Dirty little secret

kperfetto — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 05:28:25 -0500

I hate the word "blog." I've gotten to the point where I can write "blog" without wincing, but I can't say it. Out of my mouth it sounds like, "blahhhhg".

Another of my "blogging" pet peeves: One of out local newscasters (actually a few do this) says, "Check out the "blog" I wrote about (issue at hand)"

No, you wrote a post, not a blog.

Five Dollar Camera

Hypnotizing Chickens

Folksonomy, Blog, Blogosphere Voted Most Likely to Cause Wincing, Shuddering and Head Banging

Marianne Richmond — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:59:13 -0500

Yahoo News reports that according to a recent poll conducted by YouGov that was commissioned by the LuLu Blooker Prize, the words folksonomy, blog and blogosphere are the top three words most likely to make one "wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard."

Jack Schofield at the Guardian regrets that no, less annoying, alternatives were provided.

Eric Berlin at Online Media Cultist asks whether that many people have really heard of folksonomy. Probably a valid question.

He also says that his personal most hated word is, MySpace. His issue is not with MySpace as used to refer to the social network itself, but the use of the term " my MySpace" which he seems to believe indicates a belief that your space (your profile, your blog, your page) is MySpace instead of your MySpace profile, MySpace blog, or MySpace page.

He uses the example: "I blogged about my turtles on my MySpace" to illustrate his concern with what seems to be perhaps that we believe we are our social networks?

Techfold alludes to the annoyance factor of web2.0 terms in general and mentions that Webomatica has a page devoted to Weblogisms.

After an initial discomfort level with the words blog and blogosphere....along with a request from my kids a couple of years ago to promise never to use the word blogosphere in their presence because it was just so stupid sounding...I am reasonably okay with blog vernacular.

I think I can say that most probably the discomfort (which maybe included a wince, a shudder, but never keyboard head banging) was due to the newness, the unfamiliarity; that using the word "blog", or saying "I write a blog" , or mentioning "the blogosphere" to those outside the blogosphere frequently required an explanation that seemed to only lead to the use of more words unfamiliar to the listener.

Questions sometimes were asked in a demeaning tone....often followed by, "Are you making any money doing that?"

"How's that blogging coming?" might be a follow up question at a later date.

Well, I don't believe I can recall a recent blogosphere comment from my kids. OK, so their concern now is that I might friend them on Facebook (and they both blocked me from even trying even after I assured them I had my own friends).

And, I smile every time I hear the TV anchors say, "And now, lets ask the bloggers...."

Yahoo also reported that the Collins English Dictionary recently added a number of social media terms such as "me media" and "Godcast" to their ninth edition.

So, Bloghers......do we want to cast a vote here?

Tags: blogs, blogoshere, Facebook, wiki, folksonomy, YouGov, LuLu Blooker Prize, Yahoo News, Weblogisms, Techfold, Media2.0, Web2.0, Jack Schofield, Eric Berlin

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Dirty little secret

Folksonomy, Blog, Blogosphere Voted Most Likely to Cause Wincing, Shuddering and Head Banging