What is a Blog?

Thyme White asks what makes a blog a blog? And her answer may differ from some of the most popular blogs as well as personal favorites of Robert and me. But I think she's right.  If blogs are about open conversations, how can you turn off comments and claim its a blog?

Comments

can't link to blogtyme...ask's to download a file...

[Brian Sullivan]

An article that I refer people to when the question of what is a weblog comes up(a little old but seems to have legs):

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/whatMakesAWeblogAWeblog

[shel]

Brian,
Thanks. I think it's interesting that Dave Winer, lists comments as part of his definition of a weblog, when in fact he has turned them off at Scripting News.

[Tom Raftery]

Someone might want to mention this to Sun's Jonathan Schwartz (http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan)!

Tom

[Brian Sullivan]

"Dave Winer, lists comments as part of his definition of a weblog, when in fact he has turned them off at Scripting News."

I don't think he intended (at least that is my interpretation) that all things in the list are "requirements" but rather possible features.

I think his article can be summarized in a couple of sentences:

"A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser."

"....That is the essential element of weblog writing, and almost all the other elements can be missing, and the rules can be violated, imho, as long as the voice of a person comes through, it's a weblog. "

For me anyway those are the only absolute requirements that Dave puts forward in the article.

[Randy Charles Morin]

Well, I've considered turning off comments too many times. Why? comment SPAM. I'm now writing a bot that examines comments and makes hard determinations and deletes. It's no longer something I can do manually.

That said, comment SPAM quite often outweighs the will to have comments and I don't blame those that turn that voice off.

[Tyme]

Sorry if anyone is experiencing a problem accessing the blog - I'm don't get any error.

The problem I have with the old definitions is that any CMS used now accomplishes the requirements to have a blog. It's become a standard to have permalinks, archives, chronological order, etc. So are all web sites blogs?

Comment spam is a problem but there are solutions. I unfortunately get my fair share of comment spam but WordPress catches it all (so far). That wasn't always the case, I remember being hammered with comment spam but I am the first to admit that if I ever turn off comments then my blog is a web site, not a blog.

A perfect example of what I mean is ZDNet. If you look at the front page they have a Blogs section, which allows comments. The rest of the site does not, yet it fits the description of a blog. In my opinion, the entire site is not a blog - only where people can comment.

[WarriorMOM]

I'm interested in this b/c I've had internet access for 15 years but only very recently started a blog of my own. I think the comments do make a blog, if not by definition, at least by interest. The dynamic flow of conversation is essential for a >good< blog, no matter how well written the comments might be. Otherwise, it's just a time-stamped editorial website.

[Russian woman]

An article that I refer people to when the question of what is a weblog comes up(a little old but seems to have legs)