What Happened to Blogrolls?
November 25, 2008 by Deb
Filed under Community Building
When FWJ began making the switch from single blog to blog network I decided to clean up a few things that have been neglected, for example, the blogroll. I hadn’t added any new blogs in some time, even though I come across great blogs every day. Moreover, I know a few of the links in my sidebar were dead. So I removed the blogroll for revamping.
At the same time, I started looking at many of the top blogs and top bloggers and noticed something interesting. Most of them didn’t have a blogroll and if they did it was kept down to a minumum. Less than a dozen links in many cases. Why is this?
What happened to the blogroll? Is it that we don’t care about helping out our fellow bloggers anymore? It used to be we prided ourselves with a big blogroll filled with friends and good stuff from others. Now, it seems that top bloggers consider the blogroll a thing of the past. When I look at a top blogger’s sidebar nowadays I see ads, links to products, popular posts and top commenters.
So I will ask you…should we still care about blogrolls? Would you rather see popular posts and comments than links to other blogs? Why do you suppose the blogroll is falling to the wayside? Is it because ads and products are more important than community and sharing links?
Discuss…
I think they became unreasonably large and ultimately more of a liability than an asset. Sure, we all want the links, but what if a blog says something offensive? I’ve always favored a small number of links, ones you can really stand behind, as a strong endorsement. To me, that helps the community far more than a mindless list so long that no one can possibly use it (and I woudldn’t look at for a long time, either).
I’m glad this has caught on. I really do support the links I have, and I know the people responsible. They aren’t just a bunch of random blogs. I like that, and I like knowing what other people really support.
In short, to me it’s about organizing and not something as passive as voting, just like any Democracy.
Deb, I noticed exactly the same thing when I was moving from thegoldenpencil to http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com
I decided to include a blogroll because I’m far from as famous (yet) as some of the others. I think they still work in terms of traffic building and as a service to readers, but they are a pain to maintain as bloggers some and go.
Does that make sense to you?
Anne Wayman, now blogging at http://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com
I don’t use a blogroll any more, not really. I had one on my knitting blog–even had it generated by Bloglines so it was up to date–but it got WAY too long. Then people wonder why they’re not on your list, if you’re on theirs. Or you end up with blogs that have been defunct for months. Or you have too many “famous” bloggers on your list and it looks like you’re brown-nosing. Or, did I mention that they get long?
I ended up, instead, making a list of “bloggers I’ve met in person” which gives a reasonable limit to who makes it to the list, and no hurt feelings for bloggers who live 3000 miles away but that I read religiously–I can’t help the geographical limitations. Ditto for the bloggers that subsequently got dropped from the list.
Then, for my newer blogs? My writing blog, and my knitting book review site? I didn’t even bother. It just didn’t seem worth the headache. Although I have occasionally (though not lately) done individual posts highlighting good bloggers my readers might be interested in. All I need to guarantee then is that the list is current when I POST it!
Curious to hear what others say; I’m currently transitioning from a static site to a more dynamic business-orientated site with a Wordpress blog and I can see both sides to the story. While it’s nice to give a shout out to worthy blogs in the sidelines, I have so many that I read regularly and that I enjoy it would be hard to pick just a few.
I think blogrolls are good traffic pulls, and as I’ve said lots of times, I think blogrolls help define a blog’s personality. If I go to architect site, and see a bunch of blogs I adore in their blogroll, I feel more inclined to stay and read; it’s like we have something in common, so I feel more connected. Also, I find most of my new fave blogs through blogrolls, so that’s a perk.
I also like blogrolls on a personal level. I like RSS, but I have mostly work related stuff bookmarked. I allow my blogroll to get personal, and have stuff I always like, not just networking stuff. Lastly, if you just get back to basics, blogrolls were always a nice shout-out to friends. BUT I think you can’t let yourself feel to self conscious about them. Like if someone links me, and I don’t like their blog, I won’t link back, because my blogroll is what I like to read not a total friend parade.
I do keep mine on a separate page now though, because it has gotten a little long, and pull downs don’t show well on all browsers.
So – yeah, I’m pro blogroll.
I should update my blogrolls and I could build it pretty easily from my feed-reader, but it’s one of those “I should … but not right now” tasks which doesn’t add much value until there’s a *big* update and I can make a post about the changes.
I know what you mean about the blogrolls! I am ashamed to say that at my blogspot.com blog I can’t for the life of me quite figure out how to work the blogroll! And even once I do I can’t for the life of me find blogs that are even in English.