A blog is a blog is -=- what?

[jeanne]

OK, right down to it, what do YOU think a blog is, is it an unorganized bulletin board/forum, then there's kinds that have feeds into them -- I'm totally confused. Every blog I've seen is like an unorganized forum, but what's the advantage unless you really LOVE tor ead anything and everything . . . well, what IS a blog?

[the tree]

Blog is an abreviation of weblog wich is formed from web and log.
A log being something like a diary or regular report, think captains log off of Star Treck.
The web is a set of documents and files that are circulated using the internet.
So a weblog or blog is a diary on the web.

[CyCo]

...what the tree said and more (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&oi=defmore&q=define:Blog+--+(weB+LOG))

[MstrBob]

Wikipedia has lots of info on blogs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

[jeanne]

The quick scan I did of it only confirms my thought that it's a disorganized forum/bbs -- but that's a nice reference, thanks for pointing it out.

[felgall]

It is nothing like a forum or BBS - each thread in a forum would have to be started by the forum owner in order to even remotely give a similar appearance. A blog is more like a dynamically generated web page that (in some cases) allows the readers to post their own comments in response. If a blog is configured to not allow responses then you will have no way to tell that it is not an ordinary web page that is being regularly updated by the owner. Many business web sites use blogs to make updating the content of the home page quicker and easier in order to keep the site current.

[ray326]

The quick scan I did of it only confirms my thought that it's a disorganized forum/bbsWell a "blog" is not a type of software, it's a type of web site. Although today there are blogging domain-specific CMSs, there are many blogs that are purely static HTML sites. It is not necessary to support dynamic features like comments, trackbacks, rss generation, etc. to be a "blog". All that is necessary is to be a personal log/journal on the web.

[jeanne]

So technically speaking, websites like one I hae for a neighborhood association where the Pres. can put his own message in from his own computer; or the real estate and probably other sites where people throw their listings in, are actually blogs?

And the big deal in bloggin ('cause none of the other stuff is so new) is the RSS feeds?

I still wonder if it isn't more a lot of hype than anything new under the sun, despite the excitement (which seems to be settling down a bit)..............

[ray326]

So technically speaking, websites like one I hae for a neighborhood association where the Pres. can put his own message in from his own computer; or the real estate and probably other sites where people throw their listings in, are actually blogs?Your description of the content doesn't sound like a blog, it sounds like a non-blog CMS.
And the big deal in bloggin ('cause none of the other stuff is so new) is the RSS feeds?RSS feeds aren't new. Netscape was using RSS on its netscape.net portal a few years before the blogging CMS vendors discovered them (with the exception of userland).
I still wonder if it isn't more a lot of hype than anything new under the sun, despite the excitement (which seems to be settling down a bit)The excitement is over WHO is putting WHAT into their blog, not the technology.

[jeanne]

So I guess you have to invite certain people to participate and hope other people want to read it?

Have to admit, I haven't seen one that interesting yet.

[ray326]

Have to admit, I haven't seen one that interesting yet.About one in a million for a general audience would be my guess. I check Zeldman every week and follow a few of his pointers to other blogs. But I'm a web geek.

[PeOfEo]

I like to read www.ryanbrill.com which is another tech blog (run by pyro here on the forums).

There are different types of blogs, I mean you have the standard live journal type a deal where people complain about how bad their day was, then you have technical blogs where people might post a new script they made or post a new graphic or something, then entertainment blogs for things like movie reviews, someone goes to a movie then reviews it on his or her blog, then you have those infamous political blogs where people rant about candidates.