When Is A Blog No Longer A Blog?
written by John Chow
In my Why I Allow Comments On My Blog post, I said that a blog that doesn’t allow comments is no longer a blog. Markus Frind of Plenty of Fish fame is asking if some of those blogs listed by Business Week should even be call blogs. In his recent blog post, Markus contends:
The article talks about “bloggers” making millions online. Funny part is few of these people actually qualify as “bloggers”. Shoemoney somehow made the list, even though only 3% of his income comes from his blog. Others mentioned like Techcrunch, boingboing, talkingpointsmemo, perezhilton etc aren’t blogs, they are media properties with lots of employees.
What Markus seems to be getting at is you’re only a blog if you’re a one-man operation and do everything yourself. In other words, you stay small. If your blog become super popular to the point where you need to hire a CEO to help run it (as TechCrunch did), you are no longer a blog. Instead, you are a media company.
While I agree that the TechCrunch network is a media company, I believe that TechCrunch itself is still a blog. TTZ Media Inc. owns John Chow dot Com. TTZ Media is a media company but John Chow dot Com is still a blog. How many people a blog employs shouldn’t be a factor on whether it’s a blog or not.
Flipping this around, I can ask Markus the question, is a dating site with one employee really a dating site? 
What do you think? When is a blog no longer a blog?
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(16 votes, average: 2.94 out of 5)
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a blog is no longer a blog when it becomes stale and never updates . . . . that’s basically it
Yup I support what you say…..
Or when it makes so much money people are actually jealous of the blogger instead of being happy that they dont spend all their time online
i kinda understand where marcus is from
i also agree with john
so i suppose it’s a perception thing
I have a lot of ideas about my blog. Contents, design, display etc… Original.
Tell me if it is still a blog:
BlogaDollar.com
Comments are enabled, but…
Greetings from France John.
That’s right,
As long as there’s content posted that anybody else wants to read, that’s a blog to me.
If a blog after time isn’t updated, that’s a regular site
And I can add that when you take comments off it’s no longer a blogger. A blogger interacts with his readers. That’s the way it should be.
I don’t agree.
“A blog is a “web log” and is a journal of thoughts and ideas that are (usually but not always) ordered chronologically.”
All these additions of interaction, comments and community are self-imposed and based on how you feel your site would change if they were taken away. If comments were removed, you may feel that it wouldn’t be the same blog (and it wouldn’t be) but based purely on definition it is still a blog.
When is a blog not a blog? When it is no longer a journal of thoughts and ideas. As simple as that.
It doesn’t matter how many people are running it and it doesn’t matter who owns it, if it is a journal of thoughts and ideas - it’s a blog.
Markus’ comment is laughable. There are many bloggers out there where there blog is only 0.000001% of their income - does that mean they’re not bloggers? Of course they still are. If a company owns a car does it no longer become a car but a “commercial property” because it is owned by a company? I can’t imagine anyone saying “let’s go for a drive in the commercial property!”. It’s still a car.
You can find more of my opinions on this topic at The One Phrase That Will Kill Your Blog
Yeah, I like this comment. After all, why don’t we categorised the blog like we did for company…
Man, you said what I’ve been thinking every time I read “a blog isn’t a blog without comments” (and that goes for the post that you linked in your above comment too). Commenting on blogs is relatively new, outside of sites like Livejournal anyway. Several years ago (roughly 2001) when I started with a simple blogger account there was no commenting unless you added a third party service (and what a pain that was!) It was only a couple of years ago that blogger added native comment support support at all, and I think it was also not until they were acquired by Google.
Indeed, as you have said, all that is required is that it be a site with frequently updated content presented in a reverse chronological order, usually (but not always) in a diary/journal like style. Everything else is just an extra feature.
whoa . . sensitive subject for Kumiko
This comment is so true, although I would agree that a blog that has a few employees is really a news site.
The term blog is actually short for a term used in the 90’s called, web log. A web log can be anything you want. It can be an online journal, such as being in the format of an Internet diary. A web log can document progress on a particular goal. All in all, a web log or blog can be anything you want it to be. Accepting comments, displaying sidebars with the most recent posts, archives, etc… happens to be the current trend of how blogs are formatted today. But all in all, it doesn’t matter.
What is Wordpress? I use Wordpress for blogging as well as for creating professionally designed web sites? What’s the true difference? I don’t see one. A blog is now the modern coined word for web site or web page. If John Chow didn’t apply a label and call this place a “blog”, I could easily debate this place as being a web site.
What is the difference between a blog and a web site? None. It is all about perception or what you want your readers to believe.
Is a modern day blog, such as this site anything like what a web log was like in the early to mid 90’s? Not really…
Frequently or infrequently updated, frequently or infrequently visited, makes no determination in a site’s classification or label. Traffic isn’t a considering factor in the label. The only true label is that of what the readers as well as the site owner applies to it.
Yeah, I agree!
This is to all websites “normal” and blogs… with this difference that blog is dead when not updated.
John Chow How can i put the TTZ Media in my blog?Any Requirement?Like Blog Traffic Per Month and others
oh, i see,
i think anyone can join ttz media. just like joining google adsense.
am i wrong?
I think better wait 4 johnchow reply…….
excellent review john….very well presented
cheers man
shoemoney.com is definitely a blog
i don’t think blog should be defined by how much money the blogger earns
I agree shoemoney is definatly a blog…it’s a one man operation and just because he makes more money from his other sites doesn’t stop the fact that shoemoney is a very succesful blog.
Yeah, I agree, you’d be hard pressed to NOT call Shoemoney a blog. However, if he actually only makes 3% of his income from it, then I don’t think it should have been included in the Business Weekly article.
Exactly, unless his income from the blogging section alone would put him in the list.
definatly
I believe a blog can still be a blog if it hasn’t got comments. However, it can only be so if it’s a time dependant set of events (such as a personal or news blog), if it’s time independant (like a selection of tutorials), then it isn’t a blog.
kinda make sense
Then it’s just a website like any other…
Yup just like my friend ,she always update his blog but hasn’t got any comments…….
John Chow is jealous, John Chow is jealous, John Chow is jealous, John Chow is jealous, John Chow is jealous, John Chow is jealous, John Chow is jealous, John Chow is jealous.
what’s your point?
I think his point is John Chow is jealous!
No he point is “Himself jealous Johnchow” \
Marcus’ opinion is exactly like music fans who stop finding a band cool/good once they become successful because they supposedly “sold out”.
I don’t think so. I think he was merely pointing out that a large company having success vs. one-man or small operations having it are two different stories.
The whole ‘hook’ for the Business Week article is that it’s so amazing people can make so much from these obscure things called ‘blogs’.
But the reality is that some of the ‘blogs’ or people they featured, weren’t exactly ‘just’ blogs, nor did all make their money from blogging only.
Shoemoney.com IS a blog, but Shoemoney himself makes most of his money elsewhere.
Though I do think TechCrunch is still a blog, though maybe a corporately infected one…
Typical example of the media telling whatever they need to sell.
A blog is a web platform for communication, not a type of individual. Sounds to me like Markus doesn’t know what he is talking about or is the jealous one. So if you start a blog making $0 and eventually make tons of cash with it and hire writers etc, then that same blog is no longer a blog, and you aren’t a blogger? Doesn’t make sense. A blogger is someone who writes on a blog.
I think the fundamental thing that makes a blog a blog is that posts are regular and the format is informal. Blogging in and of itself is akin to writing in a journal.
I agree here. It’s the informal posts that make a blog great. If it’s a series of items that are designed as an education tool rather than a daily update then it’s not a blog.
i agree with Markus and i don’t know what a blog have to do with a dating site
Markus owns one of the most successful dating sites online.
The convergence of content management systems and blogging has begun… I think we’ll be having this discussion a lot more until it disappears altogether.
It is too difficult and nearly impossible to classify anymore. I think you just have to look at it on a case by case basis.
A blog is no longer a blog when it loses that community feel. Technically it might still function as a blog, but when it become nothing more than a fancy information portal for a larger site it is not a blog.
That being said a “blog” can be run by one person and not be a blog, or it can be run by 100 and be a blog. It’s all about the presentation more than about the budget spent on presenting things.
A blog is a web site which has posts in chronological order and usually allows readers to interact with it by writing comments. There can be one user posting and maintaining posts or multiple users from a large corporation.
It has nothing to do with the number of posts or their frequency, the number of users, or even its theme or lack of one.
A blog is any web log software. That’s all.
So in that case a bulletin board such as phpBB or Vbulletin would be blogs? They all allow posting in chronological order, reader interaction by way of comments, and multiple users can use/maintain them. If that’s all that makes a blog, the technicality of the function then I submit to you that each and every forum online is actually a blog even if not run by the administrators as such.
No, what makes a blog a blog isn’t the software. If it were as simple as that no one would have reinvented the wheel from the aforementioned model or even from the old BBS that we used to know and love.
I would argue that a blog has a single person (or a select few individuals) that write posts. Readers can then comment on those posts, but readers cannot write new posts and start new threads.
A website where a single person (or small group, as above) posts messages, in a chronological order, but does not allow comments by readers is an online journal.
A website where a single person (or small group, as above) posts messages, in a chronological order, and allows readers to comment on them is a blog.
A website where users can post their own messages or comment on others’ messages is a web forum.
True except in a forum the moderator can turn off the ability of anyone but the moderation team to start new topics. At that point is it a blog, technically?
A blog is a variant of a forum. Would you say that a database is a spreadsheet because a spreadsheet is derived from a database? Is a car still a car if its hardly ever used or not used properly?
The software is what determines what an application is. The use of the application leads to a further description of what its used for. What we’re perhaps trying to define is what application blogging software is being used for. Is it used as a starting point for discussions with community participation, or is it used as a soapbox with no audience participation.
Let’s not start redefining words in the English language just to win an argument. The definition of a blog is simple. What its used for is another story.
“Let’s not start redefining words in the English language just to win an argument. The definition of a blog is simple. What its used for is another story.”
That was kind of my point when I responded to you originally where you said (paraphrased here) “What makes a blog is the software. Period.” I’m getting at the fact that the software might give it the technical functions of a blog, but it’s more than the software which makes it a blog. I also pointed out that other pieces of software though not deemed “blog” have the same basic functionality.
I’m still of the belief that the community makes a blog a blog and not the software. It might be “blogging software” in design and function, but it goes beyond that to be a blog. Lot’s of dead blogs out there that use blogging software and I doubt anyone would call them blogs except for that software they use.
Anyhow I think we’re arguing technical vs practical aspects which serves no purpose for anyone, including ourselves.
I partly agree with you, a typical blog is a site that contains a web log, which can be created with several types of software.
But it appears that the term “blog” is being refined by how it is used today in our Web 2.0 world.
It also seems that it is partly up to the reader and author of the log/blog/site to define what it exactly is.
The company that I recently worked for was the same way. They wanted blogs, but no comments. Being that they are a newspaper/media company that means they just have a bunch of columns and editorials.
Their view was that they would moderate the comments and once a week or so allow the ‘best’ ones, much like letters to the editor.
They were also afraid of liabilities by people’s comments, but it turns out there is a federal law (in the U.S.) that prevents those who publish such content from being liable.
It takes a while for old school media to get it I suppose.
Correct but like me for my community I still consider myself a blogger since my writers are unpaid and do it whenever they have time to offer their expertise on subjects.. sort of like guest blogging. and i make a fairly decent income on it. Not enough to live on it only where I live now but when I move heck yeah.
how do you add the text that shows up in the feed reader:
“Attention: Unless you are reading this from a RSS reader, you are reading a scraped feed. This site has violated copyright laws by stealing the content of John Chow dot Com. Please let us know where you read this so we can take legal action against the scraper.”
thank you.