorous. :p

Unless you were agreeing about something else. Hard to know for sure.

I like that definition.

For me personally, I can roughly divide bike riding I've done into four categories:
a. Rides done in a single day
b. Rides done in a 2-3 day weekend
c. Rides done in a week
d. Rides in duration from six weeks to a year on the road
Each of those durations seems to have a different feel or sense to me and a different approach. Hence, I'll sometime use different terms to distinguish them from each other at least for myself.

1. b,c,d all involve carrying gear and sleeping away from home, so when I broadly talk about enjoying "bike touring" I might refer to any of these.
2. b involves a different approach than a, so I've sometimes encouraged rides in local weekend club to try b as an intro to touring. In club I used to with in Colorado, I also led a number of "3-day rides" as this type of introduction.
3. c,d my equipment list is roughly similar and only these make it onto my bike touring web site. So, I'll sometimes refer to "b" as a mini-tour.
4. c, I'm likely to know my starting point and destination though not necessarily the exact duration or where I stay each night. I'm not switching employment but just taking a week of vacation or so.
5. d is even more loose where I'll have an overall goal idea (e.g. crossing a continent) but I'll take it much more as it comes. Group d also typically involves a bit more advanced dreaming and scheming (not necessarily planning, but taking extended leaves from work or changing employment, arranging to leave my home, etc).

On Saturday afternoon, I packed the bike and rode 30 miles to a nearby state park. I camped overnight and rode back this morning. I think that fits a description some refer to as S24O (sub-24 hour overnight) ride. It is otherwise on the short end duration wise of my group b for me.