September 12, 2007

Where have all the blogrolls gone?

I have had this post in draft for several weeks now. Then, Zoot posts about Blogrolls and Link Pages which made me realize that I should dust this draft off and finish it...........

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I have been noticing a sad trend as of late. Blogrolls are disappearing en masse. I realize it was inevitable with the mass exodus to feed readers, but it still makes me sad. Do not get me wrong - I love my Bloglines and Google Reader accounts - you will have to pry them out of my dead, stiff hands before I will give 'em up. However, despite my unabashed adoration for my feed readers, I will always remain utterly devoted to my blogroll. Because of my blogroll, I know for a fact that folks have become friends - say, Monkey and Modern Day Hermit. Even Monkey had discovered me via another blogroll. Through Average Jane's blogroll, I discovered Rozanne where I began commenting. Rozanne then found Diana (or vice versa?) on my blogroll and they have since become good friends. You get the picture.

So, do I actually care when someone deletes me from their blogroll/links page? Um, yeah. Fortunately, I am well-versed in the arena of Rejection so I am able to push aside my hurt feelings and move on. Do I feel bad when I am the one doing the deleting? Oh yeah. Unfortunately, life happens and my reading tastes change - it is never personal. Is my blogroll reflective of my feed reader accounts? Hardly. My blogroll is far, far shorter. I attempt to keep my blogroll to those bloggers that I feel I have a personal connection with or those sites I comment frequently. The keyword here is "attempt" - my blogroll is horrendously out of date.

Politics, popularity contests and hurt feelings aside, blogrolls in conjunction with comment sections are what give blogging spice and flavor. When I first began blogging, I depended on blogrolls to find other folks that I would be interested in reading. Blogrolls contribute to the positive viral nature of blogging in general. If we give up blogrolls, how will we find each other?

12 comments:

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

The reason mine was down for so long, honestly, was because I had switched sites (yet again), and on top of that, kind of took an unannounced hiatus from blogging.

I have started to put it back up, though. Mainly because I don't do bloglines and it's much easier for me just to click on my blogroll.

Some of my favourite people went password protect, however. :(

Mamma Sarah said...

You are so correct. I too would never find some people had someone not had a link/blogroll. I just went through and cleaned house on mine... even created a doo doo list for those who haven't updated in forever (which thankfully is never you).

Average Jane said...

After all of the discussion about this in the past couple of weeks, I think it's obvious that I need to do a serious overhaul of my blogroll. There are dozens of blogs I love that haven't been added and there are also a few that have dropped off my radar since I put them up.

If only I could feed my Bloglines links in directly...

Sister Big said...

I totally agree. Which is why I still have (and love) my blogroll, even though I read every last one of them in Bloglines now.

Dooneybug said...

I agree, I heavily used blogrolls when I first began blogging. Now? Not so much, more that I peruse comments and if someone says something witty or interesting I'll scoot on over to their blog and take a peek. I am horrendous in keeping my blogroll updated, as I am in replying to people's comments which totally makes me feel horrible!

Moderndayhermit said...

My blogroll does not in anyway reflect all of the blogs I read. I have updated it with a few over the last few days...but all the blogs I read will not fit on the page.

I've found so many blogs due to blog rolls and I am always checking out blogrolls.

Anonymous said...

If it's any consolation as far as being deleted on the blogroll.. I know that every time I change my blogger format, I lose some blogroll people. Not my doing at all, but sometimes it takes me months to realize someone is missing! So it may not be personal!

Christy said...

I agree. I actually found your blog off of Amalah's blogroll.

Me said...

I also love the blogroll, thanks for its defense. I have bloglines, but I miss the personaity of the site design surrounding the posts, so I will more often use blogroll to check & read my sites vs. bloglines.

Celebrate Woo-Woo said...

I completely forgot about the fact that I wouldn't have a blogroll if it wasn't for other people having them, meaning that I wouldn't be reading so many blogs if others hadn't had links to them. I hate when I blog I like doesn't have a blogroll. Sometimes, I am just bored and start clicking away, and I usually find a new blog to add to my Google Reader.

Diana said...

I so hear you!

My blogroll is what I read, where I comment, who I care about. I have tremendous guilt when I delete someone, usually if they are AWOL for an extended period of time. Occasionally I out grow someone's blog and then sneak away, which brings on 'guilt on steroids' when I finally bite the bullet and hit the delete button on the blogroll.

Rozanne said...

I'm a fan of blogrolls, too. A couple of times I've considered signing up for Bloglines or Google Reader, but I guess I kind of like the element of surprise in clicking on my blogroll to see if one of my pals has updated.