The term blog is a contraction from the original term Weblog. It developed from an originally discrete, online diary format, and uses a range of evolving connective tools to build and multiply an audience. Wikipedia lock it down as: “someone who maintains a weblog”. On Slugger, however, it is sometimes interchanged with the term commenter: ie, those “who leave remarks in the ‘comments’ section”. This is a purely local derivation, possibly because the commentariat play a larger role here than on many other blogs . But in the wider world it is a misleading and inaccurate elision (See: The tail that wags the blog).
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty