Rant alert!
I don't know if this happens anywhere else, but at the iSchool there are a lot of people who call webserver logs weblogs,
and it bugs the crap out of me. I've explained it to people several times, but they just don't seem to get it.
I guess people make this mistake because they don't really know what either of these things is, so they take the word that they've heard a lot recently (weblogs
) and apply it to the thing they're talking about (server logs). It sounds sort of the same, right? Only they're not at all the same thing, and they shouldn't have to use the same word.
Please, someone, tell me I'm the only one who's ever heard this and that this is not going to become a widespread trend!
nichole says:
You know, I just heard someone use these terms interchangeably ... I can't quite remember where, but I have a sinking feeling it was at a recent LITA regional workshop on XML (if Dorothea's reading maybe she can confirm or deny that).
Jeff says:
Sorry to come out against you, but I've been calling server logs for a long time. In fact, I've heard them called that since at least 1997, which puts the usage which annoys you as much older (in terms of the internet and the world wide web). The usage probably dates from at least 1995.
On the other hand, the use of weblog to mean blog has only cropped up recently. Back in the day, when I was first starting, we called them , or when we refered to them quickly, .
For historical reference, this was while websites which used databases in blog-like applications were first being developed. Slash hadn't even been released. PHP and Mod_Perl had just come onto the scene (before about this time CGI had been king).
So, weblog as in is the new usage. Words have multiple meanings, often in similar contexts. Blog has taken over as the shortened version for weblog, so it is pretty safe to continue to use weblog for server log.
Jeff