samizdata.net
noun. A blog (qv) focused on (typically) political advocacy. Although most blogs are overtly partisan, an advocacy blogs' content will be pointedly structured to deliver an activist message. Advocacy blogs are a sub-set of pundit blogs (qv), but usually have less of a strict emphasis on current news and are more polemical in nature.
noun. Someone opposed to a whole raft of political values which are derived from a fundamentally irrational meta-context (world view). Anti-idiotarians can be found across a wide section of the political spectrum and are primarily characterised by vocal rational judgmentalism, generally hawkish sentiments and transcendent loathing of Noam Chomsky.
(coined by Charles Johnson)
Usage: "Like most anti-idiotarians I cannot but marvel as the sight of the Palestinian leadership forming yet another circular firing squad at the first grudging sign of reasonable behaviour by the Israeli government"
- Perry de Havilland.
Also see: Idiotarian, Tranzi, Warblog
noun. Someone on the extreme edge of whatever their -ism happens to be.
(coined by Perry de Havilland)
Usage:"Definition of a 'barking moonbat': someone who sacrifices sanity for the sake of consistency"
-Adriana Cronin
Although the term (often rendered simply as 'Moonbat') is very popular with conservative and libertarian bloggers who appropriately use it to describe the Chomskyite Left, it was always intended as a much more ecumenical epithet and has been correctly used to describe certain paleo-conservative and paleo-libertarians views. (also see 'idiotarian').
Note: Contrary to some speculation and entries on Wikipedia (which constantly change to reflect the prevailing wind of the day it seems), Perry de Havilland has stated it was was not originally a play on the last name of George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian, as he was using the term long before he met or had even heard of Mr. Monbiot.
noun. Business blogs. This can mean blogs writing about business issues or (increasingly) actually run and maintained by a business as part of its day to day operations.
Generally Biz Blogs are outward facing (i.e. written to communicate with customers or business peers) but the terms is occasionally used for internal company blogs used a knowledge management systems (see K-logs).
noun. A web log written by lawyers and/or concerned primarily with legal affairs.
(Probably coined by Denise M. Howell )
verb. To use one's blog to beg for assistance (usually for information, occasionally for money). One who does so is a 'blegger'. Usually intended as humorous.
1. noun. A contraction of weblog, a form of on-line writing characterised in format by a single column of text in reverse chronological order (i.e. most recent content at the top) with the ability to link to individual articles. There is usually with a sidebar displaying links, and the content is frequently updated.
(probably coined by Peter Merholz)
Usage: "Glenn has writen an interesting article about the folly of gun control on his blog"
also see: Warblog, Journal blog, Pundit blog, Tech blog, Group blog
2. verb. To write an article on a blog.
Usage: "Steven Green has just blogged about the joys of Vodka today"
or
"After reading that crap in the New York Times about globalization, I feel a serious need to blog about real world economics"
--
The majority of blogs are non-professional (update July 2004: commercial blogs of various sorts are now appearing in increasing numbers) and are run by a single writer. However whether or not a blog has a single author or is a group effort, a key differentiating factor between a blog and other on-line formats (such as forums, wikis etc) is that the main articles (as opposed to just comments) are written by the blog's owners/members and not by the general public.
Although there are several competing definitions regarding what makes a blog a blog, it can be convincingly argued that, circa 2004, for something published on the web to be a true blog, it must be configured to be readily accessible by the blogosphere. That means although reverse chronological order is a defining feature of a blog, that alone is not enough. If the individual articles cannot be linked to separately via a permalink (rather then just linking to the whole site), then the site in question is not a blog.
This means some ostensible blogs are debatably not really blogs at all (they are merely 'blog like' in appearance) by what the developing understanding of what a blog really it.
For example the Guardian, a British broadsheet newspaper, has two blogs and prides itself that it 'gets' blogging. However whereas the Guardian Online Blog, which deals with technology, is indeed a blog (and quite a good one), the Guardian main blog, called simply The Weblog1, is nothing of the sort as you cannot link to individual articles and hence it is not actually part of the blogosphere. Not surprisingly as a result 'The Weblog' is largely ignored by other blogs and hardly ever linked to according to the various monitoring services such as Technorati or Blogstreet).
1 = as of late 2004, 'The Weblog' was superceded by Newsblog, which is a proper full featured blog
noun. A blog regularly that reports on or summarizes a number of other blogs, typically on a daily basis. Blog Digests are extremely useful but as they are difficult to sustain, unfortunatly tend to have short operational lives. Also: Digest blog.
1. noun. A blog (depreciated).
2. noun. A hybrid blog/website, featuring website features such as a conventional on-line company brochure (for example) but also incorporating a blog in a sidebar as a supporting feature on the same page.
(coined in this context (usage 2) by Adriana Cronin)
noun. When you just don't give a damn about posting in your blog that day.
(coined by Michele Catalano)
1. noun. A person who owns or writes for a weblog.
2. proprietary.Blogger.com, the most widespread blog publishing software package created by Evan Williams. www.blogger.com
noun. A party for bloggers; a blogger get-together.
(possibly coined by Perry de Havilland)
variant of "doggerel." Opinion put forward on a blog that has previously been repeated over and over and over again until it makes people sick.
(Coined by The Pontificator)
noun. The totality of blogs; blogs as a community.
However, the term is sometimes used to mean the totality of just warblogs (qv), or pundit blogs (qv) rather than the entire blogosphere (qv).
Also see: blogosphere, blogiverse
noun. A very long blog article
Usage: "Paul Marks has done another Blogapotamus on Samizdata.net"
noun. An unusually high volume output of articles on a blog.
Usage: "Well, 48 hours and 4,195 words later, we're reaching for our dictionary to check the definition of "significantly." After that, we're going to look up blogorrhea."
- William Quick
noun. The totality of blogs; blogs as a community; blogs as a social network.
(coined by William Quick)
Usage: "The blogosphere has been abuzz with the Trent Lott story for the last few days and many of the blogs are baying for blood!"
--
The key to understanding blogs is understanding the blogosphere. Blogs themselves are just a web format, whereas the blogosphere is a social phenomenon. It is hard to overstate the importance of this.
What really differentiates blogs from webpages or forums or chatrooms is that blogs (at least properly implemented ones) are designed from the outset to be part of that shifting internet-wide social network. There have been many attempts to design 'social software' but thus far the only effective example is the blogosphere, which was not 'designed' by anyone but is an emergent phenomenon.
noun. A reader who infests the comment section of a weblog, disagreeing with everything posted in the most obnoxious manner possible.
(coined by Stacy Tabb)
1. noun. A list of links in the sidebar of a blog, often linking to other blogs. Also: blog roll.
2.
Also see: Sidebar links
noun. The blog hosting servers operated by blogger.com. More blogs are hosted on blogspot than anywhere else.
1. noun. To be unable to think of anything to blog about, i.e. writer's block for bloggers.
2. noun. To be unable to post an article on your blog because blogger.com is down yet again.
(meaning 2. coined by Jim Treacher)
noun. A concept or point within an article on a blog that is not quite grandiose enough to be a 'meme'.
(coined by Brian Micklethwait)
1. noun. One who reads many blogs but leaves no evidence of themselves such as comments behind; a silent observer of blogs.
2. noun. One who reads many blogs but has no blog of their own; a blog-watcher or blog voyeur.
Usage: "But, Mikey, I can't have a blog of my own! I'm a blurker!"
acronym/trademark. An acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.
A 'Captcha' is form of a Turing Test (qv) used to differentiate humans from computers programs. Their primary blog related use is to defend a blog's comment sections from automated spam (qv). The term 'Captcha' a trademark of Carnegie Mellon University.
noun. 'Spam' is unsolicited online messages generally of a commercial nature, usually delivered as e-mail (i.e. virtual junk mail). Comment spam however is when someone posts off-topic commercial remarks with links in a blog's comment section.
Some comment spam is overt but just as often it takes the form of innocuous remarks such as "I agree with your article!" or "Hey, great site!" in a blog's comment section: the spammer's 'payload' being in the personal details link, which takes you to a dubious (often pornographic) site. One reason comment spam is a major problem is that if readers visit the spammer's link(s), their site often tries to install browser hijackers, tracking cookies or other adware/malware on the duped reader's computer. Most comment spam is entered by spambots rather than actually people.
Increasingly blogs are using technical means such as Turing tests, pre-publish moderation or registration in order to prevent spambots from polluting their comments sections with Viagra ads, online pharmacy scams and links to Russian porn sites.
noun. The community of people who leave comments on a blog.
Usage: "We got some useful suggestion from the commentariat today on how to deal the spammer problem."
noun. A company blog (or 'Biz Blog') set up to handle a public relations crisis for a company or institution. This can be either to handle internal communications or to allow a company to present its side of a story in a frank, credible and timely manner when a situation is developing rapidly.
noun. When a blog is published with incorrect html which resulting in visible code on the page, rather than a clickable link or special character or formatted text. The unintentionally visible code is 'crud'.
abrev. Do Not Quote/Do Not Print. May be used in online correspondence, to clarify that these words/comments should not be posted on the other person's blog.
(adapted by Gary Farber from common science fiction fandom usage)
phrase. Paper newspapers and magazines, also known as Old Media. Also: 'on dead trees'.
Used as noun or verb. The willful omission of one or more words so the meaning of the statement is no longer understood but that the statement suits the needs of the writer in launching an ad hominem attack whether or not the construction is truthful or grammatically complete.
Named after Maureen Dowd, based on her manufacture of a quote attributed to President Bush in her May 14, 2003 column (as first reported by Robert Cox on TheNationalDebate.com).
The term and the practice are often found in the Blogosphere.
(Coined by James Taranto)
verb. Looking up one's own name in Google to check on its prominence. Also: e-googling or self-googling.
noun. A blog set up for only a limited period to cover some event (for example the E3 Games Convention). Event blogs are often commercial in nature.
proprietary. A blog publishing software package. Expression Engine is a powerful content management system and is particularly suitable for 'high end' group blogs that are full featured and expect heavy traffic. www.expressionengine.com
verb. To use Internet search engines to ascertain the veracity of dubious claims made in the press.
(coined by Ken Layne)
Usage: "We can fact-check your ass!"
verb. To deconstruct an article on a point by point basis in a highly critical manner. Derived from the name of journalist Robert Fisk, a frequent target of such critical articles in the blogosphere (qv).
Usage: "Orrin Judd did a severe fisking of an idiotic article in the New York Times today..."
verb. To 'flame' someone is to make a hostile intemperate remark, usually of a personal nature. Also see: Flame War
Usage: "Andrew has seriously flamed Brian over his views on abortion again"
noun. A hostile exchange of views via the Internet characterised by highly intemperate language.
(This term is by no means exclusive to blogs and is found in wide use throughout the Internet)
verb. To intentionally insert words or phrases into as many blogs as possible to increase the ranking on the Google search engine. Held by some to be a form of 'meme war'.
(coined by Adam Mathes)
noun. Being unable to stop yourself constantly refreshing your browser to see if your hit counter or comments section has increased since the last time you did it (i.e. about 1 minute ago). This often occurs when a 'memorable number' is coming up (such as a blog's hit counter crossing 10,000 or 100,000 or 250,000 visitors etc.) or an unusually large surge of posted comments are attracted by an article.
(coined by Perry de Havilland)
noun. A term of abuse for an advocate of what are deemed to be irrationalist and subjectivist values that have very little reference to the workings of the real world. Idiotarians are often socialist (quintessentially Noam Chomsky), but can also be paleo-libertarian or paleo-conservative. The defining phrase of idiotarianism is "it is all the fault of the United States": this is usually applied to geopolitics but is sometimes encountered with regard to cultural issues, economic issues, environmental issues, the weather, socks lost in the laundry etc.
The term is obviously highly partisan but is in quite widespread use by many blogs. However it is not a term used exclusively by the neo-conservative 'right wing' and many well left of centre or libertarian blogs have used it describe the more surrealist wings of their particular branch of political thought.
Also see: Tranzi, Anti-idiotarian
tr.verb. To have your blog mentioned on Instapundit.com. Also: Instalanche.
Usage: "Holy shit, look at the hit counter! We must have been Instapundited!"
Also see: Slashdotted
phrase. An series of exchanges between two or more blogs contesting some factual, political or philosophical issue.
(coined by Natalie Solent)
Usage: "Aintnobaddude.com, Heretical Ideas and Samizdata.net have started another Interblog Gun War"
noun. A personal diary-like blog. Personal journal blogs are by far the most common type of blog. Most have extremely small daily readerships (albeit sometimes very dependble). Also: Diary blog
Journal blogs form one of the three primary distinct (and largely separate) cultural groups within the blogging world, the other two being Tech blogs and Pundit blogs.
Also see: Kittyblogger
noun. See: Knowledge Log. Also: Klog, K-Blog.
K-logs are usually internal blogs (i.e. on an intranet and not visible to the general public) and are used as highly effective knowledge management systems and/or internal company communication systems (such as project blogs, for example).
noun. Technically someone who uses their blog to write about their cats, but is mostly used to describe mundane Journal Blog (qv) content. Often used as an epithet but not always taken as one.
Also see: Journal Blog
noun. Software or websites that has options checked default-yes when you sign up that, if you are not paying close attention, will do things you have 'consented' to that you probably would rather not be done (for example, giving them permission to give your e-mail address to spammers).
As landmineware relies on the fact that in the real world, people do not watch their every step and so do not read lengthy terms and conditions, privacy statements and disclaimers. They achieve their objective by preying on people's unwary but typical behaviour.
(also landmine-ware)
(Coined by Perry de Havilland)
noun. A specialist blog dealing with regular postings about linguistics, language learning, translation and localization, endangered languages, language rights or other language-related subjects.
(coined by Enigmatic Mermaid)
expression. When a blogger finds that he has been linked by multiple sites, or has been added to several blogrolls, in a short time.
(Coined by James Martin )
noun. A blogger (qv) who will go to any lengths to get other bloggers to link to them (the term is usually intended to be humourous). Also: Link slut. Both terms are in fact gender non-specific.
1. noun. A blog (meaning 1).
2. noun. A single contributor weblog.
Note: The term Me-zine is already fading from use, being rapidly replaced by 'blog'.
(Possibly coined by Dori)
noun. The conventional media collectively (as opposed to the blogosphere) . See Old Media.
noun. A meme is considered to be a discrete idea that replicates itself, with the connotation that memes replicate themselves and are propagated by people through social and technological networks, much like both real and computer viruses.
(Coined by Richard Dawkins)
Usage: "The sarcastic meme of 'Our friends, the Saudis' continues to spread across the Intenet"
Note: Although not strictly speaking a 'blog specific' term, meme is very widely used in the Blogosphere (qv).
Also see: Meme hack, Meme war
noun. Intentionally altering a concept or phrase, or using it in a different context, so as to subvert the meaning. Also: memehack
Usage: for example the use of 'socialist' imagery to in fact advocate capitalism:
noun. Using googlebombs (qv), comment spam (qv), hostile trackbacks and other technical means to propagate memes.
noun. Derived from anarchist. An advocate of minimal government, often described as the night watchman state, in which the state exist legitimately only to enable appropriate law and order and to deal with collective territorial defense.
Such as state can exist to reinforce the liberty of individuals but not to 'do things' and is therefore a largely 'apolitical polity' guarding the boundaries of civil society.
Some minarchists view this as a transitional state leading inevitably to completely stateless anarcho-capitalism, whilst others see minarchy as a stable end point.
Whilst this is not a blog specific term, it is often used on 'pundit blogs', many of which are libertarian, hence its inclusion here.
verb. Similar to fisking in that it is a refutation of another's views, but misting is less aggressive and is usually humorous. 'Mistings' usually take the form of an imaginary exchange of views.
'Misting' is really MiSTing - from the show MST3K, Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was a show on The Comedy Channel about characters who were captured by malicious aliens and forced to watch terrible old sci-fi movies. They responded by commenting (rather hilariously) about the movies.
The term has rather different connotations amongst German speaking bloggers.
noun. A blog maintained via mobile hardware, typically a mobile phone ('cell phone') with a built-in digital camera. Moblogs are usually 'photo journals' rather than text intensive (though this varies).
Whilst moblogs are general run from a phone, it can also be run from a laptop, palmtop or web enabled PDA as the defining element of a moblog is it is used to 'blog away from the desk'.
1. noun. A link to a specific article in the archives of a blog, which will remain valid after the article is no longer listed on the blog's front page (i.e after it has archived).
2. noun. [Deprecated] A link in a blogroll (qv, sense 1).
verb. To destroy facts in a 'John Pilger' fashion, to 'pillage' the truth, poor or no fact checking, wild accusations, conspiracy theories etc..
(coined by Auberon Waugh)
1. noun. A ping is a system administrator tool that is an automated packet of information (64 bytes) sent through a network to another to establish the status of a target system.
2. verb. To ping another site is to send a small automated packet of data to actuate some expected function, such as a Trackback (qv).
PING is an acronym for 'Packet INternet Grouper'
1. noun & verb. A project blog. A blog set up to chronicle a particular (business) project.
2. noun. On-line bookseller Amazon.com has experimented with offering its customers 'personalised weblogs' that they call 'plogs'. Although they have trademarked the name, it is already in use with other meanings and the Amazon usage is unlikely to gain lasting traction.
1. verb. Short for presidential blogging (as in the president or CXO of a company) which bypasses the entire PR apparatus, as well as the traditionally blah forms of published speech by CXOs. Think of it as "Do It Yourself PR" for the people best positioned to make hay with it.
(Coined by Doc Searls)
Usage: "Schwartz and Cuban are playing the plogging game"
2. verb. Project blogging (qv Plog).
verb. To record (usually spoken narrative) audio files (usually in MP3 format) and make them available on-line so that they can be downloaded and listened to rather like an 'on-demand' radio show.
Although podcasts can be listened to on any suitable hardware (i.e. a computer or MP3 player), the term 'podcast' derives its name from the iPod, a very popular portable MP3 player made by Apple.
noun. A 'Progressive Weblog'. A blog expressing various left wing political views.
(coined by Madeleine Begun)
noun. A blog (qv) focused on news punditry. The bulk of a pundit blogs' content will be dissection of, or pointers to, stories currently running in the established media. Pundit blogs are largely the same thing as News blogs. Also: Punditblog.
Pundit blogs form one of the three primary distinct (and largely separate) cultural groups within the blogging world, the other two being Journal blogs and Tech blogs.
The archetypal pundit blog is Instapundit.com
noun. RDF is a web content syndication format. Acronym which stands for Resource Description Framework
noun. RSS is a web content syndication format. Acronym which stands for (variously) RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary.
proprietary. A blog publishing software package. Radio Userland is more popular with tech bloggers. radio.userland.com
noun. If you blogroll (qv) link to our blog, we will blogroll to your blog. Also: Linky Love
noun. One or more columns along one or both sides of most blogs main page, usually used for blogroll (qv) links, contact information etc.
tr. verb. To have your blog mentioned on Slashdot.org.
Also see: Instapundited
Usage: "Omfug! Our hosting server has just used up the whole month's bandwidth in the last 12 hours! We must have been slashdotted!"
noun. A spambot is online code which automatically generates larg numbers of unwanted messages and directs them at members of the public. Within the context of blogging, it is code which enters unsolicited comment spam.
A spambot can enter dozens or even hundreds of unwanted spams in a matter of minutes into the comments of an unprotected blog
noun. Spam blog. A blog created purely as a payload target for spam. The spam itself is delivered via trackbacks, comment spamming or e-mail and the 'splog' is where you end up if you click the spam link (which is something you will not do, of course)
The view that genuine bloggers have of splogs is best summed up with the phrase "people who create splogs should die in an unpleasant manner and soon".
noun. A cartoon/comic related weblog, either pertaining to cartoons/comics or featuring graphics of that nature.
noun. A blog (qv) focused on a technical subject. A high proportion of tech blogs are also groupblogs (qv). Also: Techblog.
Tech blogs form one of the three primary distinct (and largely separate) cultural groups within the blogging world, the other two being Journal blogs and Pundit blogs.
noun. A series of remarks posted by people in a public comment section of a blog that follow a conversational and topic related sequence.
Whilst used on blogs to describe related comments under a single blog article, this term is more specifically and accurately associated with on-line forums, many of which use a 'threaded' format that indents related digressions from the main 'conversation' in a branching manner, making it more clear to which previous comment a person it replying. Although some blog-forum hybrids also use this 'threaded' format within their public comments section, the term is more commonly associated with forums rather than blogs.
usage: "A blog article by Mike over on Cold Fury has sparked off an interesting thread with people arguing about the merits of private firearms ownership"
1. noun. A system by which a ping (qv) is sent to another trackback-aware website (usually another blog) to notify that site that a link to them has been made (usually within an article being posted). The objective is to notify the subject of an article that they have been mentioned in another article elsewhere.
2. verb. To follow a trackback ping from the target weblog to the source weblog.
noun. Derived from 'Transnational Progressive', a term popularised by John Fonte. Transnational Socialists. Not a term of endearment.
(coined by David Carr)
1. verb. To troll for hits is to post a provocative article purely in order to generate an angry response (usually followed by sending a mass e-mail shot to the target audience) and commensurate increase in hit rate.
2. noun. A person who trolls.
Usage: "Justin Raymondo has just trolled the Warbloggers again."
'Troll' is usually used as an epithet and the term is widely used in this sense in newsgroups and e-lists as well as blogs.
technical A Turing Test is a test which determines if the party on the other end of a remote communication is a human or a computer program (also known as a 'Captcha' (qv)).
This is germane to blogging because many comment sections on blogs use non-machine readable systems prevent spambots from entering comment spam.
1. noun. One of a large number of blogs (qv) which sprung up after September 11th 2001 (mostly in or after November 2001). Most at least initially were created to provide anti-idiotarian (qv) commentary in the aftermath of Al Qaeda's attack upon the United States. Warblogs are essentially a subset of pundit blogs (qv). Someone who runs a Warblog is a Warblogger.
2. noun. Any blog largely or primarily dedicated to coverage of terrorism, the war or terrorism, and conflict in the Middle East, regardless of when it was started.
3. noun. Any blog that take an editorial position generally in favor of military intervention by the United States in one or more Middle Eastern or Central Asian nations linked to terrorism.
(probably coined by Matt Welch)
--
Note: As of mid 2002, many 'warblogs' are now less exclusively focused on military affairs, terrorism and the related politics and some have quietly stopped describing themselves as 'warblogs'.
Update June 2004: It would be fair to say the term 'warblog' is now of historical significance only. Although many of the former self-described 'warblogs' are still publishing, the terms is now largely unused.
Also see: Anti-idiotarian.
intr.verb. Posting things on a blog purely to generate an increase in visitors. The term is often intended humourously, but not always.
noun. A type of collaborative on-line software that allows readers to add content on a subject, which can also be edited by others. For example: Wikipedia.
The major difference between a blog and a wiki is that a blog is more directly under the control of the owner(s) and the primary objective of a blog is for the owner(s) to express themselves to their target audience. A wiki on the other hand is about collaboration (in a general sense) rather than expressing views.
Wiki definition included as many people have asked us to describe the difference between a blog and a wiki.
noun. XML is a web language used for (amongst other things) syndication formats used on blogs. Acronym for eXtensible Markup Language
