10 Blogging Terms You Should Know and Use

23 posted on July 23, 2008

POSTED IN: Blogging, Culture

If you’re new to blogging or have been around the block a few times you may have seen a few words thrown casually around on blogs that you haven’t heard before. You desperately want to fit in so you try dropping them into your posts, emails or conversations with your co-workers.

“Man, I’ve been getting some strong trackbacks on my RSS ping server for my post.”

Their laughter caused you to hang your head in shame vowing you would never again try to fit in with the cool blogger crowd. You thought you would be destined to count the cobwebs on your blog posts while all the big bloggers had fun.

Don’t worry, help is on the way. Here are 10 blogging terms explained for you so you can sound smart and be a better blogger (courtesy of blogossary.com).

Ten points for every word you can use in your comment.

HT – Hat Tip
A hat tip is an acknowledgment to someone (or a website) for bringing something to the blogger’s attention. Hat tip is also, sometimes, abbreviated as h/t or HT. (ht: transitionpete for this definition)

Blogosphere
The blogosphere is the entirety of the blogging community and it’s one of my favorite blogging words. It encompasses all blogs, personal, business, private, and otherwise.The blogosphere can also be used when talking about all the people who blog or manage a blog.

Blog Hop or Blog Hopping
Blog hop, also known as blog hopping, is to jumping quickly from one blog to another to skim the entries or to leave comments. I’ve done this many time. On a side note, if you are going to “blog hop” be sure to read enough of the post before leaving a comment or you could wind up commenting out of context (you know who you are).

Trackback
A trackback is a way for one blog to notify another that it is linking to one of its entries. An excerpt with a link to the linking blog usually appears on the referenced blog.

Link Love
Link love is posting a link to sites or blogs, usually unsolicited, that you enjoy, admire, or find useful. (example: if you like BradRuggles.com, consider spreading some link love!) On the other hand…

Link Whore
A link whore is someone who solicits links to their blog regularly or seems/is desperate to receive links to their blog. Some people think it leads to link abuse while others use links to build genuine community among their readers. I don’t know exactly where the line is between spreading “link love” and becoming a “link whore” but usually people are quick to point out when you cross it.

Permalink
A permalink is the contraction of permanent link and is the URL for an individual blog entry. If you ever want to link to a certain post rather than the entire blog, you would link to the permalink. The easiest way to do this is to click on an individual post title to go to that posts’ page and then copy the address from the address bar of your browser (example: the permalink for this blog post is: http://www.bradruggles.com/2008/07/23/10-blogging-terms )

Troll
Someone who leaves comments on a post solely to antagonize the author. Trolls thrive on attention so the best way to get rid of them is not to give them any. I’ve also found that they really don’t like marshmallows so keep a handly supply close to you when you blog.

Comment Spam
A comment left on a blog entry for the sole purpose of promoting a product, usually pharmaceuticals, gambling, or porn, and gaining links. It’s bad enough that we’ve had to deal with regular spam in our email, now we’ve got comment spam? (hint: if you have a WP blog, the Akismet plugin works wonders!)

Dooced
To lose one’s job due to entries published on a blog. The term was coined when Heather B. Armstrong lost her job due to entries published on her blog about co-workers. She now has one of the most successful blogs the the blogosphere so apparently getting ‘dooced’ pays off.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 10:26 am and is filed under Blogging, Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

18 Comments

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July 23, 2008

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1 bush said:

great definitions here. i love the link whore one. hahahaha
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July 23, 2008

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2 Adam said:

Nice.. I enjoyed the line about commenting out of context!! Very funny. I was impressed that I was pretty “hip” to all the terms except HT. Now I am in “the know”

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July 23, 2008

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3 Brody Harper said:

Thank you for not calling me a whore.
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July 23, 2008

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4 tam said:

dude, i totally thought i was gonna be in the link whore one. dont know why. cuz im totally not. really!

you are too cool!

tams last blog post..lemme show ya how it’s done – ‘the oil change’
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July 23, 2008

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5 Clayton Bell said:

I always wondered what HT meant. Now I know.

Well, HT to you for the comic i ran on Sunday.
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July 23, 2008

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6 Tyler said:

thank you for not calling out people here brad. i for one, am grateful

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July 23, 2008

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7 brent(inWorship) said:

I’m just thankful I didn’t make it under the link whore category

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July 23, 2008

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8 Jason Ruggles said:

I think I’m a troll…
but that’s ok ’cause I think it’s better than being a whore.
That, and us trolls have better hair!

Love ya, brotha! Even if I comment trollish things sometimes!
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July 23, 2008

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9 Mandy said:

Love the terminology. I’ll have to let hubs read it so he understands me.

You need to explain(as Brent did awhile back) to certain folks (Brody & Jason on this post alone)how to use gravatar (which means Globally Recognized Avatar) see…I’m hip.

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July 23, 2008

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10 The Secret Life of Kat said:

Great list Brad.

The Secret Life of Kats last blog post..There Is A Big Difference Between Neat and Organized.
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July 23, 2008

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11 Nikki said:

Love the definitions – really cleared up a lot I am definitely into link love and I am not a whore – good to know – LOL!

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July 23, 2008

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12 CJ Mills said:

hmmmm, I always thought HT was “Huge Thanks”….
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July 23, 2008

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13 CJ Mills said:

and do I need to read deeper into the fact that you linked me with the word “unsolicited”?

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July 23, 2008

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14 Pete Wilson said:

Dude, you have no idea how long I’ve been trying to figure out what in the world H.T. means. Thanks for solving the mystery.

Pete Wilsons last blog post..What’s Your flavor?
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July 24, 2008

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15 Nick said:

This whole time I thought that a “troll” was a person who reads your blog regularly but never comments or gets involved. We know these people exist thanks to Google analytics.

So, what should these people be called?
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July 24, 2008

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16 Around The Web at nikao | a collective said:

[...] Brad hit us with a glossery of blog terms. [...]
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July 24, 2008

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17 Charley said:

Hey Brad,
I was blog hopping through the blogosphere looking for trackbacks to my blog. You see, I owe a HT to Brody for showing some link love about being on my radio show today. You can find the permalink to the podcast on his site. I’m not a troll leaving comment spam, just a regular radio guy saying thanks for tuning in to the show today. I hope you found it fun and interesting.

Charley
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July 27, 2008

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18 alex mclean said:

Awesome vocab lesson. These are the questions people have – what do these terms mean. Thanks!

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