Archive for » December, 2008 «

Dec

BTW Your BFF Is ROTFL @ Your SERPs

Barbara Swafford

People who text do it all the time. They communicate in a language that may look Greek to the non texter.

Looking at the texting language reminds me of a lesson I learned years ago. It’s about assuming.

The lesson is this. Take the word “assume”, break it up and you have this:

Ass
U
Me

It translates to, “When You Assume, You Make An “Ass” out of “U” and “Me”

Today’s Lesson

I see a lot of assuming going on with regard to acronyms used in blogosphere.

Acronyms and/or initialisms are abbreviations for a group of words. Often the first letter is taken from each word to form a new word or group of letters.

I use them on this blog. I have the NBOTW (New Blog Of The Week) as well as the A.S.K.(Answers Sharing Knowledge) series, and I often shorten Blogging Without A Blog to “BWAB”. I try to remember to “spell them out”, but sometimes I forget.

Bloggers make assumptions and use acronyms and/or initialisms in their posts quite frequently. Some of the examples are:

CSS = Cascading Style Sheets
HTML = Hyper Text Markup Language
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
SERPs = Search Engine Results Pages
FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions
WP = WordPress
XML = EXtensible Markup Language.
IP Address = Internet Protocol
URL = Uniform Resource Locator
http = HyperText Transfer Protocol

Then in comments we’ll see:

@ = at
BFF = Best friends forever
BTW = By the way
OMG = Oh my God
IMHO = In my humble opinion
LOL = Laugh(ing) out loud
ROTLF = Rolling on the floor laughing
LMAO = Laugh(ing) my ass off

We assume our visitors know what we’re saying.

Some won’t.

The first time I saw “BTW” I had to do a search for its meaning.

When I read a blog that is filled with undefined acronyms I feel intimidated. I feel I’m being excluded. I often leave the blog without commenting and rarely go back.

Sometimes when I’ve read comments I’ve felt like an intruder. Between the comment author and the blog author there appears to be a “secret” language.

You’ve probably seen it, or may even use the “language”.

Although I’ve learned the definitions of most of the acronyms and/or initialisms, and sometimes use them, I wonder about others. Do they know the meanings? Are they feeling left out? Do they feel like an intruder in a comment section?

I hope not, But, if it happened to me, I know it can happen to others.

Today’s Assignment

Based on your blog topic(s), do you often used acronyms and/or initialisms and assume your readers know what you’re talking about?

When you see an acronym and/or an initialism and don’t know the definition, how to you feel? Do you look it up?

Since I use acronyms and/or initialisms here on BWAB (Blogging Without A Blog), I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Photo Credit: Enzo’s images

Category: Archives, Blogging Language, Blogging Lessons, Writing Tips 45 Comments

Dec

NBOTW – It’s More Than A Funhouse

Barbara Swafford

Whenever we read a blog and see the author’s sense of humor, we often return to read more. This New Blog Of The Week (NBOTW) keeps you coming back.

A great place to get you started with this blog, is to listen to some of the songs she wrote. My favorite is titled:”Wedgie Wedding”. What’s great about listening to her music is you not only learn more about her personality, but you also get to hear her sweet voice.

Hop over to her “About” page where she shares:

Welcome to my “nicheless niche of a blog.”…..I write songs, yodel from rooftops, do cartwheels in the produce aisles and blog……I think the mind’s the limit and I know I’ll be blogging until I am no longer physically able to do so!

Those are powerful words: “I think the mind’s the limit”. She definitely has the right attitude.

When you read her posts, she freely shares her views and experiences. In her post titled “Ten Honest Things” she reveals,

I once hid the above [see photo in post] ”It’s Haunted” book for a week when Kelly [her daughter] was two. Just couldn’t hack one single second more of it. Sorry.

It’s hard to categorize this blog except to say it’s a joy to read. In each post she shares more of herself and more of her thoughts. She makes us think and inspires us to comment.

Without further ado, I present Jannie of Jannie Funster.com, with a tag line that reads, “now with less eyeball but more brow”. Confused? Dig through her archives and you’ll find the answer.

Please join me in re-welcoming Jannie to the BWAB community.

Enjoy your reign Jannie.

Your tiara’s in the mail.

Photo Credit:Jef Poskanzer

Category: Archives, New Blog Of The Week 18 Comments

Dec

Are You A Blogger or A Gossip

Barbara Swafford

The definition of a gossip is someone who reveals personal, and sometimes intimate information (true or not) about others, often sensationalized to make the story more interesting and exciting.

It’s not uncommon to read gossip or see videos online of politicians or celebrities. Often, the person written about/filmed doesn’t have a chance to defend themselves, say they would rather not have a story shared, or issue a rebuttal.

In some cases they don’t even know the story/video exists.

Some will say, “If you’re in the public eye, you’re fair game.”. “It’s the cost of stardom.”

What about those NOT in the public eye? Are they fair game to be written about/filmed? Gossiped about?

Today’s Lesson

As bloggers we love to share what we know. We often tell stories of our past, our present and our dreams for the future. Our stories are online. We put ourselves in the public eye of blogosphere.

But, how detailed should the information be when others are involved in “our story”? Should we name names? Should we only hint at whom we’re talking about? Or should we completely avoid writing about others?

According to the comments on “Come Out, Come Out, Where Ever You Are”, most bloggers admit they are quite transparent. However, does that mean we need to expose our friends, family or fellow bloggers? Share stories that affected their lives that are told to us in confidence? Include their mishaps in order make our posts sound more interesting, funny and/or believable?

What if someone takes our words and use them against that person? What happens when what we write creates a rift between them and us? What happens when our words cause us, or others to lose jobs or relationships? What happens when what we wrote isn’t the complete truth?

We can apologize and beg for forgiveness, but the story will remain “somewhere” on the world wide web forever, even if we delete it.

We need to ask, “is it worth it”?

Today’s Assignment

Do you think there’s ever a time when it’s proper to “name names” in our blogs?

Should we ask permission before we include stories on our blogs that shares the experiences of others?

Have you ever gossiped about or shared photos of someone else, only to later regret it?

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Photo Credit: speartoons