you're damned fucking right

[rone]

"Blog" and "moblog" are not transparent words. "Televisor" was not as good a term as "television" or "television set", and so it went away. I expect the same to happen to "moblog", if not "blog", in ten years. Because they're geek words. They're codemonkey words. (I can hear Cory Doctorow yelling, "l337, damnit!") They are crap, artificial, ugly kludges of words.

        - Warren Ellis

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Fact is, "blog" has evolved because it describes a discrete phenomenon that needs a name.

Horsecrap. What's wrong with "journal" or "diary"? Is the journal somehow special because it's online? No. It's just nerds being nerds for nerdness's sake. Please stop peeing in the lexical pool, `k thx.

[waider.livejournal.com]

You want this: blog is a word coined by guys who think diaries are girly things.

It's a nice theory. It still won't make the word go away. So if you loose your hate of it, you should calm down momentarily. Then you can go visit a few web sights.

DIE ENGLISH DIE DIE DIE MUAHAHAHHA *cough* *wheeze*

[zadcat.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with "journal" or "diary"? Is the journal somehow special because it's online?

YES! Yes, it is. Because a blog isn't just writing, it's also links to other things and commentary on them. That's a function specific to the internet, and it's not the same thing as the teenage girl writing in her little blank book.

The Agonist, who worked about 20 hrs a day during the Iraq war,
gathering links from worldwide sources on events as they unfolded,
was "keeping a diary"? I don't think so. He was blogging. No other word for it.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I don't think that either the interaction or the ability to add links warrant a new word; you can take the interaction away, and the links are just a feature of the medium.

The Agonist kept a public journal. Just like i am. People can refer to the activity with a fancy new name... but the fact remains that the fancy new name sucks and is superfluous.

[jeff2001.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree...I never cared for the term "blog". It's a dopey, burpy, even vomitous, word. If they'd come up with something else, I would've been quicker to adopt.

Now, televisor, I like a lot.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's still around in Spanish.

[jeff2001.livejournal.com]

This I did not know! Hell, yet another reason why Spanish rules.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

I don't know if "blog" is here to stay or not, but I don't think that "diary" or "journal" are suitable substitutions either.

A journal that a person keeps online and that does not involve interactions from people other than the author definitely is covered by "journal" or "diary". The fact that this online journal can contain links is irrelevant. With a trusty gluestick, I can add outside information like pictures, other people's essays, and articles to a paper journal. For that matter, I can even write down links to these things.

However, "blog" is more inclusive. Blogs are similar to online and paper journals except that they also include interactions from people other than the author.

I think that that difference is special enough that another word is warranted. Some words like "moblog" and "weblog" are destined to die alone and without fanfare. But "blog" itself has the potential to continue living. It might die, but I think its death will happen only if a better word comes along or if pretty much everyone gives up blogging.

In the first case, this new word needs to hurry up and come on the scene because "blog" has already entered mainstream vocabulary. My Perry-Como-listening father uses the word correctly and he still thinks that MTV only shows music videos. A new word is going to have a hard time erradicating the old word.

In the second case, the fad will fade, but blogs are sufficiently useful and engaging that they won't go away entirely. They'll just become yet another web-based tool and no longer be trendy.