One word to rule them all.
I’ve heard some bloggers say (more like read some bloggers write, but eh) that they dislike the term blogosphere/aniblogosphere but I’ve never really understood why. Perhaps it’s some strange inherent dislike for spherical objects in general. I’ve made a mistake (twice) when using prepositions in conjunction with the word “blogosphere”. I wrote “I hate Christmas on the blogosphere (literally, I Hate Christmas On The Blogosphere but let’s not get into that again) rather than “in” the blogosphere, which would seem like the correct term. After all, people don’t say “on the world”, they say “in the world” and the world being a sphere the same rules would seem to apply to the word “blogosphere.”
If that doesn’t sway you, take into account the word “globe”. You can say “all around the globe” but if you said “on” the globe or “in” the globe, something sounds slightly off. All these words (sphere, world, globe) essentially mean the same thing (a round 3-Dimensional object) and yet they all work differently with prepositions. This can lead to some (read: endless) confusion which in turn leads to me writing incorrect(?) post titles.
Even when I say aloud what is seemingly the correct statement, “I Hate Christmas In The Blogosphere”, it still doesn’t seem right. There’s always the option of saying “within the blogosphere” which could be construed as meaning physically inside the sphere. The surface of the blogosphere itself is made up of bloggers and commenters, the people; that which is within the blogosphere is everything else, the blogs themselves, the readership and most importantly the content. As such, this definiton would make sense, as my reactions and feelings on the subject of Christmas would be “content”. With that in mind, let’s move on to the heart of the matter.
What I like about the word “blogosphere” is that it implies that the blogging community is a world in and of itself, even more so as this world is, for the most part, focused on anime. Like a circle, it is never-ending; there is always content being exchanged, read, and more recentlythan before, shared between authors and readers alike. It’s a world focused on the constant appreciation and analysis of one subject, in contrast to the “real world” which may lead to moments of occasional E-nnui.
However, if this were solely the case, then the “blogosphere” would be no more than a “blogocircle” (go ahead, laugh at the ridiculousness of that word). What makes it “spherical” is the “meta” of each blogger and commenter, which gives everyone a different viewpoint and conclusive opinion on a subject. For example, on one plane there are those who love and hate Itakiss purely because of the characters, which would be two-dimensional, the circle. But on top of that, you have those who love or hate the show because of the technical aspects, which adds another dimension, another circle. Others love or hate it because of the music or the setting or the storyline. Imagine all of these opinons based on individuals experiences as the longitudinal structure of the sphere.
Then we have the “meta” aniblogging, which is something literally lateral to the simplistic feelings of love or hate towards any particular show. It’s not about all about feelings towards an anime, it’s about how anime or its fandom has affected you as a person or how your experiences have affected the way you perceive anime. This makes up the latitudinal structure of the sphere. As such, with the finished product you get the “blogosphere”.
Bloggers and commenters express themselves though writing and that is what makes up the “content” of the sphere, the “within” that I mentioned earlier. Everything is pooled into the centre of the sphere, which is a constantly bustling location of discourse, dorama and discussion. It is a world with more depth and content than the world itself, though this is purely since “within the world” there is only magma and rock :P.
The reason I like the term “blogosphere” is because it rolls off the tongue keyboard well and it so aptly describes this world I’ve managed to stumble into and become a part of. How about you? WHat are your feelings on the word “blogosphere”?
I hate the word because it can leads to ambiguous nonsense waxing such as this post. You probably have a better use of your time (ie. go watch moar anime or something).
I think the only merit to the term is that it can include things we are not aware of. When people say “world” or “on earth” usually they only mean it in the context of what they’re aware of, yet those terms include things they are not aware of. If people use the term blogosphere that way (which I have never seen) then it may be acceptable.
Otherwise, the term is just a portmanteau for a certain community which is a much, much more accurate description.
I hate the word because it sounds stupid. When you actually use it blogging it’s fine, but it just sounds like a stupid word to me and I hate saying it. I also dislike spherical things, so that may have something to do with it after all. But “blogosphere” sounds stupid when said aloud, much like “blog” itself. It sounds like a word made up by a Saturday morning cartoon.
I’m just saying that though. I have no reasonable reason to hate it. It’s like a phobia of having b’s, g’s, and o’s together in words or something. I don’t know.
That said, I will continue to use it just because it’s the best word to use. Shorter than anything else I can come up with. Plus the internet is a very…non-linear place so “sphere” works nicely to explain the community that forms around blogging which uses the internet so fully. Plenty of bloggers never come into contact with each other directly, but know the same people because they’re all a part of the “sphere” or something.
Still. I won’t say blogosphere out loud.
“Blogosphere” is a fine word because there’s no other word that means what it means. Omo, how would you express “the collective of blogs” in a single word? Fucker.
Stickler. Grow up.
FUCK FUCK FUCK
I’m feeling obnoxious right now, plz forgive me Omi-chan.
I hate ‘aniblogosphere’ more, but, all my attempts to replace it are lame and fail in an uninteresting way.
So I end up using it. (ANI)BLOGOSPHERE! (ANI)BLOGOSPHERE! (ANI)BLOGOSPHERE! (ANI)BLOGOSPHERE! (ANI)BLOGOSPHERE! (ANI)BLOGOSPHERE! (ANI)BLOGOSPHERE! (ANI)BLOGOSPHERE! (ANI)BLOGOSPHERE!
What’s so bad about aniblogosphere?
Abbr is way2gOH!
Oops I just revealed my secret mission.
I often say it out loud. I work with blogs in my job, and like a lot of other tech words, it became the term of choice de facto, not because there was any kind of official consensus or anything like that. Sorta like how blogs don’t capitalize post titles and nothing you can do will change that 😛
In fact, it started as a joke almost a decade ago.
Which according to wikipedia is itself a bad pun based on “logosphere,” a word that none of us know the meaning to anyway.
So… dumb word? Yes. Stuck with it? Probably. Ours is not to change it. Ours is to think up something better than assy terms like “aniblogosphere.”
WHAT’S WRONG WITH ANIBLOGOSPHERE T_T
I propagated it in accordance with Os’s dying wishes as an “aniblogger.” I won’t let you call that a lie! *geass*
I like the Dangosphere!!
I dislike ‘blogosphere’ because it imports ‘blog’, itself rather oddly pulled out of ‘weblog’, into ‘logos’. Call me a prescriptivist throwback to the eighteenth century, but I try to avoid messing up Greek terms like ‘logos’ (‘logosphere’ itself is a recent coinage, apparently) which are fine as they are. It’s a pun too far. I don’t necessarily suggest people should follow my example, though.
Anyway, that’s why ‘otakusphere’ is the only place I’m comfortable using ‘otaku’. Though technically I suppose that has a slightly different meaning: you could argue that ANN’s forums, or parts of them, are part of the otakusphere but not the (ugh) blogosphere.
I just hate the world “blog”…it sounds like something nasty that you mustn’t eat or smell or touch…>_>
Because Maddox hates it.
I giggled. I wish we could say we were in “The Foundation” or something equally ominous/mysterious.
Actually, blogocircle is quite catchy 😀
I dunnoes what’s wrong with using blogosphere/aniblogosphere either. I mean … it’s easier than saying “the blogging community” because there’s obviously more time wasted on typing a few extra letters.
>> Omo, how would you express “the collective of blogs” in a single word?
Blogs
Anime blogs == aniblogosphere
Any other examples where that term wouldn’t work?
God I want to make a parody comic out of this dorama…
OR
testicle cauldron.
@lelangir
You could if you stopped whoring long enough. But then again, the output would be whored further anyway. Whore away, mein freund!
Why does Greenwich get special treatment on that graphic?
I end up finding the term “blogosphere” to serve as a way to segregate a set of ideas originating in blogs from those from more traditional sources. Perhaps that’s more my experience with other types of blogs talking, though.
“Anime blogs == aniblogosphere”
But I interpreted the word as not to mean just “anime blogs”, but them and the community that surrounds them. Or maybe better, a blogging community that revolves around anime (a sub-community in the larger “blogosphere”, I guess).
And yeah, we aren’t really using the word right (I myself like to extend the messy word even fully with “animeblogosphere”), but we’re lazy bastards (at least I know I am) that don’t like typing anime blogging community when this is much shorter, even if it’s wrong? 😀
Suddenly “a gaggle of anime bloggers” pops to mind. 😛
I have to wonder how the hell people can spend so much time talking about words like this. Don’t you guys have something better to discuss than the word blogosphere? Come on now. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. If you like it, use it. Damn. It’s not really this deep.
Pretty indifferent about it. I’ve occasionally used the term blogocube and I guess the hard corners would be extremes? The word ‘blogosphere’ has certainly been used a lot in describing such online communities/networks and so I can understand some become tired of seeing or hearing it. I saw ‘otakucube’ used a few months ago but though it is more specific, it also sounds more awkward to me and could potentially be interpreted as describing the larger ecosystem of message boards and other venues of intersocial interaction relating to the subject.
Also, that strange falsely-see-white-spots-at-the-intersections happened to me when I came upon that the crosshatched image.
@omo
I wouldn’t use the word community as much as blogosphere because I don’t think it fully captures the scale of the anime blogging world. Sure, it’s a niche hobby, but the fact is that new blogs keep popping up every day with new faces and new writers, and the word community seems to suggest something more closed off and exclusive to me.
And I’ve always loved to look at the smaller things in more detail, if you consider me attempting to explain something that’s bugging me ambiguous nonsense waxing, be my guest.
@FuyuMaiden
It does soud kind of stupid and I’ve never said it out loud (and probably won’t for some time). Then again there are a bunch of english words that can sound strange when said in a certain way.
@lolikitsune
All is forgiven, especially since you seem to be one of the few people who are positive about the word 😛
@ghostlightning
But whyyyy do you hate it?
@lolikitsune
If it’s to further lessen the coherence of communication on the ‘net, mission accomplished.
@otou-san
The day someone comes up with a term to replace aniblogosphere will be the end of a (wondrous) era. And logosphere is an awesomely apt name. Though it’ll never catch on. Evar.
@lolikitsune
The way you say that you’d think you were around at the birth of the blogosp- Oh wait.
@DS
You can fit dangos into everything, can’t you? 😛
@The Animanachronism
The internet may be just distilling the meaning of a word something so far that its original meaning becomes lost amongst the never-ending progression of human beings. However, I feel that somewhere among those words there is a near-perfect term to describe the entire community. Somewhere…
The word otakusphere is just wrong to me, just taking the meaning of the word otaku and applying it to a large number of people in one location/forum doesn’t seem right.
@53RG10
How about “burogu” then :P?
@Baka-Raptor
Fuck Maddox.
@mellow_bunny
Do not let the ignorant masses catch on, comrade.
@omo
Anime blogs, the authors, the readers and the content make up the aniblogosphere.
@lelangir
Please, please do.
@ghostlightning
You do realise that lelangir is slowly taking over the world, starting with this small corner of the internet?
@Emperor J
Because it’s too hard to find a longitudinal lined sphere on google. And because it’s GREENWICH MEANTIME FTW.
If an idea’s origin came from any blog it’d most likely be lost no matter how much people tried to seperate it from ideas of a diferent origin.
@TheBigN
How about “a collection of people with individual perspectivess writing articles in relation to the medium of anime” AKA Colopipertiartilatediumani? Abbreviations FTW!
@Nazarielle
Because we obsess. How dare you watch anime and not obsess!
@CalAggie
What of otacube, seems like it would work better.
And that illusion was actually just a technique to hypnotise you…
Why do I hate it? It’s because it’s like going to a party wearing an awkward hat, only to find everyone else wearing it awkwardly pretending it’s okay. The hat is neither cool, stupid, nor interesting.
But the fact you wore the hat in the first place shows you have affinity for that hat, and by the time you’ve gotten to the party everyone’s wearing the hat so your pushed into continuously wearing that hat no matter what. So you ight as well just learn to love that hat anyway.
HATHATHATHATHATHAT.
I actually found out that the word, “Aniblogosphere”, exist 2 weeks back and I even mis-spelled it when I first used it. (Spelled it as “Aniblogsphere”) Why the extra “o” in the word “blogsphere”?
I don’t dislike the term. In fact, I find it fascinating that humans are innovative enough to even come up with such terms that others can accept. Its amazing, don’t you think so? (::
As a philosophical/analytic term, it has a purpose. As a casual word outside the blogosphere, I’m going to agree with Ghostlightning in that it is simply awkward and generally disliked.
I’m fine with both blogosphere and aniblogosphere, the latter because I’m also semi-active, or at least am a reader of, that other blogosphere (namely, the business/tech/entrepreneur one). Like others, I don’t mind the term because they function well enough and there aren’t many other useful words that could replace them efficiently.
I think the main reason anyone really revolts against popular terms is because they don’t have being pushed into one category or another or don’t like finding themselves within a labeled community even though there’s really nothing wrong with it. Sure, no one likes to be categorized, but the fact remains that it’s more efficient that way, and it’s a natural occurrence. Any large collection of people is going to have a name for their community, whether they like it or not.
As for the technical parts of the term, I don’t really visualize the blogosphere as a sphere or globe. Maybe I’m just too much of an xkcdian, but I think we’re more like an island because it isn’t like we’re cut off from the rest of the world by the vacuum of space. :3
@omisyth
Greenwich Mean Time only serves to extend the myth that the British have any sort of influence on time related matters. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) should be used instead.
And back to the main point, people just have a natural tendency to try to simplify terms. We get stuff that is named after an acronym is devised for example. I would personally visualize this blog collective as something like the International Space Station.
I honestly don’t mind either way, but I think that we’re more or less stuck with “anime blogosphere” (or simply “aniblogosphere”) because we don’t really have any other word for “the collective/community of anime bloggers, blogs, commenters, and all other related parties”.
[…] as a significant, integral, intrinsic and inextricable part of the blogosphere (hence BLOGosphere, or what have you). Anyway, thanks, jpmeyer, for shoving a whole bunch of flutes up my ass…it was […]
@omo
And even if “anime blogs” WERE == to “aniblogosphere” in meaning, they’re different syntactically. Aniblogosphere is a location, wherein things can happen.
“anime blogs” is to “aniblogosphere” as “sardines” is to “can of fish.”
@lolkit:
I will agree that they are different in syntax. But why invent a new word when you can just…you know, use the same word and add helper words to fit it like most normal people?
Only if you use it a lot I guess.
@lelangir: I fail. I also fail to see how your definition of anibloggosphere is unique enough that it wouldn’t work with the term “anime blogging community.” Plus it’s not as simple as you put it. If I substitute “[a]nime blogs, the authors, the readers and the content” wherever I see the term, it doesn’t always make sense.
Not to mention I don’t see how content is any different than blogs, as one infers the other; likewise blogs infer authors and commenters. It doesn’t infer readers, but that’s an issue in defining what you want to be included in the term. Manufacturing the term forces that issue which I don’t think you’ll fine a definitive answer.
This is still going? lol
@omo: er, perhaps Part 5 will address your fourth paragraph. I wish I cood make it ezr 4 u two reed, buht eye cant dihstill it enuf.
So can I has testicle cauldron nao puliz?
I HAS TESTICLE CAULDRON!!111!~~INFINITY
Is this like how people from the New York City area get annoyed when people say “in Long Island”/”in Staten Island” instead of “on Long/Staten Island”? Or is it different for us because we don’t attribute any syntactical reason for phrasing it like that?
@omo:
Which I (and others) do. So… what do we say, I win? *dances on Omo’s corpse*
@lelangir:
You’re the only one who can make truly funny blog posts parodying ‘sphere drama… go for it. Ask IcyStorm for copy of that pornfic first, though.
@jpmeyer:
We don’t? Didn’t I just? Maybe I don’t understand your comment. My brain is full of nudes and PHP.
@jpmeyer: I think that’s just a regional preference.
@lelangir: I wrote my paragraph 4 after reading your part 5. I don’t think you answer the question, but merely tiptoed around it.
NOOOO. CHIGAUUUUU!!!!
THE ANIMEBLOGOSPHERE IS ACTUALLY A PRIMORDIAL SWIRL OF EVILLLLLLLL!!!!!1111!!
Uh. I did not say that…
@omo: I have no idea what explicit question you’re referring to
OK, all joking aside:
The only reason that this sophistry is coming up is because anime blogs have gotten so freaking incestuous. I have never anywhere close to this level of incestuousness in any other blogospheres. Nate Silver doesn’t post at Crooks and Liars when he wants to post a video, then switch to the NY Times Freakonomics blog when doing political economy, then post a poorly thought-out tirade at Daily Kos and a random link at Instapundit. Everything is just at 538, but at the same time because 538 is so strongly branded that if someone else took over, it would still survive provided that the statistics were just as solid.
Also, the comment threads at 538 are not simply a four-way argument between I don’t know, Michelle Malkin, Jessica Cutler, Matt Drudge, and Silver himself. The commenters are almost entirely readers rather than other content producers. Then there’s also something like Instapundit where there is no commenting, but readers obviously exist even if they can’t leave their direct traces.
And a lot of this navel-gazing leaves out simple technical facts. How do you grow ad revenue when your content is everywhere? How do you maximize your SEO when your content is who knows where? How do you brand anything when it’s totally non-exclusive? Why would reaching a “different” audience be an issue unless you don’t have a large following? And how would you be even able to necessarily reach that “larger” audience due to issues of access?
Blogosphere = blogs.
@omo, lolikit, jpmeyer, lelangir
I was asleep during most of this and taking an exam for the rest so I’m pretty lost here. Feel free to continue your argument, but I’m out.
@Hynavian
If you make up a word that’s catchy enough, even if most people dislike it, it’ll keep cropping up.
@jpzer0
Fair enough I know I’d never use it for commenting on anything outside of its name.
@Kiri
Ahhh, I remember that, would’ve been an interesting thing to put into post. I agree that no one likes being categorised, kind of like what I said @The Animanachronism.
@Emperor J
That’s true, and by simplifying words some may think we’re simplifying meaning and losing the original source of the word but I think it’s more about convenience than anything else.
Also, British have no influence on time?
Two words: Doctor Who.
@Zeroblade
Something must be done! Quick, get all our finest wordsmiths on the case!
@The Sojourner
You genius and insight never ceases to amaze me. Good show.
@jp: “And a lot of this navel-gazing leaves out simple technical facts. [1] How do you grow ad revenue when your content is everywhere? [2] How do you maximize your SEO when your content is who knows where? [3] How do you brand anything when it’s totally non-exclusive? [4] Why would reaching a “different” audience be an issue unless you don’t have a large following? [5] And how would you be even able to necessarily reach that “larger” audience due to issues of access?”
1. but…..who needs ad revenue with free hosting?
2. who…needs to know what SEO is with free hosting?
3. who…cares about branding when you already have a brand to appropriate?
4. The more the merrier?
5. I think it’s more like the audience reaches me. When I post at THAT, I inextricably appropriate the THAT sphere…what matters is whether or not THAT’s cult pays attention to the author of the post and then whether or not they read what I wrote.
oh yeah I forgot to say this:
A while ago Impz was saying how the aniblogosphere wasn’t developed, and I think one reason is that most of its constituents are anchored in free hosting. This free hosting really reduces the number of original blogs – those subtle features of the blog as you said – and that free hosting implies #1-2 of the previous comment. So forgive my tech ignorance but I don’t see how technical aspects affect a large portion of the sphere when (1) no one knows what they are and (2) no one cares about what they are.
and lol Marx:
“it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.”
Not that that’s what you were addressing anyway…
authorsphere = authors
blogosphere = blogs
contentsphere = content
they’re all paradigms that are tied together.
@lelangir: the role of the audience, reader, what have you.
I think one pivotal problem is that your paradigms are backwards. Blogging is powerful for readers, not writers. We can’t look at it from a content-driven or a blogger-driven perspective and make complete sense from a practical perspective. I mean, sure, you can write and blog however you wish, but it is not going to make your readers too happy.
I think Ani-nouto is a good example.
In other words, I think most reader’s paradigms are simpler and much more cross-sectional than you think. They do often arrange themselves categorically. At least that’s how my RSS reader is arranged. Furthermore many people don’t read every post on a blog! Imagine that.
@jpmeyer and lelangir and free hosting:
I think the problem is serious blogging require pandering to your readers seriously. Most people do not blog like that–they just pander in their silly ways or they don’t care for their readers at all.
Which is why things like SEO and brand recognition are important for pro blogs because they are tools both to gauge reader engagement levels and ways to solicit and grow your readership. Of course, with reader++ your revenue stream also ++; but I think that in of itself is the natural consequences of a good thing.
To me, what lelangir and this blogsphere nonsense, generally disregard that aspect of blogging. It is more about furthering discourse between bloggers. Not a bad thing either, but IMO it ignores the reader’s paradigms.
Meh, I think it’s just important to note that the [aniblogosphere] has developed from [other blogospheres]. That solves that right there.
er *has developed differently
@omo: you’re on to something in your last two comments, though.
I didn’t think the paradigms discriminated….hmm…not sure what to make of that statement.
but I’m saying that we can split these paradigms from a practical perspective and call their interweaving incidental. If that is wrong, then my whole framework is wrong and a new one is needed.
so that’s possessive, I’m reading that right? To construe one way, I wouldn’t say “the reader’s” paradigms are any different than “the writer’s” paradigms because we’re looking at the same things – content, blogs, bloggers, writers.
However, in a miscontruing of your phrase, the it’s not merely a reader paradigm but a reader syntagm which containts reader-variations of all paradigms – content, blogs, bloggers, writers.
omo: “are simpler and much more cross-sectional than you think”
lelangir: “they’re all paradigms that are tied together.”
mmhm. Probably misconstruing again, but I’d say my viewpoint does simplify paradigms because they’re just one, monolithic thing. It’s complex in a layered, syntagmatic way, but the homogenization that accompanies this paradigmatic view is problematic, as you said – “what if they dont read all of THAT?” Yes, then simply drawing a circle and labeling it THAT is a problem because I only appropriate so much of it. “Broadcast perimeter” is then problematic because “to broadcast” doesn’t necessarily imply “to read”.
1. But…now I think the word “blog” isn’t operational. IMO you and jp have too technical a definition of blog because you’re comparing the term to spheres that are much more technically developed. I think the aniblogosphere is a lot less developed, less technical (free hosting), and primarily _____..I don’t know.
2. Yep
3. I don’t get it.
I don’t get the “practical perspective” – I take it to be…statistical analysis?
But…I should write another post to synthesize a lot more stuff.
[…] minstrel lelangir has declared me a test subject and marked me for observation. Since there is some mild hostility to the term blogosphere, I propose that we rename it Pirate Helltown (Mos Eisley or some other hive […]
[…] I should reply to any comments on my blog that aren’t outright HAETFLAME or just become a pointless argument taking up time and energy (though thankfully, I haven’t been involved in any many flame wars). These include the […]
The best proof for the fact that this blogosphere is incestuous in some ways is that I know every single name of the people who commented on this posting. Surprisingly, this is 1 year after I stopped checking Animenano but only stick to my own feed reader.
But, this is only part of the truth. Luckily, there are quite a few anime blogs whose writers who did not comment here, and they also
a. care about their readers
b. have quite a bit of people commenting on their blogs without having blogs themselves.
Random Curiosity is probably the most famous one, but there are many more less known. Are these blogs in the anime blogosphere or not?
[…] 24, 2009 by ghostlightning I have an aversion to the word (ani)blogosphere, feeling like it’s an awkward hat that’s required in an […]
[…] First EXPLOSIVE discussion on the blog. […]
[…] Thoughts on the term Blogosphere and its connotations – This was just great entertainment, never thought it’d end up like this. […]