blog lingo

This page offers brief explanations of some blog jargon.

That jargon has been driven by pundits and reportage in the US. It is variously used as mental shorthand, an indicator of hipness, an expression of geek humour or tool to exclude the unwashed and unsophisticated.

Aggregator

Software used by bloggers and content services for automated checking of a large number of blogs or news sites on a daily basis. Aggregators typically check selected RSS feeds for new content, displaying a list of results (generally with the most recently updated links first) and thereby allowing bloggers to identify the latest content from across the web. Some aggregators are web-based, others operate in conjunction with MS Outlook or are standalone.

Blawg

A blog that deals with legal issues, often written by practicing lawyers or academics.

Blogaholic

A compulsive - or merely conscientious - blog author and reader.

Blogdex

A MIT Media Lab project that periodically checks links from blogs to "track information as it flows across the blogosphere". It offers an indication of traffic rankings and, as noted earlier in this profile, serves as a portal for some readers.

Blogger

Blogger identifies both the blogging service of that name (Blogger.com is now part of Google) and someone who blogs and thus is a member of the blogosphere.

Blogerati

An allusion - ironic or otherwise - to 'digerati' and literati: typically high-profile (or merely vehement) bloggers who are recognised by the mass media in commenting on blogging.

Blogosphere

The "world of weblogs or the community of bloggers", more sarcastically tagged as Blogistan.

Blogroll

A list of links to other blogs, typically as column down one side of a blog and used to signal the blogs/sites esteemed by the blogger.

Blogsploitation

Use of a blog to puff other writing (online or in print) and appearances or to promote a particular product.

Blogware

Software used to run a blog.

Comments

A facility that allows blog readers to add comments to an individual post, whether on an pseudonymous or identified basis. Some purists argue that a blog is inauthentic unless there is comment. Other bloogers have exporessed concern about offensive (or legally problematical comment) and about comment spam.

Comment spam

The blog equivalent of spam, with spammers using 'spambots' to automatically post advertising on blogs in the form of comments. Some bloggers and blog services accordingly exclude comments per se or exclude particular users and addresses from commenting.

Dowdification

Omitting a word or words from a quote so as to substantially change (or undermine) the meaning of the quote. Named after Maureen Dowd of the New York Times following an incident in 2003.

Fisking

A detailed, if not costive, critique of a blog post or other item, typically in vehement disagreement with its contents. Named after deconstruction of work by Independent journalist Robert Fisk.

Flog

A blog created by a corporate marketing unit to promote a service, product or brand - often using a false name - and thus derided as a 'fake blog'.

K-log

A K-log (aka klog) is a 'knowledge blog' - usually a repository for expertise and compiled by an individual or team in an organisation for colleagues or peers.

Linklog/linkblog

A blog that primarily offers a minimally-annotated list of links.

Moblog

A blog created via mobile phone or personal digital assistant, often featuring blurry photographs and a brief commentary.

Permalink

A link to a specific item/page on a blog and often denoted by a '#' or 'permalink' adjacent to a post. Permalinking reflects the structure of many blogs, with old posts archived and thus not immediately identifiable using the main URL for that blog. The permalink provides each post with a unique URL.

Photoblog

A blog that features (or indeed is wholly composed of) of photographs. The moving image equivalent is a vlog

Ping

A ping is a technique for determining whether a specific internet protocol address is accessible. It involves sending an automated message and waiting for a reply. Bloggers use pinging to alert blog tracking services that a blog has been updated.

Podcast

An audio (spoken word and/or music) blog, described in more detail in a separate note elsewhere on this site.

Post

An item - which might be one word, several hundred words and/or an image - on a blog. Many blogs consist of a number of posts in chronological order, usually with the most recent posts on the entry page of that blog and older content in an archive.

RSS

An XML format used by many blogs to syndicate their content. There is disagreement regarding whether RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication.

Sock Puppets

Sock puppetry involves an author posting comments on his/her blog that purport to be independent and are typically identified using a pseudonym. US cultural critic Lee Siegel, in the guise of 'Sprezzatura', for example visited his own blog to praise himself as "brave" and "brilliant".

Splog

A 'spam blog' - aka a splog - aims to increase the visibility (through a higher search engine ranking) of a site/page that a spammer is seeking to promote. Splogs typically feature multiple links to one or more such sites. They may also feature advertisements that attract a pay-per-click payment. Most splogs are generated automatically.

Technorati

Another content tracking service, noted for 'top 100' ranking of blogs (based on inbound links).

Trackback

A mechanism to facilitate automated links to comments on a blog. It is often a device for reinforcing the authorial ego through signalling how many blogs have pointed to a particular post.

Vlog

Vlogs (aka Videoblogs) feature video content

Warblog

An engagé blogger, once defined by Dave Winer as "a person who runs a weblog that started around, or was significantly influenced by the events of September 11 2001". Warblogs are not necessarily about war, although some warbloggers appear to wake up and smell the napalm - or merely their own self-righteousness - each morning.

XML

Extensible markup language (XML) underpins the RSS format used to distribute headline feeds to aggregators

If you are confused by the jargon about blogs, moblogs, vlogs, blawgs, foneblogs, hiptops, and so forth - all clubs, after all, have to exclude the digitally unwashed or unitiated - there is a fuller glossary on the Samizdat.net site. Useful if you want to know the meaning of 'Barking moonbat', 'Blurker" or 'Fisk'.

::