New terminology


I came up with a blog-ified version of the writer's term "spilling ink" - "filling divs"

Peregrine Ward of Mere Orthodoxy (you have checked them out in their new location, right?) asked for a term that could replace the writer's "spilling ink". When people ask him what he's doing when he's trying to write, he tells them he's spilling ink. So he asked for a comparable witty retort when he is blogging.

I came up with the idea of "filling divs" and left it in the comments. Some explanation might be necessary for those less familiar with HTML and the underworkings of blogging infrastructure (indeed, part of the innovation of blogging is that now people who aren't familiar with HTML can easily put up a website, so it greatly expands the collection of great minds on the internet - not everyone can be geeky like me, but plenty have better things to say). The div tag in HTML usually is used to wrap pieces of content, and can be assigned a given style. The settings for the style can be easily changed, via a style sheet, meaning that the presentation of the words and structure of the page can be altered or "skinned" differently without having to recode the page itself. Due to this feature, nearly all content on blogs is put inside of a div tag and, therefore, when one is blogging you are filling in the contents of div tags - thus "filling divs".

It maintains the cadence of his original term, accurately describes the process, and even has the snarky/insider-esque bonus of being over the heads of non-geeks. I haven't yet seen if he liked my suggestion, but I think I may start using it.

Posted: Fri - February 10, 2006 at 09:27 AM | | | | | | |

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