ABDPBT Glossary
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1. ABDPBT
ABDPBT stands for All But Dissertation Pretzel Brain Twist. You can read the backstory here.
2. adorable in person
One day, Dooce decided to show up in my comment section. After we all regained consciousness from the shock, we had an interesting discussion about a variety of topics, including hypothetical things that might happen if Heather Armstrong were ever to move to Los Angeles. One of the things that might happen, Heather Armstrong claimed, was that she might invite me over for sweet tea. After meeting me in February of 2010 at the Mom 2.0 conference in Houston, Heather Armstrong said she found me to be "adorable in person."
3. Amalah
Amy Storch, a blogger who writes the popular blog www.amalah.com. Also a co-founder and co-owner of MamaPop.com and a contributor at several other blogs (e.g. Alphamom.com, Washingtonian).
4. attention seeking
This is a common pejorative used in the mommyblogosphere to describe . . . uh, to describe mostly my posts, now that I think about it. Occasionally, you will hear the term applied to the posts of other people as well, when they are thought to be trying to say outrageous things only to get attention.
See also: link bait, linkbait taintface
5. authenticity
Authenticity was the buzzword of the early summer of 2010 in the mommyblogosphere, when blog posts extolled the virtues of audiences needing to get a piece of your authentic self from your writing in order to become invested in the narrative of a blog. The notion of there being one "authentic self" that might be conveyed was not usually thought of as being problematic by most readers.
6. badges
Oh, but the mommies love their badges. They've got badges for integrity, badges for Walmart, badges for memes, badges for carnivals, badges for ads, badges for charities, badges for speaking, badges for not speaking, badges for support, badges for anything you can think of. Want to belong? Prove it by posting a badge. All you need is a copy of Photoshop and you can make a 125x125 pixel badge club of your own. I'm really not sure what the deal is with the badges. It's like a virtual version of handbags.
See also: Blog With Integrity, integrity
7. BHJ
The blogger formerly known as (B)lack (H)ockey (J)esus, who now blogs at The BHJ and for MamaPop.
8. bitches
When I use this, it is usually at the end of an address, e.g., "It's time to talk tough, bitches." I am really not sure what the derivation of this is. It's one of those internet things. I don't really think you all are bitches. Really only some of you are.
9. BlogHer
An organization started in 2005 by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins, and Lisa Stone, with the purpose of supporting women bloggers. BlogHer runs a yearly conference that has since grown into the largest of its kind for mommybloggers. It is also the organization of record and one of the largest ad networks used by a large portion of the mommyblogging community. BlogHer also runs a community blogging site that hosts content produced by a staff of paid writers as well as community contributors.
10. BlogWithIntegrity
The Blog With Integrity coalition was started in 2009, ostensibly to address quality control issues in the blogosphere around the topics of journalistic integrity and brand/blogger disclosure. The specific idea behind the movement was that bloggers would take a "pledge" that declared their intention to adhere to a set of standards as prescribed by the Blog With Integrity website, and then PR representatives, brands, and consumers alike would be able discern which blogs were posting real, honest editorial and unpaid product reviews from those that were paid, and/or those that were just copied and pasted press releases. Though the Blog With Integrity bylaws appear to be concerned with several issues in addition to the question of separating editorial from advertising, it was clear from the outset that the advertorial question was foremost among the concerns of the founders from the beginning -- if not the entire reason for the forming of the program in the first place.
The idea of a program that requires "pledges" and the posting of "badges" to compel integrity is not my cup of tea, which is why I never joined, and I posted some other thoughts on the matter here. One particularly delicious part about the Blog With Integrity debacle, though, was that nearly all of the Walmart ElevenMoms (that would be all 22 of them) has a Blog With Integrity badge posted on her site now, or has at some point in the past. That sound you're hearing? Is a whole community missing the point.
11. boobgate
At the first Mom 2.0 Summit in 2009, a lactating Catherine Connors (aka Her Bad Mother) forgot her breast pump in Toronto. Rather than risk engorgement, another conference goer offered up her baby for Catherine to breastfeed. You can read Catherine's account of the situation here. Another blogger, Cheryl Phillips (aka The Daily Blonde) witnessed the whole thing and wrote about it on her blog, questioning why the whole thing happened in the first place.
The whole thing turned into a mommyblogger controversy of fairly epic proportions. After a few hours, the debate had somehow become about the politics of breastfeeding in general instead of about whether or not (or under what circumstances) people would be comfortable with having their children breastfed by another woman, or seeing this happen. Posts were deleted, tears were shed, mistakes were made, but fortunately, no breasts were engorged.
12. branded cupcakes
In 2010, brands engaging with the mommyblogosphere have really embraced the branded cupcake. Every conceivable event seems to call for a new kind of branded cupcake. And for good reason: branded cupcakes always seem to make it onto Twitter. Mommies love their branded cupcakes. They will fly across the country to eat them, and mention them on Twitter, and talk about them, take pictures of them. Nothing like a branded cupcake to get your brand into the Twitter.
13. Broad Summit
Ahh, the Broad Summit. Where to start? How about my article about it, first of all, as a primer? As a quick overview, though, The Broad Summit was a small weekend getaway party thrown by Maggie Mason, Laura Mayes, Aubrey Sabala, and Helen Jane Hearn, in October of 2009 for a select group of bloggers at a winery in Northern California. That in itself was not worthy of mention, but the fact that the party was very select in its invite list and had corporate sponsors, a website, and a lot of hype on various blogs leading into it did cause some social problems for the people involved in organizing the event and the people who attended it.
From all accounts, the Broad Summit seems to have been a fantastic event. We all wish we had been invited. But from the outside, it looked like a bad call to put on an event, talk about how great it was going to be, dangle all the great things in front of everyone and then tell them they're not allowed to have it. We told the organizers as much, said it made them seem a little elitist. They didn't respond to the criticism directly, at least not to me. However, when the event was rebranded in 2010 as The Mighty Summit, they did leave a few spots open to the masses who don't receive a special invitation. As long as they fill out an application. Which is even worse.
See also: Maggie Mason, life list
14. bully
This term was thrown around quite a bit in late 2009 and early 2010 in reference to Heather Armstrong, particularly in the wake of Maytaggate, when she was accused of using social media to bully a national corporation into fixing her washing machine. Before Maytaggate, there had been rumors in some corners of the internet about the supposed power of the Armstrongs and how they could "bully" people and keep them quiet about things or get them to do what they wanted, but I have never had any personal experience with this.
See also: Maytag, Sephoragate, Rough Day? Hugs!, Il Duce
15. buzzwords
Every year or so, there is a term that makes its rounds through the mommyblogosphere, cropping up in blog posts and mentioned on panels at conferences. For a few months, it seems like everybody is using these terms and that they are really important to blogging. Until they aren't. And then you never hear about them again.
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