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Blogs breed Jargon

Posted by: Stephen Baker on November 13

It took readers to point out the obvious to me. I wrote a post denouncing jargon and dared to include this sentence in it: Jargon is like proprietary software in a world moving toward open-source.

Not too bright. But as I think about it, I’m coming to the conclusion that blogs can actually breed jargon. Why? Unlike mainstream media, blogs live in small niches (where everyone is likely to be comfortable with the jargon).

I came to grips with this a few weeks ago, when I was writing a piece on blog advertising for the magazine. Suddenly I had to define familiar insider terms and acronyms—RSS, Adsense—that I spew on this blog nearly every day. I had to clean up the jargon, and it was a painful process.

So, those of you who wrote that jargon is useful, you’re right. It is. It’s like Danish or Lithuanian, highly useful if you’re in Copenhagen or Vilnius, but a handicap if you’re not with the right crowd.

Here are the questions: Do we limit the appeal of blogs by speaking in jargon to our niche? If so, is that a bad thing? Or should we just resign ourselves to speaking to a crowd that speaks the same language?

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Reader Comments

Jon Garfunkel

November 13, 2005 02:32 PM

How has the appeal of blogs been limited? It's spread everywhere. The better question is how to fix what's broken with blogs.

Rex Hammock

November 13, 2005 04:14 PM

I think the bloggers who read your blog about blogging (mostly those of us who blog about blogging and media and technology) have our own jargon. But then, bloggers who blog about knitting have their own jargon and bloggers who blog about cooking have their own jargon. In other words, as much as I like it, Steve, I don't think your blog will ever have "mainstream" appeal, as hard as that may be to accept -- but it's not the jargon. I think blogs as a medium are inherently so niche-oriented that niche-specific jargon is always going to be a part of them.

steve baker

November 14, 2005 07:24 AM

Jon, Blogs collectively are everywhere, but individually they're in niches. Nothing wrong with that. Rex, I agree that this blog (and most others) will remain niche. I even steer friends and family away from it. The question is whether this extreme focus will keep true blogs from evolving into mainstream media outlets. I suspect that the really successful ones will drop the jargon and lose the original community feel (perhaps developing a larger eBay-style one). Will it still be a blog? I guess it doesn't make much difference what we call it.

Amit

December 28, 2005 06:40 AM

Hello Friends
Every Language evolved through time.
It is like a stream, It takes wiht it what ever ocmes its way...
The jargons we use is understandable to he personal who read then it is fine to use it.......
It is always difficult for someone new in any field...
U Know what I mean

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In Blogspotting Senior Writer Stephen Baker and Associate Editor Heather Green take a look at how cutting-edge technologies are changing business and society. Whether its blogs or wikis, data crunching or data targeting, technology’s advances are reshaping the world that we live in.

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