Stop calling everything blogs!
Learn the difference people
By Charlie Demerjian: Tuesday 26 December 2006, 16:50
ENOUGH WITH CALLING every site on the (#*&$ing net a blog,
people! I know the mass media is filled with dumb sheep that need
to spread fear about anacondas in toilets to get ratings, but this
has gone too far. What am I talking about? It seems every site that
puts up content that is not owned by a major media outlet that has
a TV channel is now blogging.
The INQ is a blog, Boing Boing is a blog, and just about every site
is a blog. Does it matter what the content is, or how many people
work for it? Heck no, it is a blog because talking about blogs make
the media worms seem hip, cool, and most importantly not as stupid
as they really are. Hint, they are that dumb.
Let's start with a definition, a blog is short for a web log, that
is someone writing about their personal experiences, sometimes on a
specific topic, sometimes not. Some are formatted in the classic
blog way with text down the middle, others not. It all has one
thing in common, it is a personal log of a single person's
experiences.
Now, for the slow out there, personal means just that. If it is an
executive looking like they are talking about the products they
sell, it is a PR exercise written by PR people. It is a lie
masquerading as something hip and cool to sell you on a product.
Not a blog.
If there are more than one person writing for the 'blog',
especially if they get paid, it is a site. The INQ has a staff of
many, as does Boing Boing, CNet and Slashdot. Just because you read
it on a browser (that little blue 'e' that brings spyware in for
the local news crews reading this) and it does not have an
associated cable channel does not make it a blog. Really. Not a
blog.
When you have myspace pages for bands that are blatant promotional
tools, not a blog. Movie sites/actor sites, not a blog. Paid for
shills like the MS 'bloggers', not a blog. Spawn of paid for
shills, not a blog. If you make you living from it, not a
blog.
A single person writing about their experiences, thoughs, or
research, no matter how many hits it gets, definitely a blog. Once
money and a staff get involved, it loses its blog status and
becomes a site.
I have no problem with what most of these mostly worthless wastes
of oxygen do in their spare time, be it paid for, shilling, or just
writing stuff up. What I do have a problem with is that they label
them blogs when they are clearly commercial exercises.
Stop it now! Do the least you can and learn definition of a single
word, and let it stick in the vacuous product placement addled
brains of yours, and do it for the good of humanity. You don't see
me running around calling you corporate whores do you? Oh wait, I
do, but you deserve it.
