Blog Lingo

All social networking sites come with their own lingo. Twitter for example uses DM, RT, the @ symbol and #FF among the many. Facebook uses terms such as “friend,” “like” and “status update.”

Blogs are no different. In writing the chapter on sharing expertise I realized I needed to include blog lingo.

For some the language comes second nature, but for others, there is still a learning curve.

Here is my list of the top and most-used lingo as it pertains to blogs.

Blogroll – the collection of links on the sidebar of a blog linking to other blogs.

Blogosphere – the totality of the blogging community. Also referred to as the blogiverse.

Categories – Categories provide a helpful way to group related posts together, and to quickly tell readers what a post is about. For example, a category may be Gourmet Burgers.

Crud – when a blogger makes an error in the programming that results in a visible line of code appearing within the blog post.

Comment Spam – unsolicited commercial message that automatically posted in a blogs comment area. Most blogging platforms have a spam filter now – thank goodness 🙂

Edublog – a blog dedicated to educational topics.

Event blog – a blog used for particular events.

Flame – to make a hostile remark, typically of a personal nature. I don’t tolerate harmful remarks on my site therefore I enforce my social media policies.

Pages – pages are static. My static pages are about me, contact me, courses, curriculum vita, philosophy of teaching and social media policies. For the most part these pages rarely change. I will update my CV with new publications or speaking engagements, but where I attended school or previous employers won’t change so anything there will be minimal.

Permalink – a web link that takes you to the permanent location of an article in a blog.

Pingback – A pingback is a type of comment that’s created when you link to another blog post where pingbacks are enabled.

Podcasting – using an MP3 player to listen to the audio from a blog.

RSS feed – (really simple syndication) – web content syndication format. RSS are feed readers that are used to check the RSS enabled webpages on behalf of a user. They display any updated information from blogs you follow.

Tags – Tags provide a useful way to group related posts together and to quickly tell readers what a post is about. Tags also make it easier for people to find your content. Building on our category of Gourmet Burgers, tag may include “blue cheese,” “bacon burger,”  “pretzel bun.”

Thread – a side discussion taking place in the comments section of blog.

Vlogging – video blogging.

Did I miss any lingo you use regularly? I’d love to add it to this post.