In my almost four years of knowing what the fuck a “blog” is, I’ve never liked the word, and I’ve never ever liked the words “emoticon” (how’s “smiley”?), or “blogroll” (“link list”) either. Now that I’ve actually heard them, I don’t think I could hate them more. People, those words are hideous, grammatically awful, and doesn’t look or sound all that great either. If you want this kind of community that we supposedly have (you know, just because we stick all kinds of stuff on our web pages and label it in a certain way) to flourish, we’re going to have to make up some words that don’t actually burn your ears. (Or we could just use “Weblog”, “smiley” and “link list”. But that would be convenient and understandable, and we can’t have that.)
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if you never liked blogroll.. why was it that in the days of old you labeled your link list as such?
By sam · 2004.12.02 22:43
As far as I can remember, I didn’t. I labeled it logroll. I’ve always thought these words were horrible, which is not to say that I have never used them myself though, so I may very well have used it.
Lesser obnoxious candidates to the three words in the post include “clique” and “meme”, by the way, but I don’t think there’s a real alternative to any of those. The words mentioned in the post already have perfectly usable and in fact more understandable counterparts, and newer words were created out of hilarity or to make people feel special, not out of necessity, which not only goes straight against the grain of the way the human mind continually reinvents the language but also obfuscates for most people not “in the know”. It may benefit the, shudder, “blogosphere”, shudder, but it benefits anyone else how?
By Jesper · 2004.12.03 12:00
Heh, I knew it! I knew I wasnt alone in all this. Thank you for this post, whenever I get my site back on its feet i’ll be sure to link to it or something
By Vidar · 2004.12.03 20:15
Heh, I like how you don’t like the word “emoticon” yet you like “smiley”. :P
Besides, emoticon is the correct and official nomenclature. “Smiley” doesn’t fit the bill. Not all emoticons are smiling, thus your “smiley” name is rendered useless.
By Legion · 2004.12.04 20:01
I agree. It also annoys me when people refer to a singular weblog entry as a ‘blog’, and things like that. Ergh.
By t · 2004.12.07 02:06
I hear you, i feel you!
Journal. Archive, Website. fine. But “blog?”
I remove all traces of the word from my journal, and work journals.
It’s not a blog, it’s an online extension of my thinking, moaning, wishing, and sometimes my ideas.
the benefit: easy to say, easy to remember, inclusive, trendy, fun-loving…
you know… like frogurt, froyo, hippie, yuppie, raver, mcnugget, and all the best things in life!
F.
By fernando · 2004.12.08 14:49
Legion, I hear your “not every smiley smiles” and I raise you with the Wiktionary definition:
Smiley is shorter, easier to pronounce, more widely spread and I’d also say more people connect “smiley” with an internet smiley than connect “emoticon” with anything at all.
By Jesper · 2004.12.09 21:46
More urgent than to the words you’ve listed is a universal alternative to the terrifyingly horrific ‘blogosphere’ which compounds ‘blog’ into a prefix hell that only something catchier and more transparently fitting can save it from.
By Stuart · 2004.12.11 21:44
Um, clique has always been a word.
By Robert · 2004.12.26 03:32