Not this again
By “this” I mean the triennial “What is a biblioblogger?” discussion. April started it (this time). Chris, Duane, Jim, Tim, and Doug have all chimed in—apologies if I missed anyone.
Okay, I admit it: I use the term “biblioblog” and “biblioblogger” on occasion. Well, maybe even frequently. But honestly, I don’t much care to define the term, or to quibble about such definitions. I suppose I really use the term “biblioblogger” to mean “someone who blogs about biblical studies or stuff somewhat related to biblical studies.” Maybe I should swear off the terms altogether. To me, arguing about who is or isn’t a “biblioblogger,” and which blogs are or are not “biblioblogs,” has no practical value. It reminds me of arguments about “when the Iron Age began.” The “Iron Age” is not an “entity” with a separate existence outside of scholarly discourse, but for some reason people speak otherwise, as if there were a definition of “Iron Age” floating about somewhere in the Platonic world of ideals, to which our own defintions ought to conform. Neither ought anyone’s blog be judged or labeled based on its conformity or nonconformity to an arbitrary definition of a recently-coined word.
5 comments Christopher Heard | blogging

You are, of course, correct. There being what looks like an official list is what bothers me.
Duane, I don’t disagree with your point, but would make the additional point—as Jim would agree, I think—that nobody actually has the standing to make such a list for anything other than “public service” reasons.
Hi Chris. I quite agree; I nearly blogged something to the same effect but couldn’t be bothered, so I appreciate your doing it. Cheers, Mark
[...] the “triennial ‘What is a biblioblogger?’ discussion with his post titled “Not this again” and Mark Goodacre breathed a big sigh of relief since he was about to be bothered with [...]
[...] to squeeze himself into the in-crowd, Doug Chaplin meditates on the same subject, Chris Heard has a kvetch, and the mysterious bzephyr contributes a very fine roundup. My conception of a biblioblog (see [...]