Blog-o-lingo?

I received kind of a strange email today from… well, I’m not going to say, because that wouldn’t be right for now; let’s just say it was someone employed at a national publication who said it might be appropriate to describe him or her as a “friend or an interested party.”

Anyway, this person was asking me (as an “expert” of sorts on blogs) about any sort of particular language/termonology unique to blogs and blogging. An example this person gave included blogola (which I assume is like payola?)

It’s an interesting question, but I don’t really have much to offer. There is of course the term “Carnival,” a sort of anthology-building blog community– see “Blog Carnival.” Then there’s “blogosphere” and I think there was (for a while, at least) something “klogs,” which were supposed to be “knowledge blogs.” I saw a comic strip– Non Sequitur I think– that referred to newspapers as “dinosaur blogs.” I liked that.

The one blog lingo that always bugs me is kind of the opposite of lingo: it’s when newspapers and other sources feel compelled to explain/define the term “blog” in some stupid and inevitably old-fashioned way, usually an awkward one. As in “a ‘blog,’ or ‘web log,’ is an internet published journal,” or something like that. To me it always sounds kind of like “a ‘car,’ often times called an ‘automobile’ or just ‘auto,’ can take passengers from one place to another.”

In any event, what do folks think? Any good blog terms of art and/or lingo out there?

7 Replies to “Blog-o-lingo?”

  1. Not sure if the term originated with the blogosphere, but “snarky” seems to be a word worth examining. I like the fact that its an adjective applied to a mode of conversation and also the way it captures what is appealing and discouraging about much of this online writing. It challenges what is ossified out there, but risks sinking in its own cynicism and self-importance–if that assessment is not too snarky.

  2. I’d ask Dennis and Clancy, since they’ve had stuff to say in the past about blog terminology. Last semester, when a student of mine was at a loss for ideas for stuff to write about in her class weblog, she characterized herself as “weblocked,” which I thought was terrific. In more common use, “fisk” (v.) is definitely unique to blogs.

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