OTB’s Rename the “Blogosphere” Contest

This post was initially meant to be a serious screed titled, “‘Blogosphere’ is a Dumb Name,” but in the open-source spirit of blogging I’m turning it into an OTB contest.

So I ask you: Am I the only one who thinks the name “blogosphere” sounds totally lame?

If not, I’m taking suggestions as to what to rename the blogging community. Post your entry in the comment section and the winner will be crowned late next week.

[apologies to Bill Quick, but I really hate this term]

FILED UNDER: Blogosphere, ,
Leopold Stotch
About Leopold Stotch
“Dr. Leopold Stotch” was the pseudonym of political science professor then at a major research university inside the beltway. He has a PhD in International Relations. He contributed 165 pieces to OTB between November 2004 and February 2006.

Comments

  1. And no, the “RodneyDillosphere” is not an acceptable replacement.

  2. Zed says:

    no one is speaking, I’ll take a few cracks at it,

    civitas diurnalis, everyone seems to love latin

    or

    pajama writers

    or

    watch out cnn peep’s

    or

    officious linkers

    or

    those who steal the traffic from the millions who are humble

    or

    those whom tolerate malkin

    or

    those whom renamed puppy blender Lincolns cabin boy

    or

    an MSM soloist, with friends

  3. Zed says:

    or

    Deutero-Media

  4. I agree. “Blogosphere” is not something I can say with a straight face to the uninitiated.

    But these aren’t much better:

    BlogWorld
    Blogiverse
    Blog Realm
    USM (up-stream-meadia)
    Bloggeratti
    Distributed Media
    Narrowcast Media
    Pull Media (as opposed to “push”, like TV and radio)
    Decentralized Journalism
    Peer-to-Peer Media.

    The problem is that “blogosphere” is just so damn descriptive. It is about “blogs”, not the broader category of “alternative media”. And the blogoshpere is a rather self-contained phenomenon, like an “ecoshpere” or “hemishpere”.

    Any new phrase will necessarily sacrifice some level of accuracy and descriptiveness. In return, hopefully, we’ll get something that sounds catchier or makes for a cool acronym…

    Like “BM”. Blog Media.

    Then we can have an apples-to-apples alternative to MSM.

    Plus, it will be pretty funny when someone has “the BM on his ass.” Meaning the Blog Media are following a story about someone.

    (The joke, of course, is that BM also stands for Bowel Movement. And if you were heading up CNN, you’d think the new BM stinks, too… At least as far as your interests are concerned.)

  5. Ron Hardin says:

    blognoscentia

  6. bryan says:

    I have never really had that much of a problem with blogosphere. It’s much better than the previously preferred term: Blogistan. (cf. http://www.arguewithsigns.net/archives/2004/07/11/war_with_blogistan/)

  7. Miss Virginia says:

    How about CSM? Cyber Stream Media is neither left nor right nor a conspiracy but is vast.

    Of course, such will never catch on, because when LSM (formerly MSM)references bloggers the operative mode is pejorative. Probably they would prefer BSM, for Bovine Scat Maunderings.

  8. The problem is we’ve all gotten so damn used to “blogosphere”. Even non-bloggers know what we are. If it was going to change, it would have a long time ago. 🙂

    That said, this is a good opportunity for some political correctness.

    Personal Beliefs of TCP/IP

  9. Considering 2/3rds of Americans don’t even know what a blog is I think it’s getting a little ahead of ourselves to go and rename it already. I agree blogosphere sounds stupid and it kind of reminds me of that biosphere project in Arizona that was like Big Brother for the environment…if I had to pick a second choice it would be something as equally inane like the already suggested blogiverse or blogmunity or blogmos or blogcosm (blog + cosmos)or bloggerhood. Blech.

  10. Dave Schuler says:

    I like the term blogosphere. The analogy is to noosphere, the realm of consciousness of thought.

  11. Rachel Edith says:

    RodneyDillArena

  12. Hodink says:

    OnlineIntegratedCircuit
    The OIC

  13. McGehee says:

    I’ll admit I was inclined toward blogoverse for a while, but blogosphere got to be pervasive, so I went along.

    Maybe the best term for all bloggers collectively would simply be “the Blog Collective.”

    Though Prof. Reynolds might not like being referred to as the Blog Queen…

  14. Brad says:

    Bloggsylvania

  15. Peter says:

    The problem with the word is that it sounds made up — it’s pretentious. Sometimes words get made up and they work, like astronaut. I agree that this one doesn’t work, but I’m at a loss for a substitute. Hell, I mean, whats wrong with “The Blogs”?

  16. Alex D. says:

    I concur. “Blogosphere” implies that it’s a separate, contained phenomenon, which is not true by any means.

    I like to call it “New Media,” myself.

  17. CGHill says:

    I’m sticking with “blogdom,” simply because it’s less lame than, say, “blogeoisie.”

  18. John says:

    “New Media” works fine, until there’s a newer one. But that might take at least a few months, so I say go for it.

    OIC is already taken by Organization of Islamic Conference, something I gather most bloggers’d just as soon not be confused with.

    “Pixelators” works on several levels, most of them snarky.

    “Universal Conversation Engine” is accurately descriptive, but UCE, with or without suffixes, might not work. Although, were it pronounced “You-See”, it just might.

  19. Beldar says:

    The virtue of “blogosphere” is that it describes a metaphorical space onto which one can map various blogs, albeit only very roughly. Most generally, there’s the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere, but within each there is also room for diverse positions. And I like the imagery of the bloggers at the extremes sort of “falling off the world.”

    If there were a better word, I’m relatively sure that it would have surfaced and gained currency by now.

  20. Dan says:

    I’m going to TB the post and actually give it some thought. But off the top of my head, while being a butt head, as there are X million number of blogs – I say consider the Bullshitiverse. Or maybe the BS-iverse for the BS-adverse – so existential, don’t ya think??

  21. RJN says:

    We can call it Blogscape

  22. Mark J says:

    The Most Holy Kingdom of Citizen Journalists… heh.

  23. Joe Brooks says:

    I’ve always used, “internets

  24. How about WaPo/Howard Kurtz’ asinine characterization:

    “The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob”
    OK, that’s too long.

    “TSMWMUTLM”?
    “Salivating Morons”?
    “Lynch Mob”?

  25. Given Bill Gates’ track record, it will one day be known as The MSN Weblog Zone.

  26. The Federalist Papers

  27. Jay says:

    Carnival of the Blogs
    Carnivalsphere
    Memesphere
    Blogweb
    Big Tent
    Altersphere
    FirstAmendsphere

    I dunno. I kind of like blogosphere.

  28. Rodney Dill says:

    Hey, I’m supposed to come up with all the sucky ones that play off my name, like
    Rodney’s Blogorific Adventure

    Seriously, its hard to envision something without Blog in the name being widely accepted.

    I saw Blogdom above, with is short and fairly descriptive.

    Blognet
    Blogworks
    Blogline

  29. Rodney Dill says:

    Vox Pop Engine (VPE)

    Synonym’s for Vox Pop include:
    climate of opinion, community sentiment, consensus gentium, conventional wisdom, general belief, group pressure, popular belief, prevailing belief, prevailing sentiment, public belief, social pressure, special-interest pressure, vox populi

  30. Rodney Dill says:

    Cupitor Sanus
    Cupitor Veritas

  31. I think that James has used blog net in a few posts …

  32. “Blog” is a dumb, ugly word. It sounds like a drink barbarians consume after coming home from pillaging. If we dump “blogosphere” “blog” should follow.

  33. Worldwide Pyjamarama
    The Peanut Gallery
    The Alternative Media
    Amateur Media Network
    The Collective Wisdom (instead of Conventional Wisdom)
    The Blog Collective (Resistance is Futile!)

  34. McTrip says:

    WebLogia

    WebMedia

    TerraWeb

    Planet Blog

    TWICS [The Worldwide Interent Connective System]

    The Orbital

    Fresh Air

  35. McCain says:

    All the Whos Down in Whoville.

  36. Rodney Dill says:

    FIRE
    Framework of Independent Research Engines

  37. McGehee says:

    Pajamaland, home of the Pajamahadeen.

  38. McGehee says:

    Oops, wait — make that Pajamastan!

  39. Jeff Harrell says:

    Virginia asked, “How about CSM?” The overloading of acronyms is problematic. I don’t think we’d want to pick a name for ourselves that also means “cerebro-spinal meningitis.”

  40. Ryan Scott says:

    I like New Media but we may not want to be too closely associated with Media.
    Cyber Stream Media is more descriptive of what is going on.
    Blogverse.
    Or to follow up on Bloggsylvania:
    Blogorado
    Blogofornia
    Bloghio
    Blogisota
    Blogosee
    Blogerica
    Blogorida
    Bloginois
    Blogexas

  41. Rusty says:

    “Bitchosphere”

  42. Rodney Dill says:

    Bob

  43. rick_2g says:

    I usually just shorten it to the ‘sphere. I like blogdom… blogscape is good too, and i’ll probably use both liberally when I get tired of writing one or the other…
    it’s not like there’s ever going to be a single name, or an authority who could actually get everyone to start using it. It’s a meme… the least controllable entity known to man. Call it whatever you want… the best name will win.

  44. jklucas says:

    blogolutionaries
    voxblog

  45. Sean Hackbarth got it right – whatever the word is, it shouldn’t contain the word “blog” itself. It sounds too close to bog, log, grog, frog, etc.

    I like the “pajamastan” suggestion. Has anyone suggested “digital front porch”?

  46. Cicero says:

    You know, blogosphere would sound much better as a word if one eliminated the second “o” and replaced it with a much prettier “-”
    Think of all the lovely vowels.

    Blog-Sphere
    Shake-speare
    Not-here.
    Got beer?

  47. EdWonk says:

    I am not so sure that we can implement a name change ourselves. The root of Blogosphere is (of course) “blog.” Phonetically, Blogosphere seems to roll of the tongue.

    To change the name of the ‘Sphere, I think that the first thing that needs to be done is to formulate (and publicize) an alternative to “Blog.”

    Objectively, I think that as long as the word “blog” is part of the equation, we are (I know it’s lamentable) stuck with “Blogosphere.”