A blog is a blog is a blog

Dear Mouse,

Sylvia Mayuga wrote :

“This is why I took care to say that ‘Talking Points’ was a ‘column’ and was ‘much like a weblog’ as I was aware that it could not be considered a weblog in the sense used by some bloggers. I would agree with some of the bloggers that ‘Talking Points’ is a ‘letters to the editor’ section and akin to a ‘moderated online forum.’ But I would also argue that it is a valid form of blog, one of a multitude of variants, and the variant that most suits our needs at the moment.”

She admitted that it is more of a moderated forum but she argued that TP is still a blog. In as much as she used Wikipedia as her source, I would like to direct her to the same encyclopedia that defines the difference between a weblog and an internet forum. It states that :

“Internet forums differ from weblogs. The former generally allow most users to post topics (sometimes referred to as "threads"), while blogs only allow one or a few users to create entries. Forums also tend to be more diversified in interest, while blogs tend to be more specific to a certain topic or subset of beliefs.

Where is the logic?

Sylvia Mayuga wrote:

“This is the first sentence of the definition on Wikipedia: ‘A weblog, or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic, reverse chronologically ordered posts on a common webpage.’“I think you would agree that if this definition were used as a basis, ‘Talking Points’ could be considered a blog.

I beg to disagree. If she believes that Talking Points is a blog because it is a type of web application then her reasoning seems way out of logic.

Following her frame of mind,I can draw these hypotheses:

All blogs are web applications

Talking Points is a web application

Therefore Talking Points is a blog.

The conclusion is null and void. Blogs are not the only the types of web application. Webmail, Amazon.com and eBay are well known examples of web applications but they are not blogs.

If she thinks it is a blog because it is a web page , she should check her source of definition of what a blog is--the wikipedia that explains what a webpage is.

"Usually a webpage has a URL and therefore allows deep linking. Sometimes it has only a temporary URL referring to a cache area. Sometimes a page results from a webpage by some action, e.g. replacing the content of one of the frames, while the new page does not have its own URL. Perhaps such a page, as well as a page with a form field filled in, strictly can not be called a webpage, because it is not on the web, but created from what is on the web.

I searched for Talking Points in the web, I could not find it. It is just a page in a webpage.

But what really is a blog?

According to Wikipedia: The shorter version, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz who in April or May of 1999 broke the word weblog into the phrase "wee' blog" in the sidebar of his weblog. This was interpreted as a short form of the noun and also as a verb, to blog, meaning "to edit one's weblog or a post to one's weblog."

I post and edit my weblog. Mine is a blog.

Can Sylvia Mayuga do the same for Talking Points ?

Sylvia Mayuga wrote:

“If you have the right to express yourself, why limit other's rights? Why exclude ‘traditional’ media. Who is being biased here?

Can you ignore your publisher, your editor-in-chief and your several editors to be able to express yourself?

If you can answer this with a YES, I will agree that your Talking Points is a blog.

The Ca t