Culture for the Masstards

In an on-going attempt to get everyone on the same baseline, I bring you another in the series:

This time, a double-header: Blogs vs Forums and Idiot vs Stupid. We'll look at them in reverse order. (A warning: kinda long)


Idiot vs Stupid

An idiot is someone who is ignorant or unskilled in knowledge. Stupid is the active inability to understand, comprehend, or apply knowledge/understanding/comprehension.

Everyone is an idiot, someway, somehow, somewhere, somewhen. It's impossible to not be an idiot, and to communicate. Idiot is derogatory in our society; and it should be used with an understanding of that, lest the user be stupid or an Idiot.

Stupid is more equivalent to "Retarded" that idea of non-politically correct inability via deficiency- though, technically "stupid" makes no effort to determine why the person is stupid; but merely that the person is such.

See the difference? Good. If not, well...


Blogs vs Forums
Both are full of people spouting their particular brand of bullshit. Both often feature controversial topics. Both tend to be more full of opinions than facts. Both require login (some do allow anonymous posting) and tag comments/posts with a name/userID/what-have-you. Yet, there are differences.

A Forum is a group effort. There are group-blogs, but it is not, necessarily the same thing. In many ways, the difference is akin to the difference between "religion" and "cult". Those links don't do it justice, so I'll provide an example: Some people say that Mormonism is a cult, some say it's a religion. The fact is it's whatever the speaker wants it to be- it fits both definitions. There is a side of this argument that speaks to the idea "common usage", that if the majority of people say Mormonism (to continue the example) is a cult then it is a cult, if they say religion it is such.

The problems with that are "Who counts?" Literally, who counts up the people and takes their official opinion on the matter. Also, who should be counted, should Mormons get to effect the common usage of their beliefs as religion or cult? (How many cults are happy being called cults, and don't maintain that they are actually religions?)

This same sort of thing can apply to Forums vs Blogs- especially when we only look at the mechanism each use for displaying/disseminating their content. The software is VERY similar- if not outright the same (look to those websites that are essentially a piece of forum software that contains ways of handling front pages, blogs, news, forums, among other things). Yet, there do exist some differences.

Blogs are always a hierarchical setting. Forums can be, and may appear to be even when they aren't; but blogs are always hierarchical. Blogs say: there are posters and there are commenters, one creates topics and performs maintenance and administration, one can only comment on posted topics. Forums say: There are administrators and there are non-administrators, one is capable of actually performing maintenance and administrative functions, both can post new topics and post comments about created topics. Though there is a lingo (i.e. "OP" = "original poster") and some mutual conceptions (i.e."First Post/Reply!", "First Page!") to Forums, there is no significant* functional distinction between the post creator and the people who post replies. On (most) forums, everyone is equal; on Blogs the bloggers may be equal, but the commenters are not equal to the bloggers.

Look at it this way:
Genius and Genius#2 are on a forum, arguing. Neither is an administrator. Genius cannot edit/delete posts made by Genius#2, and vice versa. The administrators can, of course; but on good (read: professional) forums the reasons such a thing might happen are posted, reviewable, and often subject to appeal.

Genius and Genius#2 are on a blog, arguing. Genius is the blogger, Genius#2 is a commenter. Genius#2 cannot go open a new topic to discuss Genius or some aspect of the argument. Additionally, Genius can disemvowel or delete Genius#2's comments/posts. If it's Genius's Blog, the rules don't have to be posted, and Genius is the final arbitrator of what is okay, and what isn't.

So, here's the difference:
Forums are a group effort to talk and discuss things amongst the group. A Blog is a way of disseminating information (often opinion), and though discussions can happen, that is secondary to the fundamental nature of simply "putting it out there".

Either can fulfill the role of the other, of course. If a website could be either, try looking to see how the website refers to itself. Remember, this is a guideline, nothing is ever 100% cut and dried, especially on the internet.


* There can be a distinction, like the ability to add a "formal" poll to the topic; but that's not exactly significant.
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To end, allow me to address the elephant in the room.

Yes, this is in lieu of explanations. Yes, this is my way of warning people (see link above) who may not already know: This is MY Blog, MY Opinion, MY Rules- and not a democracy/fair/etc.