A Blog is Not a Post, Dammit! [en]

[fr] De plus en plus répandue, la confusion entre "blog" et "post/billet/article" est un cancer qui ronge la terminologie blogosphérique. Pour mémoire, un blog est un type de site composé d'une série d'articles (ou posts, ou billets). On ne dirait pas, dans le cas d'un magazine composé d'articles, "j'ai écrit un nouveau magazine" -- et donc on ne dit pas "j'ai écrit un nouveau blog sur le sujet".

Photographiez les coupables à coups de saisie d'écran et envoyez-les-moi -- je les ajouterai à la collection dans ce b... illet!

Lately, I (and others) have noticed an increasingly aggravating trend: saying “blog” instead of “post”.

To make it clear: a blog is a type of website, made of a collection of blog posts, or “posts”.

Just like a magazine is a collection of articles. You wouldn’t say “he just wrote a new magazine” instead of “he just wrote a new article”, would you?

So, you don’t say “to write a blog” instead of “to write a post”. It just doesn’t make sense.

I’ve started collecting screenshots of offenders and I’m collecting them here (Flickr tag: ablogisnotapost). Post your own screenshots on Flickr and I’ll add them to this blog… post (!) — with credit, linkage, and everything, of course. Just drop me a line or leave a comment with the link.

Let’s fight back and get all those newcomers to get their terminology straight before it’s too late!

“Blog” and “post” confusion — offenders

How to Make a Blog:

Confusing 'blog' and 'blog post'

E-mail:

E-mail with "blog" and "post" confusion

StumbleUpon:

StumbleUpon » My Preferences

StumbleUpon » My Blog

Plasq, courtesy of Stowe Boyd:

plasq bad blog usage

Maria on Millions of Us, courtesy of Stowe Boyd (one could argue that this is, in fact, her “first blog”):

Her First Blog Ever

Foreign correspondent Telegraph Blog, courtesy of Adam Tinworth:

Not a Britney Blog - a Britney Post!

SAP Community Network:

SAP Blog_Post Confusion

Alan Patrick (his excuse: lots of beer and a late night, and an attempt at justification by invoking a semantic shift of the word “blog”):

broadstuff blog_post confusion

Dwayne Phillips commenting on /Message:

Comment on /Message, blog/post terminology confusion

Tim Berners-Lee himself 🙁:

OMG. TBL himself calling a post a blog :-(

Send me yours!