The social media jargon buster |
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| Technology | |
| Written by Yomego.com | |
| Monday, 06 July 2009 | |
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This new ‘Jargon Buster’ aims to help demystify the geek speak rapidly permeating the social media world. Web 2.0 may have gained respectability when accepted into the Oxford Dictionary as the English language’s millionth word, but according to Yomego, the agency behind the guide, the sector is still in danger of being over-complicated by baffling terminology and unnecessary acronyms. Terms featured in the ‘Jargon Buster’ takes people on an alphabetical journey from ‘astroturfing’ and ‘aggregation’ through to ‘wilfing’ and ‘XML’, explaining – with tongue firmly in cheek - the meanings of almost 200 words being used in social media circles.Steve Richards, MD at Yomego, said: “It is astonishing just how many new words are emerging from the social media space, and a new word or buzz phrase seems to be invade the English language every day. This is our attempt to provide a useful, concise guide, and expose some of the pretentiousness.” Top ten sample entries:1. Astroturfing: Not to be confused with a practice performed by open-minded adults in golf driving ranges, ‘astroturfing’ is trying to cheat the online community by creating a fake grassroots ‘buzz’ around a product, service or event. Some companies will get their people to pretend to be advocates or pay a blogger to say nice things but they should beware, most communities will see straight through you and the backlash can be destructive. 2. Bliki (aka wikilog, wikiweblog or bloki): Stick a wiki and a blog in a blender. Hit ‘start’ and voila! A ‘bliki’ is a blog that can be edited wiki-style by its readers or an approved group of collaborators. Interesting tool, silly name. 3. Blog storm or ‘swarm’. This is when a huge number of blog entries suddenly appear around a particular event or topic. John Sargeant’s woefully endearing performance on Strictly Come Dancing caused a ‘blog storm’ that dwarfed the activity around 9/11. Blog storms now regularly force stories into mainstream media. 4. Chicklet: Small, often orange buttons which are links to web feeds such as RSS and Atom. Now we’ve mentioned it, you’ll notice them everywhere. It’s like buying a different make of car. Never noticed them before, now they’re everywhere. 5. Dooced: (v.) To slag off your employer and lose your job as a result. Named after Heather Armstrong (blog name Dooce) who was fired in 2002 for shouting her mouth off. 6. Easter Eggs: (1) All packaging and no chocolate, (2) Secret messages or graphics hidden in a computer program for a bit of a joke. 7. Fisking: A particularly acidic or punchy comment / post. Named after journalist Robert Fisk. Apparently, Fisk ‘fisked’ film director Uwe Boll and the latter took him outside for a fist fight. (Boll won. Allegedly) 8. Flicktion: A collection of pictures on Flickr accompanied by short stories eg The Doorbells or Florence, nominated for a Blooker Prize (see full Jargon Buster). 9. Hat Tip: A public acknowledgement to someone (or a website) for bringing something to the blogger’s attention. Also known as H/T (but without the quartered oranges). 10. Kitty Blog. A pointless blog.
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