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

[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.