Duncan Riley> Well Ive pulled myself away from blogging for a little while to write some more of my book project and I need some help, and who better to ask than the readers of the Blog Herald!

Chapter 5 is titled “Understanding Blog Speak” and it’s actually hard to describe the meaning of certain words when you use them so regularly they are the norm. For example, trying to describe what a blog post is without actually referring to the meaning as being “a post to a blog” was actually a small challenge.

What follows is my list so far, and for anyone new to blogging visiting the site, it should come in handy as a reasonable reference tool, for everyone else, is there any words I’ve missed that should be included or are any of the descriptions particularly bad? Remember the list is meant for newbies and also includes a number of non-blogging terms that are frequently reference in blogging.

Understanding Blog Speak

Audioblog: A blog where the posts consist mainly of voice recordings

Aggregator: A program or webpage which enables users to read the content of blogs using RSS or Atom Feeds examples: Bloglines.com

Atom: An XML based file format used in the provision of Blog feeds. Championed primarily by Google and its Blogger blogging service, it competes directly with the RSS format

Blego: a combination of the words Blog and Ego, used to describe the actions of bloggers who write as to their own self worth

Blog/ Weblog: see chapter 2

Blogger: A person who keeps and/ or writes a blog. Also the name of Google’€™s blogging service.

Blogosphere: used to describe the world or community of blogs and blogging

Blogroll: a collection or list of links to other blogs and websites commonly featured on blogs. The word came into popular uses from the service of the same name. Sometimes referred to as link lists or bookmarks

Blogware: commonly used in reference to the tools used to write blogs, such as WordPress or Movable Type.

Blog feed/ Feed: a page, written in XML, that is read using Aggregators, that provide an alternative means in which to read blogs. There are two competing standards, Atom and RSS.

CGI-BIN: Some types of blogware require servers that allow CGI (Computer Generated ImageCommon Gateway Interface) programs to reside in a special directory. This directory is often referred to as CGI-BIN.

CSS: Cascading Style Sheets, script that may define the attributes on a web page or a blog, including colour, layout, font type etc.. CSS is not required to write a web page but is commonly used with blogs

FTP: File Transfer Protocol: Do-it-yourself blogging requires the uploading of script to a web host for hosting, FTP refers to the method in which the files are uploaded. Software is required to transfer a file by FTP. Examples include WS_FTP and Cute_FTP

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language: the language used in writing a web page

Meme: an idea, project, statement or even a question that is posted by one blog and responded to by other blogs. Although the term encompasses much of the natural flow of communication in the Blogosphere, there are active bloggers and blog sites that are dedicated to the creation of memes on a regular basis

Moblog: literally a mobile phone blog, a form of photoblog that consists of the photographs taken on users mobile phones. Particularly useful at times of crisis and major events, in which mobloggers (mobile phone bloggers) post direct pictures from the scene.

MP3 Blog: a blog that hosts downloadable music in the MP3 audio file format.

Perl: Practical Extraction and Report Language, Perl is a programming language designed for processing text used by some types of blogware

PHP: a HTML embedded scripting language that allows the creation of dynamic web pages, used by some types of blogware

Podcast/ Podcasting: a form of audio blogging created by Adam Curry, a former MTV Host, and Dave Winer, the founder of Userland Software. Its name comes from the targeting of audio posts to Apples iPod audio player, although podcasts can be listened to on competing players and on computers.

Post: the term used to refer to an individual story or article on a blog, literally to post to a blog is to write an article or contribution, and a blog consists of multiple posts.

RSS: Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication: a form of XML used in the delivery of blog feeds, comes in various standards as well, 0.92, 1 and 2 are the most common forms of RSS.

TrackBack/ PingBack: A system that allows a blogger to see which other bloggers have referenced or written about a particular post. The system works by sending a ‘ping’ between the blogs, and therefore providing the alert.

Vblog/ Vlog: Video Blog: a blog that consists of video posts.

XML: Extensible Markup Language: a scripting language used most commonly for blog feeds, used in both Atom and XML.