I posted a little rant to /. [1] and then went and made a Weblog of my
own (wsmf.org/otr).
So whats new about this? Why is it an item of note?
Boiling it all down i see one phrase "whats in a name"
[1]
"
Portals, weblogs, top50 sites.....
I guese its time for another episode of "Name that fuzzy warm feeling"
Watching as the users of the net name, rename, invent, reinvent,
rereinvent and then rename the reinvention is almost, almost mind you, fun
to watch.
I understand the need to name things, people spend years of thier life in
school to learn the names of things, to learn the nature of the names
meanings, and maybe sometimes even interact with the things they name.
You name something, you make an attachment to it. It becomes something not
otherly, but something of you. You can lay an easy hand on the worn
handles.
The country was there before Lewis and Clark took to yelling out names
from a cannoe ("Hey Lewis, what do you want to call this wet stuff we are
drowning in?""What about ITSFUCKINGCOLD River?" "I doubt if Mr Jefferson
is gonna go for that." "OK call it the Columbia for all I care.")Once
named the country was not the great unkown, it was the North West passage,
it was Oregon and Washington.
Look also to the old Mark Twain tale of the name game in Extracts from
Adam's Diary
Knowing this we can clearly see the zeitgiest of the web clawing at any
chance for worth, and in this attempt to name a thing that is.
Remeber back to the begining of the web, when the content was sparse but
everyone had to put up a page. These pages were often personal insites
scattered with lists of links (remeber well lynx and its grandfather
gopher, links of links with the content under it all). One of the critism
of early web sites were that they were too personal, that no one would
want to read someones list of interests, likes/dislikes (think playboy
centerfold material) and quipy witisms .
But some of those sites flourished. Blues News and Daves Classics to name
but two. Very much the creation and mindset of a person and in some cases
a group of people.
Weblogs is a horrible name. There is already something called a web log.
This is another ding in paint of the web users creativity, not only are
they renaming something that has pretty much always been on the web, but
they are renaming it to something that already names a thing.
Instead of WebLog I can thnk of a few more usefull and vastly more
enjoyable names.
PageWithLinks
ContentKiosks
Soapboxes
Curiosity Cabinets
Steamertrunks Of Ripe Underwear
RatPackers
Things That Make Your Modem Go Hmmmmmmmm
A rose by any other name etc etc (or to update the steinesque wordage "a
lamer in any other syntax would still be as /_@/\/\3"
So here we are, another name for what already is. Its not that I dont dig
the meme and procedures for creation of great sites spreading to wider
minds, but can we please rework the Gee Wizz Press Blurbs stage of its
evolution more often? Please, for me?
Call me Ishmiel. better yet, Call me a taxi. "
[---===tomwhore@ []wsmf.org []inetarena.com []slack.net===---]
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