List of blogging terms

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of blogging terms. Blogging, like any hobby, has developed something of a specialised vocabulary. The following is an attempt to explain a few of the more common phrases and words, including etymologies when not obvious.

Contents
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

[edit] Blog-related terms

[edit] A

Autocasting
Automated form of podcasting that allows bloggers and blog readers to generate audio versions of text blogs from RSS feeds.
Audioblog
A blog where the posts consist mainly of voice recordings sent by mobile phone, sometimes with some short text message added for metadata purposes. (cf. podcasting)

[edit] B

Biblioblogosphere
A humorous reference to the world of librarian blogging
Blaudience
The audience, or readership, of a blog
Blag
a humorous misspelling of 'blog'
Blath
a math oriented blog. A portmanteau of "math" and "blog".
Blawg
A blog focusing on commentary about the law, generally written by a law professor, law student, or lawyer. A portmanteau of "law" and "blog".
Bleg
A blog entry consisting of a request to the readers, such as for information or contributions. A portmanteau of "blog" and "beg". Also called "Lazyweb."
Blog Carnival
A blog article that contains links to other articles covering a specific topic. Most blog carnivals are hosted by a rotating list of frequent contributors to the carnival, and serve to both generate new posts by contributors and highlight new bloggers posting matter in that subject area.
Blistless or B-listless
When a blogger becomes listless or apathetic about posting.
Blog client
(weblog client) is software to manage (post, edit) blogs from operating system with no need to launch a web browser. A typical blog client has an editor, a spell-checker and a few more options that simplify content creation and editing.
Blogger
Person who runs a blog. Also blogger.com, a popular blog hosting web site. Rarely: weblogger.
Bloggernacle
Blogs written by and for Mormons (a portmanteau of "blog" and "Tabernacle)". Generally refers to faithful Mormon bloggers and sometimes refers to a specific grouping of faithful Mormon bloggers.
Bloggerazzi
Blogs written by blogger stalkers (a portmanteau of "blog" and "paparazzi)".
Bloggies
One of the most popular blog awards.
Blog Farm
A website constructed from a group of linked weblogs, typically with the main blog aggregating the total content/acting as a gateway.
Blog feed
The XML-based file in which the blog hosting software places a machine-readable version of the blog so that it may be "syndicated" for further distribution on the web. Formats such as RSS and Atom are used to structure the XML file.
Blog hopping
to follow links from one blog entry to another, with related side-trips to various articles, sites, discussion forums, and more.
Bloglet
A small blog entry, usually one or two sentences long.
Blogoneer
A portmanteau of "blog" and "pioneer", meaning a person who blogs with an expert or pioneering attitude.
Blogorrhea
A portmanteau of "blog" and "logorrhea", meaning excessive and/or incoherent talkativeness in a weblog.
Blogosphere
All blogs, or the blogging community. Also called blogistan or, more rarely, blogspace.
Blogroll
A list of blogs. A blogger features a list of their favorite blogs in the sidebar of their blog. Derived, it would seem, as a pun on "Logrolling."
Blog site
The web location (URL) of a blog, which may be either a dedicated domain, a sub-domain, or embedded within a web site.
Blogsite
Sometimes confused with a simple blog or blog site, but a blogsite is a web site which combines blog feeds from a variety of sources, as well as non-blog sources, and adds significant value over the raw blog feeds.
Blogsnob
A person who refuses to respond to comments on their blog from people outside their circle of friends.
Blogstipation
The state of being unable to think of any topic to blog about, leading to irregular, strained blog entries. A rush of interesting events can clear the block; this is sometimes known as a blenema.
Blogstorm
When a large amount of activity, information and opinion erupts around a particular subject or controversy in the blogosphere, it is sometimes called a blogstorm or blog swarm.
Blogstream
A play on the term mainstream that references the alternative news and information network growing up around weblogs and user driven content mechanisms. Can also be used as a play on the phrase "thought-stream", referring to the stream of consciousness as expressed through a weblog.
BlogThis
Pioneered by Blogger.com, BlogThis links on a blog allow the reader to automatically generate a blog entry based on the blog entry he/she is reading, and post to their blog.
Bloll
A troll who specialises in blogs. A portmanteau of "blog" and "troll."
Blooger
A blogger who exhibits adolescent tendencies and lacks basic social graces or good manners. A portmanteau of "blog" and "booger."
Boreblogging
Writing about personal matters that are barely interesting even to the writer -- preferably in a slightly bent fashion so as to make it fun to read in spite of the subject matter.
Bugblogging
Blogging about insects.

[edit] C

Categories
This is a method of organizing blog entries by assigning each entry to a predetermined topic. Each topic (category) will link to a list of entries, all with related content.
Celeblog
A blog detailing the lives of movie stars, musicians, and other celebrities, much like tabloid magazines. They often feature embarrassing or revealing paparazzi photos.
Clix
A person's circle of online communities.
Collaborative blog
A blog (usually focused on a single issue or political stripe) on which multiple users enjoy posting permission. Also known as group blog.
Comment spam
Like e-mail spam. Robot “spambots” flood a blog with advertising in the form of bogus comments. A serious problem that requires bloggers and blog platforms to have tools to exclude some users or ban some addresses in comments.

[edit] D

Dark Blog
A non-public blog (e.g. behind a firewall)
Desktop Blogging Client
An off-line blog management (posting, editing and archiving) tool

[edit] F

Fisking
To rebut a blog entry in a line-by-line fashion.
Flog
A portmanteau of "fake" and "blog". A blog that's ghostwritten by someone, such as in the marketing department.
A Photoblog.
Feeds
RSS Feeds

[edit] G

Glog
A first-person recording of an activity, in which the person doing the recording is a participant in the activity. Probably a portmanteau of "gonzo" and "blog".
GBCW
The "Good Bye Cruel World" diary is when a Kossack decides that Daily Kos has become too (fill in the blank) or isn't nearly (fill in the blank) enough for him or her to continue visiting the site. General chaos ensues in the Comments as other Kossacks agree, disagree, and wish the diarist good luck or good riddance.
Gulog
A portmanteau of "gulag" and "blog". Used when a blog is so dismal and depressing, it's as if it were written in a Soviet labour camp.

[edit] H

Hits
Number of users visited is often referred as hits. (website / blog hits)
HT
"Hat Tip" An acknowledgment of the source where you found the noteworthy item.

[edit] I

instalanche
Sudden and possibly overwhelming increase in traffic to a site after being linked to by the Instapundit

[edit] K

Koufax
an annual quasi-Liberal webblog award.
K-log
aka "knowledge log", a type of blog usually used by knowledge workers and posted on a company intranet for sharing company knowledge.
Kos Kid
A term for any one who posts, or reads regularly, the blog Daily Kos. Also known as "Kwazy Kos Kids" after the eccentric nature of some of the members.

[edit] L

Lazy Web
Making a suggestion to an internet community in the hopes that someone else will do the work.
Link Love
linking to a site or blog, usually unsolicited, that you like, enjoy, or find useful.
Log in, blog to, log out
a catchphrase referring to blogger style of activity.
Linkroll
A list of recently-bookmarked links with brief descriptions, in the sidebar of a blog.
legislatorbloggers
liveblog
A blog post updated in real-time about an event in progress.

[edit] M

Milblog
Term for blogs written by members or veterans of any branch of service - Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. A contraction of military and blog.
Moblog
A portmanteau of "mobile" and "blog". A blog featuring posts sent mainly by mobile phone, using SMS or MMS messages. They are often photoblogs.
Momosphere
Term to encompass blogs written by mothers. A portmanteau of "mom" and "blogosphere".
Multi-blog
Creating, maintaining, and running multiple blogs (2 or more) simultaneously.
Multi-blogger
An individual, business, or institution that runs multiple blogs.

[edit] N

Natural Blogarithm
Used to describe the vibe or rhythm of the blogging community. A portmanteau of blog and natural logarithm.

[edit] P

PENUS
Potentially Exciting News Under Scrutiny. Use this when you have something big that you can't wait to show to the blogosphere.
Permalink
Permanent link. The unique URL of a single post. Use this when you want to link to a post somewhere.
Phlog
Type of blog utilising the Gopher protocol instead of HTTP
A Photoblog. A portmanteau of "photo" and "blog".
Photoblog
A blog mostly containing photos, posted constantly and chronologically.
Ping
The alert in the TrackBack system that notifies the original poster of a blog post when someone else writes an entry concerning the original post.
Placeblog
Tim Lindgren has used the term "place blogging" to describe weblogs that focus on events and people with a hyperlocal scope.[1]
Plog
Political blog - blog containing mainly politically-oriented material.
Podcasting
Contraction of “iPod” and “broadcasting” (but not for iPods only). Posting audio and video material on a blog and its RSS feed, for digital players.
Post
An entry written and published to a blog.

[edit] R

RSS
Really Simple Syndication is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts.
RSS aggregator
Software or online service allowing a blogger to read an RSS feed, especially the latest posts on their favourite blogs. Also called a reader, or feedreader.
RSS feed
The file containing a blog’s latest posts. It is read by an RSS aggregator/reader and shows at once when a blog has been updated. It may contain only the title of the post, the title plus the first few lines of a post, or the entire post.

[edit] S

Scribosphere
Term to encompass blogs written by professional and aspiring screenwriters. A portmanteau of "scribe" and "blogosphere".
Shart
An acronym; Stubborn, Hostile And Resentful Troll, the most feared kind. A blog that falls victim to such a troll is said to have been "sharted". A blogger who vandalises their own page for sympathy is said to have sharted themselves.
Shocklog
Weblogs to produce shocking discussions by posting various shocking content.
Spam blog
A blog which is composed of spam. A Spam blog or "any blog whose creator doesn't add any written value."
Slashdotted
The Slashdot effect can hit blogs or other website, and is caused by a major website (usually Slashdot, but also Digg, Metafilter, Boing Boing, Instapundit and others) sending huge amounts of temporary traffic that often slow down the server.
Splog
A term used to refer to a 'spam blog', made popular in 2005 by Mark Cuban
Storyblog
Also written as "slog". A term used to describe blogs used primarily to publish written stories and poetry used for practice usually by aspiring writers.
Subscribe
The term used when a blogs feed is added to a feed reader like Bloglines or Google. Some blogging platforms have internal subscriptions, this allows readers to receive notification when there are new posts in a blog.
Svithe
A spiritually themed post on a blog not normally focused on spiritual matters.[citation needed] Rhymes with tithe.

[edit] T

Template
Templates, used on the "back end" of a blog that work together to handle information and present it on a blog.
Theme
CSS based code that when applied to the templates will result in visual element changes to the blog. The theme, as a whole, is also referred to as a blog design.
TrackBack
A system that allows a blogger to see who has seen the original post and has written another entry concerning it. The system works by sending a 'ping' between the blogs, and therefore providing the alert.
Troll
A commenter whose sole purpose is to attack the views expressed on a blog and incite a flamewar, for example, a liberal going to a conservative blog, or vice versa. The word trolling means literally 'to fish', ie. when the troll fishes for a clashback from the blog writer and/or pro commenters. Many trolls will leave their remarks on multiple posts and continue to visit the blog, sparking spirited debate amongst the blog's regular readers. Trolls' verbosity can range from eloquent to crass, although most trolls probably fall into the latter category. Originally, trolling only meant the custom where someone was commenting just to get a flamewar going, by using exaggarated points of view not held by themselves.

[edit] V

Vlog
A video blog; a vlogger is a video blogger (e.g. someone who records himself interviewing people of a certain field).
Vorage
A portmanteau of the words forage and video defined as "The act of foraging for video on the internet and sharing it with others." Bloggers or vloggers who share streaming or downloaded video content on the web often engage in voraging, scouring search engines and obscure websites to present a curated collection of videos that usually fall within a set theme or editorial perspective.

[edit] W

Web Keynoting
Having a blog's text dictated by a web keynote (also, voice professional). Service provided by Ch4tter.
Weborexic
Referring to tiny (width-wise) layouts. Coined by Rhiannon Phillips.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Tim Lindgren, "Blogging Places: Locating Pedagogy in the Whereness of Weblogs," Kairos 10.1, Fall, 2005