back to article Blogosphere is the net spawn of Satan: official

It's official: "folksonomy", "blogosphere", "netiquette" and "blook" are among the net-spawned terms which should be cast down into the eternal fires of hell, AFP reports. That's the conclusion of a poll on behalf of the Lulu Blooker Prize which asked 2,091 adults to vote for the most hideous words which have escaped from …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Dax Farrer

    Mobe

    It was a dark day when this was banished from the Registers "approved words for aging hacks" little black book.

    Lets bring it back, you know it makes sense. A more fitting boycott should be applied to "ICT". Think of the kiddies ffs.

  2. Jon Double Nice

    'Blog' I have come to terms with

    Being as it is just some emperors new clothes for what I'm sure people used to call 'online journals'.

    'Blook' on the other hand, I am quite prepared to contribute towards a hitman to take out the goon that coined that one.

  3. Bill Smith

    Changes

    The English language doth change and adapt to the times; thats what makes it so strong - stop bitchin

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The evolution of the language ...

    Well, 'folksonomy' is a new one on me (maybe I need to get out more) but I do find 'blog' and, especially, 'blook' to be particularly loathsome concoctions, and I sincerely hope a circle of hell is being prepared for the whalesong-addled halfwit who coined 'blogosphere'

    I'm pretty sure that 'netiquette' isn't that new a word though - it was certainly in fairly common use in 1989 when I discovered Usenet at uni (I've recovered now) and got used a hell of a lot more once the great unwashed started accessing 'teh Intarwebs'

  5. Ian Ferguson

    Re: Changes

    English does indeed change and adapt, but there's a difference between that and contrived words promoted by a single commentator or small group of influentials.

    Blog I can cope with, as it's a word that has grown, but Blook reeks of copy-cat marketing speak. And Blogosphere is blatantly a journalistic attempt to define a growing medium.

    Mobe isn't in quite the same league - it's a shortening of an existing word, and a fairly poor one at that. It's a bit like Ya instead of You - hardly worth the effort. Myself? I can hardly cope with Mobile or Cell, let alone a further shortening.

  6. Daren Nestor

    Blook

    Not just the person that spawned the word, but the person who spawned to concept and anyone who thought it was a good idea should be catapulted into the sun. I'm accepting tenders now! Similarly blogosphere.

    Never heard of folksonomy either - is it an Alabama family tree?

  7. Michael Sheils

    netiquette

    I've never really had a problem with netiquette (what with being able to type without drooling and all) but the blogosphere should be cleansed from this realm immediately.

    And exactly what the hell IS folksonomy?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Definitely ban ICT

    The kids only learn about "ICT" at school - they haven't a clue what "IT" is. (In much the same way I haven't a clue what "ICT" is.) If this is heretical word is not burnt at the stake, then as we grow old and are replaced by the next generation, we will find "IT" replaced by "ICT", leaving us to grumble into our pints about how “We called it IT in my day.” Somebody start a petition, start burning school books, or do something to stop this heresy today... ;-)

  9. Kev K

    Folksonomy

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy

    Still none the wiser - must be a "youf" thing

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeah, I get up in

    the morning and the first thing I do is drop a blog -- then flush. (Gawd I hate that word) So much for 'blog' and all things associated.

  11. Gilbert Wham

    Not that bad.

    The worst neologisms are thought up by bad sci-fi writers (or, sometimes, good ones in a moment of weakness) to make everyday things sound futuristic. 'Smokehale' for cigarette can cause a killing rage for instance. Or, and this caused me to hurl the book across the room and then stamp on it, 'Mofo' for cellphone (Aldiss, no less). Anyone got any others? And I don't _want_ to know what 'folksonony' is, as I am sure it will upset me.

  12. tim chubb

    crap 2.0 terms for very dull things

    1. Folksonomy - user defined categories

    2. Blogosphere - http comms

    3. Blog - guest book, without any guests entries

    4. Netiquette - manners for the socially retarded

    5. Blook - unpublishable shite

    could carry on, but wont

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Folksonomy

    Thanks Kev K,

    Followed the wikipedia link for folksonomy and I fear that a new term might be in the offing:

    twatsonomy - the name given to the class of half-witted, goggled-eyed marketing bumpkins that come up with terms (and their attendant definitions) such as "folksonomy"

    wtf-ks-onomy! we're all doomed

  14. Mike VandeVelde

    blook?!?!

    folksonomy - taxonomy without an *ologist to put it together. makes ok sense.

    blog - stupidest term I've heard in the last decade. gotta go have a bath now since I just typed it. i still have a website thanks, I'll die before anyone makes me call it a blog. crap, I typed it again. let's let it lie.

    blook - what in the "bleeding hell" is that?!?!

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Damn you, yoof generation, you, you, you ... ignorant fools!

    Lay off the "netiquette" already. That term was in common use when us old farts sweated in front of dirty VT100 terminals while trying to get a telnet connection to the crappy text-based MUD running on a server in Norway.

    "Netiquette" in use even earlier, in 1983. Those were the times. Yeah, the Googlez workz:

    http://groups.google.lu/group/net.misc/browse_thread/thread/e14b43fb9a212dd2/053d04531dcc05bd

  16. Martin H Watson

    Mashup is my hate - why not use amalgam, blend or mix?

    "You can choose which Mapplets you want, and you can create a mashup of mashups by combining Mapplets with each other or with built-in features of Google Maps, like driving directions and business search – and view it all on the same map."

    That garbage was from the latest Google Earth news letter.

    Best wishes,

    Martin

    http://www.martinhwatson.co.uk/puzzle_news.html

    Martin H. Watson

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It can't be coincidence...

    ...that half these words sound like someone throwing up.

    The other half sounds like someone cleaning up after them: wiki, wiki, wiki.

  18. Chris

    Prolly

    No, the worst word to ever come out of the new Internet-powered generation is "prolly". It's popping up all over the place, and simply put, it pisses me off like no other word possibly could. Hell, I'd welcome back "mobe" if you could eliminate "prolly".

    BTW: What the hell is "blook"?!? And what's "ICT"? Am I really becoming THAT old? I'm only 30!

  19. Kevin Rudd

    It is all greek to me

    I thought a 'mobe' was what was inside your computer, and isn't an 'ict' what intel sells to put in your 'mobe'? I'm confused. Maybe it is time we ditched the English language and all spoke French.

  20. Kev

    Crap Words

    ICT - a Cup <T> that's gone cold

    another ford for the list, Webinar. who thought up that abomination?

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Gloyn

    Another web inspired word I've heard bounded around recently. This should be cast away really, the meaning is far too disgusting for a nice wholesome publication like El Reg.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Im Ridein' out. Who's a joinin' Me

    "The term folksonomy is generally attributed to Thomas Vander Wal"

    We have our Man. Now I just need a few good men, guns and Horses.

    We'll Hunt him down like the varmin he is!

    http://www.vanderwal.net/about.php

  23. Claus P. Nielsen

    Mobe or Mobo

    I think 2 of the above comments show why "mobe" is out of the dictionary and should stay there.

    It took me a while of reading theregister to realise that a "mobe" meant "motherboard" and not "mobile phone".

    If you really want to bring back a motherboard abbreviation, you could try "mobo"

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Poppy Nogood

    My vote goes for "machinima", which is an awful word spread via Wikipedia; a site which lends itself to the perpetuation of this kind of crap. In theory a machinima is a creative work rendered with a computer game engine, although in practice it has become synonymous with "computer animation", which in turn is synonymous with "animation", and thus machinima is redundant nonsense.

    "Eggcorn" is another piece of disposable garbage spread by the bearded variety of computer man, although it is not really an IT word.

    The one thing in common with all the words listed above - including "netiquette" - is that they are not used organically. They are used in a self-conscious way, with imaginary waggle-finger "air quotes". They are show-offy words, exclusive words designed to make people feel inferior. Computer professionals love exclusivity; it is a core element of their culture, along with contempt for non-computer people.

    Bring back "cyberspace".

  25. Gavin McMenemy

    Gloyn?

    Wasn't he a character in The Hobbit?

  26. Entropy

    Re: Gloyn?

    >Wasn't he a character in The Hobbit?

    Yep. And his son Gimli is one of the main characters in Lord of the Rings :)

    so whats up with:

    >Another web inspired word I've heard bounded around recently. This should be cast away really, the meaning is far too disgusting for a nice wholesome publication like El Reg.

  27. Oliverh

    ICT

    Since when did the C of ICT become necessary? What is communication if not the conveyance of information, more often than not, using some form of technology? Otherwise we need to include all the various uses of IT to cover entertainment, education,business, pr0n, ad infinitum. Anyone for ICEEBPT?

  28. Dillon Pyron

    Folksonomy

    ""The term folksonomy is generally attributed to Thomas Vander Wal"

    We have our Man. Now I just need a few good men, guns and Horses.

    We'll Hunt him down like the varmin he is!

    http://www.vanderwal.net/about.php"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging,_drawing_and_quartering

  29. Steve Roper

    IT is not ICT

    I am the IT Manager for a publishing company. That is my official title. I look after our websites, servers and in-house computer systems. I DON'T look after the phones, snail-mail, faxes or other non-Internet/non-PC forms of information transfer - we have other people who handle that stuff. As far as I'm concerned, that stuff is all in the SEP category.

    A few years ago I did a website for a local school, and they also bandied the term 'ICT' around. I noticed that their 'ICT Administrator' handled the phones, mailing systems, staff pigeonholes, in fact anything to do with communication systems AS WELL as the computer network. She was also one of the most overworked admins I ever met. So it seems to me that 'ICT' is a way for top management to bury their tech team in unrelated 'communications' crap just to save on staff. Burnout? What burnout?

    So I am not going there. My department deals with the company computers, JUST the computers. That's more than plenty for us to handle. No 'ICT' admin overload burnout for me, thanks! I'll just keep on running our IT department.

This topic is closed for new posts.