June 17, 2006

Blogroll Bloat?

So I'm reading centuri0n's blog ('cause I always do, and I like the graphics) and notice that he's been given an award. The Blogroll Bloat Award from CoffeeSwirls.

And I'm jealous, because I've got some SERIOUS blogroll issues right here at the Pew. And I think I've got more links in my three blogrolls than he does, anyway.

But what really made me think was this statement, from CoffeeSwirls -- "If you link to everybody, nobody wins. You can quote me on that if you like." (And so I do quote you.)

I've got a ton of links to people all over the Blogosphere -- some more than once. Some of the blogs in my own blogroll (Views from Other Pews) I don't read anymore. I read maybe a third of the blogs in the LoRB list, and fewer than that in the Church Directory/Evangelical Outpost blogroll. Isn't the point of a blogroll to let people know what you read? So they can go there and read it too?

I've got a bunch of blogs that I actually read every day, thanks to RSS and Mozilla Thunderbird. Most are on theblogroll, but some aren't. So it seems that I need to do some updating and changing.

Here's what's going to happen: I'm going to export my personal blog list from Thunderbird to an OPML file. Then I'm going to import it into either Bloglines or Blogrolling (probably the former). Then I'm going to use that for my blogroll. That will be the top blogroll, the "Views From Other Pews." And you'll know that I actually read those blogs every day.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the other two blogrolls. I want to keep them, just because most of the sites listed ALSO have the list, and they link to me. But they're going to be lower profile on the page, more "below the fold" so to speak. And I'll keep the main blogroll updated weekly or so, for when I add new blogs, or delete old ones. This way, readers can tell exactly what blogs I really am reading, and which blogs are just there for the links. It's not a commentary on the quality or value of the blogs that aren't on the main list -- it's just an admission that I only have so much time each day, and I have to limit the number of people who I read.

Posted by: Warren Kelly at 03:35 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 I use bloglines and put each blogroll on it's own page in my blog; then, there is a link in the sidebar to that page (i.e. "SBC Blogs"). The sidebar has links to "blogs I actually read"; in reality it's blog's I've linked to in the past few months. This way, what is in my sidebar template is stuff I have found pertinent but I don't "drop" anyone off my blogrolls.

Posted by: Bowden McElroy at June 17, 2006 07:28 PM (aRGkw)

2 I believe that one should be very picky about their blogroll. You'll notice I only have a small handfull of people. If you link to very many people, everyone skips over your blogroll. If you link to a few, everyone assumes that you identify somewhat with those people. So I try to cue people in to who I am and what I'm like through my link selection. I'm not sure I succeed.

Posted by: Ryan DeBarr at June 18, 2006 10:01 PM (7xJXh)

3 I think I need to get pickier about my blogroll. I can see five or six there that I haven't read in forever. Some of them I check in on every few months, but I'm not sure that fits with the requirement of what goes onto a blogroll. There are also blogs I read every day that aren't on the blogroll. Again, I think that defeats the purpose. I'm also rethinking how much I care about being a large mammal on the TTLB thing. I was a large mammal for a while, and recently devolved to a marauding marsupial. Haven't really noticed a change in my traffic. So I wonder if I should be paying that much attention to it.

Posted by: Warren at June 19, 2006 07:57 PM (DPRNU)

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