I had an interesting discussion with M today about what makes a blog a blog. It all started over lunch when I claimed that Slashdot, that forum beloved of geeks everywhere, including dear M, is a blog. My reasons for this:
- It is updated frequently (on a daily basis)
- Its posts are in reverse chronological order (as are the posts on most blogs)
- It allows readers to comment on posts
Where Slashdot differs from blogs:
- It allows readers to rank comments made by other readers (I have not seen this feature on any other blogs)
- Anybody can submit a ‘story’ or posting – these are vetted by the Slashdot editors and posted if deemed worthy (on most blogs only the owner or the group owners of the blog can post entires)
- Slashdot readers can choose to create an account – this allows the user to save his/her preferences and use the ‘journal’ feature
- Slashdot readers have the option to become paid subscribers
At this point in the argument, I considered Slashdot to be a blog that happens to have many unique features. M argued that blogs share many features with Slashdot.
Back in the office, I took a look at the Top 20 Definitions of blogging by Debbie Weil. Looking at the definitions on this page, you could say that many of them apply equally to Slashdot and more ‘standard’ blogs. Okay, so I’m pushing it a bit, but you could!
Take these definitions of Debbie’s, for example:
#4 Amateur journalism
#6 A way to create community with your voters, er… readers (think 2,200 comments posted to the Dean for America blog in one day)
#7 An alternative to mainstream media (think InstaPundit by Glenn Reynolds and TalkingPointsMemo by Joshua Micah Marshall)
#11 A way for a bunch of navel-gazers to communicate with one another
#12 Something to keep you occupied when you’re unemployed (more people than care to admit fit into this category; have you noticed?)
#13 A way to think and write in short paragraphs instead of a long essay (which no one has time to read anyway)
#16 A way of writing with a distinct voice and personality (think HalleySuitt)
#20 Something you don’t want your mother to read…
M sent me an article that had the following statement:
“Is Slashdot a blog? It has many of a blog’s characteristics, but might not have all that are essential? Some people think it is a blog as it allows individual contribution of individual blog posts, but some people are violently opposed as they feel Slashdot is Slashdot and not the expression, or reflection of an individual. In fact, Slashdot does not assume that you regularly try read it in a view that collects, and shows, all posts of a certain author, for example.â€
He also sent the following definition from Wikipedia:
Slashdot, whose status as a blog has been debated, nevertheless has a team of editors who approve and post links to technology news stories throughout the day. Although Slashdot does not refer to itself as a weblog, it shares some characteristics with weblogs.
M [via email]: “I still think it’s open to debate.†He makes the point that “Slashdot predates blogs and while having many shared characteristics I think that blogs only contain a subset of Slashdot features and vice versa. I would reiterate my argument that blogs have come from a point where they were individual expressions whereas slashdot has always been about community news and expression. Blogs might be starting to be used for community expression but that doesn’t automatically make Slashdot a blog imo.â€
Here M was expressing what I have noticed to be a common criticism of bloggers and blogging – the fact that blogs tend to be written by individuals, expressing an individual’s opinion (innermost feelings, thoughts, etc), somehow devalues them in the eyes of some people. Some bloggers in Hong Kong felt so strongly about the media there defining blogs as merely “online diariesâ€, or “a tool for young people to record daily life†that they started an online petition urging the media not to use such narrow definitions, which to them belittles blogs and bloggers, and denies the impact they have on society and culture. I pointed out to M that Slashdot too affords the individual a space to express their opinion, valid or not. Where did I read that analogy, that just because so many people take so many bad photos with their cameras, does not mean that photography as a medium should be abandoned…
The discussion was going nowhere, and then I read the following article: Slashdot enjoys its Ur-blog status which made the following point: “Slashdot is considered a hybrid of sorts: As on a blog, the newest information is located at the top of the page, the oldest at the bottom. It lets readers comment and interact; it actively links to other Web sites; it immediately sends subscribers the latest posts.â€
“ “Now what people call it is a blog,†Bates said. “At the time we were doing it, blog was not a term we could use to describe it.†â€
This to me was the clincher – an historical reason for why Slashdot isn’t a blog – at which point I conceded to M that he had a point. (Note that I did not accept M saying that Slashdot predated blogs – I had to find another source to make his point before I accepted it!)
It was an interesting topic to consider. I guess we’ll have to wait for a few more years to see what happens to the blog when the dust has settled.