The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

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.?


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

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]

   (2014-10-30)