Sorry if the poll or OP post sounds confused.
It’s not about personal preferences, it’s about mutual understanding. What exactly does one means when he says he plays Self Found, and when he finds someone else claiming he plays Self Found.
I do use the term “Twinking” as well, and mostly agree that it’s the same thing. But I usually only apply it to lower level characters, because this’s how it was used in WoW. I don’t call my level 75+ characters twinks even if they essentially are.
For me, the root of the confusion stems from the mixed use of the main object.
“I play self-found” means no outside influence. I (the player) am the object and this use distinguishes between other real-world people as in trading.
“I played this toon self-found” however means this toon is the object and has not been in the shared stash or acquired anything outside of what the game forces on you (like blueprints learned by another toon in GD).
Once you go and say components are okay, you have broken the word self-found by any definition IMO. Sure components are a pain in the ass, but some are rare and being able to twink them and still say “self-found” is what I do not understand.
“I play self-found” is more rarely used than the other. if i hear that sentence i think his/her playstyle is like 3rd option in the poll.
“I played this toon self-found” makes me think that person tried a challenge which is like when you start your first character and advanced through game with it.
Since sharing of items is permitted in GD, I think that all items other than trade with outside are self-found items.
As the number of characters increases, it is impossible to distinguish which character has found about items in the shared stash.
I actually use a third party (ItemAssistant being my favourite) to store legendary items for my non-self found characters, and they have their components in their inventory.
So that my transfer stash does not contain any components or items that might come from other characters.
And any item that is not useful for my self-found toons either gets sold or dismantled in general, or sometimes gets moved to the IA database if it is one that I have really been searching for a while.
For those characters, there is no point of keeping track of which items they have dropped if they will not ever use it.
I only keep the ones I want to use later on, the rest becomes inaccessible to them.
I know that when I am searching for a specific item for a non self-found character, I have to look into my IA database and none of my Self-found character have access to them.
As a final note, I doubt we can agree on a ‘global definition’ of the terms here, the safest bet is to always specify what your playstyle is: self-found (not using shared stash) , or self-found (using shared stash).
Maybe adding one’s own definition in the signature is the way to go, if you want to make things clear 
Self found should be defined in terms of who’s time was put in. If you put in the time to find the gear, it’s self found, regardless of what character you found it on. If you got the gear using someone else’s time (trading, gifted), it’s obviously not self found. The third option is the definition of character found (or untwinked), not self found.
I voted Option 1, as I will use anything I’ve found from the current character or my other characters. I think I’ve “traded” once with another user and that was to give them a character with some shared items that they had problems importing with a stash file.
If I’m curious about a build being new player friendly, no stash, no recipes; then I’ll backup my files and start out fresh.
Edit: I read jiaco’s post and can agree with that. As usual, the “self-found” can mean many things to different people.
To me and as some people already posted, option 1 means Self-Found and option 3 means Untwinked.
I always play option 2 until my characters reach high levels, but eventually I use relics crafted with one char on another. I almost never use Epics/Legendary that one char found on another char.
Where do the word ‘untwinked’ come from?
Someone hinted it was used in WoW, but never played it or any MMORPG where the word was used.
If it is common knowledge that it refers to option3, I might consider broadening my definition of self-found, then.
No trade=self found. Option 2 and 3 don’t make any sense to me, why would i not want access to gear i’ve found with my other characters? Gearing takes long enough as it is without trading.
It is simply a different playstyle which is more appealing to me.
It is the difference between:
Trying to get a character lvl85 as soon as possible, to equip the BiS gear I have farmed.
It usually means equipping epic items sets and MIs to max out resistances as soon as you have the level, do a few crucible runs to get more devotions at early levels, equip legendary items and have a fully geared character at lvl 75. Gear you find and which levels you are going through do not matter anymore.
But that being said, it might be because I have done so for about 8 lvl85 characters already, and after doing so a couple of times, it kinda gets boring for me.
Going slowly through the game, spending a bit more time going through the loot and see how far builds can be pushed without having perfect gear. Doing a few extra bounties to unlock that faction gear that will make your life a bit easier.
It makes any good drop much more rewarding, and as a side effect I must admit I rediscovered a number of locations. There were so many details in the level design to which I was never paying attention while rushing through the games in early playthrough.
Most of the builds I play that way have trouble reaching the end of ultimate, but when you do so, it is once again much more rewarding.
So I am now looking at the journey with a different perspective and want to enjoy the leveling process, more than any ‘end-game’ gearing.
I don’t know the exact origins of the words twinked/untwinked, but I learned them when I joined the now dead titanquest.net forums back in 2012/2013. There was a section of the forum for challenges and everyone participating on challenges would list their character as twinked or untwinked, with untwinked meaning no use of any item found by another character and no use of external tools to change (e.g. completion bonus), copy or create items.
I never heard the words on WOW, but I only played that game for about 3 months and I focused on solo play (exploring and doing quests), not on huge guilds and raids.
I voted #3. much as my very first characters. I don’t trade.
If I make a character with things I found and taken from storage, it is “twinked”.
Probably why I have a hard time getting through the game. I very seldom “twink”
In my mind if I get something by trading I feel like I am cheating, but then I don’t trade
But then I’m an old man set in his ways. How anybody plays is their business.