To Blogroll or Not To Blogroll?

Like Lauren, I read this post of Shelly's a few weeks ago and have been thinking about getting rid of my blogroll.

I hardly use mine anymore, preferring instead to use RSS readers. The only thing keeping me from dumping it is my belief that some readers may be using my blogroll to surf and discover new blogs. However, lacking any empirical evidence to support this notion, I feel my theory may be without merit.

Therefore, I'm soliciting feedback.

Comments

[PSoTD]

I think there are some seriously good reasons for people to retain a visible blogroll on their blog:

There are the occasional link-thrus from blogrolls from site visitors, but that shouldn't be considered the main reason.

There's a billboarding impact for blogs. If I see the same "new to me" blog on multiple blogrolls of sites I visit, I'm much more inclined to find and visit that site.

There is the link advantage. Google and other search engines use a formula that includes the quality and quantity of links to help determine the output of searches. In theory, if bloggers start removing blogrolls, then blogs will lose that link value.

Some blogrolls show which blogs have been most recently updated. VERY valuable to me as a visitor to a blog, such as Suburban Guerrilla - I'll look for blogs I don't have blogrolled that have updates to see what I'm missing and whether I should add it to my bloglines roll (for personal viewing).

There's no doubt, the original value for visible blogrolls has diminished, but there are many other reasons to retain them.

[Amanda]

My blogroll is, like James Wolcott said, a sacred trust. I read those blogs everyday. But I also keep it short on purpose. It kills me to have to shoot down more requests for blogrolling for that reason, but since mine is short, people are more likely to use it as a resource.

[PSoTD]

A couple of comments about the original article. I agree with the point about the "Top 100" and "what's hot" and all that - they are hurting the individual voices and outlooks. And here's another one to add to the pile - Memeorandum. This kind of site give incentives for bloggers to write about the most popular stories of the day, because if they get selected as a link for such a story, it delivers traffic and visibility. And some bloggers then center their writing about a Christopher Hitchens article or "When Columnists Cry 'Jihad'" piece, rather than looking for what interests them.

Web-published blogrolls will eventually become irrelevant because people won't use them to visit sites. I think Amanda's point about the "sacred trust" is a good one.

[Elisson]

PSoTD makes several excellent points.

I discovered most of the blogs I read regularly by seeing what was on the blogrolls of blogs I liked. If you keep seeing a certain blog's name frequently, it's usually for a reason. That, plus comments, is how people discover other blogs.

The issue of links is also important, for the reasons PSoTD points out.

I use the Bloglines RSS aggregator to keep up with my blogroll, so many of those sites may not see many visits from me...but they have the subscription stats and the comments I'll lob in.

My recommendation is to keep the roll.

[C.B.]

I don't know about all RSS feeders, but the one I use (bloglines) will make a sort of blogroll-type thing for your site.

I think that blogrolls are useful for both the site owner--who you link to says a lot about you!--and to the readers. Um, as long as the blogroll is current.

[michele]

I made my blogroll private because I just couldn't take any more emails asking to be added on or wondering why a certain blog wasn't on the list. I had people send me emails claiming that their lack of presence on my blogroll was keeping them out of Technorati, Ecosystem and other ranking lists. I don't have what it takes to respond to people and tell them "you're not on my blogroll because I think your blog sucks." So I'd just add them on out of guilt. To make it easier on myself, I just took it off the site.

[C.B.]

Michelle,
You're under no obligation to be polite to people who demand that you add them to your 'roll. According to Emily Post,
"the proper response to a demand to be linked is a simple "piss off". No more than two exclamation points are needed."

[PZ Myers]

Keep it. I don't use mine as a starting point for browsing anymore, either -- I read 'em all through the newsreader -- but it is an acknowledgment that there are all these other people who are informing your opinion.

I think it is a kind of 'sacred trust', but part of that is the responsibility to keep it current. I do a weekly flush and update on mine, which, fortunately, my newsreader makes fairly easy. A static blogroll is not a good thing.

[Terry]

All the blogs I currently read I discovered on other people's blog rolls. They're a great browsing resource.

[Idyllopus]

I slowly make my way through the blogrolls of the sites that I religiously visit, and via them and who they link I get to some unexpected, great places.

[Rich]

I posted this at Feministe, and it's shameless self promotion, but I've written a fairly lengthy article that addresses the question of blogrolls (among others):

http://adonismirror.com/05022005_leader_killyourblogs.htm

[norbizness]

As long as you keep Charles Nelson Reilly's blog, it's all good.

However, I do think that you should tweak the color of the logo you graciously designed for me so that it shows up a little better. I mean, I could change the overall template, but that would be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

[Mark Gisleson]

My blogroll is my backup in case Bloglines goes down, and Blogbridge and Newsfire both break at the same time. But mostly it's my list of Norwegianity-approved blogs. Every day I attract a few new readers who are new to the blog thing, and I think that for them the blogroll is essential. Also, it's a matter of letting about 200 people know that I respect them and the work they do in posting a daily blog. I think the blogroll is an integral part of blogging and I'd never get rid of mine. Rare is the week when I don't add at least one blog to it.

[Screwy Hoolie]

I use others' blogrolls to discover new places, and with the exponential growth of the blogosphere, blogrolls will become the only way to find your way to the quality sites.

I've been cutting mine into segments, so readers can navigate the roll, rather than just having a list that's hundreds of titles long.

Long live the Blogroll!

[folkbum]

My blogroll is primarily my list of daily reads. For a long time, I just linked everything and everyone, but that became unwieldy fast. I think just linking what I like and what I read is more honest than linking everything--especially since sometimes I feel that some bloggers link to some other bloggers just to look cool.

Another strong reason for blogrolls, which I haven't seen mentioned, is building community. You get groups like the "Liberal Coalition" or "The Progressive Blog Alliance" or somesuch designed to build relationships and connections among people who might otherwise not be reading each other. Plus, I have been building (sloooooowly) a local bloggers section of my blogroll, trying to link to most people of my political persuasion in my state and and some of the least offensive on the other side, plus links to local media outlets, trying to build a bit of local blog community-ness.

I don't currently use an RSS feeder, and if I did, I can't say for certain that I would drop the blogroll or not, or how much, if not all of it.

[nina]

I never would have discovered so many great blogs, including this one, if it weren't for someone else's blogroll. Don't take it down!

[Bruce Arthurs]

I've found some interesting sites thru the links in your blogroll.

I think there's probably an effective limit for how long a blogroll can be, though. Over fifty, I'd make a guess, and one starts to get a MEGO effect. This can be helped by breaking the blogroll into subcategories.

[mr.pepys]

Dont take the blogrolls down. Without them, we the unenlightened and pressed-for-time would have no way to see who else to read!

[Travis]

Pretty much all the blogs I read have come off of either your blogroll or someone whose site I was visiting from here.

I try to keep adding and adding to mine as a way to remind myself to keep expanding my horizons and sources.

I should actually have taken the time before now to say thanks for the list of great resources and blogs. Keep up the great work.

[Amanda]

Fred at Stone Court pointed out that a lot of people relied on the blogroll at Mouse Words for recommendations. MW still gets 700 hits a day, mostly from people using my blogroll. I still use MW's blogroll sometimes, too.

That or they are gazing on my lovely visage. I'm torn between which I prefer.

[Jami]

Absolutely! I just used blogrolls yesterday to create my own RSS feed list. Additionally, whatever Google's algorithm is for picking up important websites, I'm pretty sure it depends on the number of times a site is linked. You bet your bottom dollar every rightie numbskull with a laptop is linking NewsMax. We lefties need each other.

(Shyly...) You're in my blogroll, Rox.

[alphabitch]

I like going through others' blogrolls, and I try to keep mine more or less up to date with what I'm really reading (and especially what I'm quoting from). I think mandatory reciprocal blogrolling or whatever you want to call it, is kind of silly & I don't especially care if people put me on their lists, as alphabitch is still fairly new & I don't post every day (though I admit it is still kind of a thrill to go somewhere and find that someone has linked to me). I don't link to folks hoping they'll link to me, but to direct others (especially the non-bloggers and non-regulars that I know are out there reading) to the information I find interesting or amusing.

[dr. b.]

I was my RSS reader to create my blogroll so I don't have to update it and I think that it gives my readers to see what blogs I am reading and what might be influencing my thoughts. Keep the blogroll :-)

[carla]

Your blogroll is how I managed to find the really great women writers I've come across.

I personally think it's a great thing..promoting all these folks.

Besides...I like coming here and seeing my blog listed. It makes me smile.

Is that sappy or what?

[Darryl Pearce]

...without you, I would not have found Shakespeare's Sister.

...and right now I'm still ignorant enough not to know what an RSS Feed is, although I could "google" easy it enough.

[Aurora]

Blogrolls are good, but some are waaaay too long. I keep a short list of links up that I read on a regular basis (for me, anyway).

Besides, if you take down your blogroll, how are people going to find me? (I'm almost done with my move, btw...) I think I was on Lauren's blogroll at one time... and if I was, I'm not now because she's taken it down.

Seriously, how can you discover other web sites if they're not linked from sites you already read? I don't have the time or the inclination to go web surfing blindly. I have a life.

I think the whole "dumping of the blogroll" deal is preemptive and blowing things way out of proportion.

[eRobin]

I don't know how to use RSS readers and I do use blogrolls to surf.

[Christie]

I find nearly all the blogs I read via the blogrolls of blogs like yours. I found you through someone else's blogroll and now I am a daily reader and put you on MY blogroll.

And nothing makes my day like seeing traffic to my blog from another site and finding out someone blogrolled me.

So my vote is, viva la blogroll.

However, I do think that incredibly long blogrolls are not as useful as either categorized blogrolls or just short blogrolls. I try to keep mine short, and I've noticed that a number of other people say they do, too. I also editorialize the blogs I mention - I review them and describe them. And update them often.

But I'd hate to see you get rid of yours, and I think they perform a valuable function in building blog readership in general, both by attracting new readers to blogs, and by acting as a form of positive reinforcement to bloggers themselves.

[eRobin]

I was just over at Feministe who has ditched her blogroll but she's linking to her RSS thingie so we can see what she reads? Is that it? If that works, that would be almost as good as a blogroll. I just love them because as others have said before me, I almost always find something new in them.

On the other hand, I don't love looking at my longish blogroll either and I am so obsessed with finding the perfect way to organize it that I am unable to even try to do so. So I feel your blogrolly pain.

[evelyn]

I definitely discover new blogs via people's blogrolls. I will click on links to specific blog entries in articles, and sometimes read through the rest of the blog. However I'm unlikely to go back to the blog if I don't see it in the blogroll of a regular-read. Why, because I'm lazy, because I forget which blog it was, because I will have to visit it from a blogroll several times and find it worthwhile before I will bother linking/bookmarking it for myself.

[liberalis]

I must agree with the majority. I have yet to catch up with RSS. I don't even know what it stands for. But I do like seeing blogger's favorite blogs, and I've done some gnarly surfing through blogrolls.

[bitchphd]

I tried shortening my blogroll once by having it display a random set of 20, and enough people said that, in fact, they use my blogroll that I reinstated it in all its lengthy, slow-loading glory. I've also seem my blogroll specificaly mentioned on other sites as a great resource for academic blogs that are a bit off the beaten path; I deliberately make a point of blogrolling almost every blog by an academic that I come across, especially if it's small and personal.

So I don't agree with burningbird, and I think that it's problematic, frankly, that people like you and Lauren are thinking of ditching your blogrolls. Because you guys are FAR more likely to link to sites that AREN'T the big boys, and by removing your blogrolls, you're removing links to those other sites, and just knocking 'em further down the technorati and TTLB rankings. Now, i agree that technorati and TTLB aren't great ways of ranking blogs; but the fact is, they exist. And *those guys* aren't going to stop doing what they're doing. And in fact, I think that the constant "where are the women" thing has actually raised a lot of people's consciousnesses. And now is not the time to give up.

I'm not a fan of refusing to play the game just b/c it's rigged. I'm a fan of playing, and shouting my ass off every time I see someone cheating. B/c I refuse to be made to sit on the sidelines, and the game is not gonna stop just b/c we walk away from it.

[Jaquandor]

My vote is based on pure selfishness: I'm on your blogroll, so I vote that it stays.

My blogroll has expanded quite a bit lately, and I need to pare it down a bit. But I've never really agreed with the "only a handful of 'creme de la creme'" approach to blogrolling. I figure, if I'm likely to read a blog more than once a week, I might as well link it.

(I don't use an automated service like Blogrolling anymore, because it made my load-time utterly glacial.)

[Amanda]

I need to second BPHD's refusal not to play the game just cause it's rigged. I've been loud about this a lot, but hanging in and making a fuss is my favorite strategy. The truth is that it works better than anything else, but it is a rocky path to both do your thing and demand your space. But my blogroll moved over to Pandagon has increased traffic for everyone on it, so I can't be against it.

[Crystal]

I, like so many other of those who have commented, use other peoples blog rolls to find new sites to read -- and -- have found that a large number of the hits to my very small blog get hits because of the listings at more popular blogs. I say "keep it" because I use your blog roll. I say "keep it" because I use lots of blog rolls.

[Sarah]

I am not on your blogroll, but I wish I was! (If you keep it, that is.)

[morajokaj]

What the hell is RSS?

I had my first email account in 1980, which makes me an early early adopter but seems to have rendered me helpless in adapting to the mutually-exclusive technological advances that have cropped up in the past couple of decades.

Besides which, the mothers of the disappeared are still marching around Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires. My Aunt Nellie was working the telephone exchange on the day the airforce bombed the Casa Rosada, an historical marker that helps to put things into perspective.

[Michael Hussey]

Roxanne, I wouldn't have found you and end up guest blogging here if it wasn't for the Progressive Blog Alliance blogroll.

I never never asked others, with the exception of Jesse at the Stakeholder, because I ran a story for him. Yes people, I get mail from the Democratic Party.

I love em. They're part of my roadmap around this big city.

[jeneane]

that wuz me above rox. hey, are you on mine? I gotta look. See that's the thing with those pesky blogrolls...

[firedoglake]

My traffic increases every time one of the big guys puts me on their blogroll, and I'm very grateful. I also know that when I put small blogs on my blogroll that don't normally get much attention, I hear from them about their traffic increasing. I take blogrolls very seriously as endorsements, and if I like someone's style and tone I will take a look at the people they link to and look them over. I think it's an important representation of who you are and who you interact with.

If people want ot take down their blogrolls, especially people who think they're too big now and don't want the site clutter, that's fine. They are coming right down off of mine, and hopefully the traffic will go to people who want it and need it.

[Moi ;)]

Don't take down the blogroll. They're great for those of us who like to discover new blogs.

There are ways to shorten them - you can make dropdown lists via java or table - if you want to see an example of java, check my blog. All you see on the sidebar are the names of the blogrolls. (Hey, I can be organized and categorize them now!)

Of course, you gotta to change my URL on your blogroll to check it if you can't bookmark your comments. ;D

[Terrance]

Hmm. For some reason my trackback didn't show up. My thoughts are here.

[CE Petro]

Chiming in a little late here, but I have to agree with so many others. I would have never found you, Rox, and numerous other bloggers, particularly women bloggers had their blogs not been listed on blogrolls.

Even though I read the blogs on my roll by RSS feed, when I have extra time, I like to look through the blogrolls of the same blogs to find other bloggers, that in addition to links in posts with recommendations. A blog that keeps showing up on blogrolls is a sign, particularly to newer bloggers, that this is/may be a respected blog, and thus may be a compelling enough reason to take a further look.

I don't know, I think my blogroll is more than just an index (with a smattering of recipricol linking) to my daily reads. I just couldn't get rid on mine. Maybe it's because I'm not one of the larger more respected bloggers, that I find I want to keep my blogroll.

Bottom line is, even though so many of us do like the blogrolls, predominately to find new blogs/bloggers to read, the decision is yours to make.

[Roxanne]

Thanks to all for your comments. It seems, so far, that many are using blogrolls to find new voices to read.

That's very cool. I'm glad. I'm now leaning towards keeping mine.

[Harrison]

Blogrolls are essential. Without mine, there are people I would forgot, people who have wonderful things to say. And, it's a network we have had for so long now. Taking people out of it can't but seem like a slap in the face.

So often, there are people you like, people you want to expose, but they are so different from you. When you do a post on them, it's so hard to capture who they are. And then, in a few days, the post is gone. And the context of the post is as likely to have driven people off as it is to have brought them over.

A blogroll entry is there for so long, and you never know when someone is going to discover it.

[Scott Lemieux]

Being too technoligically inept to use RSS feeds, I must admit to liking the blogrolls...

[David Parsons]

TSFR is my homepage, so where else would I put my bookmarks? I read the web from at least three different machines, and putting my bookmarks online is the best way to keep everything synchronised and the best way of keeping the weblogs I read all the time where I can get to them.

If I tossed my bookmarks as revenge for technorati being a crappy indexing service, I'd be cutting off my nose to spite my face.

[Ruth]

As a reader only, not a fellow blogger, I can’t say strongly enough how much I value blogrolls. I found THIS site through a blogroll; in fact, every blog I’ve discovered in the past six months was a random click from the blogroll of someone I already liked. I found BitchPhD that way, and FEministe, and tons of others. I think these blogrolls do exactly the OPPOSITE of what some are apparently saying; they help me find the smaller, less popular blogs so I’m not just stuck on the “big guns.”

[Anders]

Please, please keep your blogroll. I work for a union, and part of my job is to help union folk start paying attention to the blogosphere. When I ask people how many African American bloggers or feminist bloggers of color they've ever read, guess how many they're heard of? Not many -- and they're probably not going to read about them in articles about bloggers in Newsweek or Time, either. Can they learn about other bloggers by seeing who you link to in your articles? Sure, but most of them just don't have the time to read a lot of blogs regularly. Blogrolls are your way of giving them a guide to who else they should check out when they have some spare time.

Shelley's right -- putting up a blogroll has consequences. It means some people will get more traffic and some less. But you know what? Not putting up a blogroll also has consequences.

[La Lubu]

It's far easier to look for new voices by going through a blogroll, than by going through the archives and looking through old posts. I think the lack of a blogroll will tend to keep more voices out of the loop. Most blogs only have about a week's worth of posts up (if that), so while there could be an incredibly interesting reference to a great blog somewhere, after that first week, few folks will see it. With a blogroll, more people will visit lesser-known blogs, either because their curiousity about the name leads them to click on the link, or because they make a regular practice of clicking on all or most of the blogs that are linked by their favorite bloggers.

And a blogroll also helps me get an idea of the person behind the blog when I first visit. If I visit a blog for the first time, and see a so-so post, or a great post on some topic that's mildly interesting but doesn't really "grab" me, I'll still keep visiting that blog if the blogroll indicates that the blogger is likely to get around to posting on topics of interest.

Also, with the popularity of "top ten song" lists, or cute memes, or cat blogging....don't get me wrong, I can enjoy that stuff too!....it just leaves out opportunities for linking to other bloggers, if one doesn't have a blogroll.

[shmrri]

Here's my same old comment, as I've posted on several of the blogs who've been talking about blogrolls. It just occurred to me though, that I got to all of them via someone's blogroll, so even blogs I read fairly regularly, I still get to via blogrolls.

I don't blog, probably never will, but I like to read blogs. The main way I find new or different blogs is by blogrolls.

I don't bookmark blogs because I use several different computers, with several different users and the bookmarks are limited to the sites we all use. I suspect that people who use truly public computers, as for example, someone who accesses the web from a library computer would have the same problem.

I don't pay much attention to who is an 'A list' blogger or whatever. I read some blogs that interest me, some that I mostly agree with the opinions, some that I don't. But almost all the ones I read regularly I've found through a blogroll, not a reference in a post. No blogroll=lost reader, at least as far as this reader.

[Clif]

Even though you haven't had the wisdom to blogroll me, you should keep the blogroll. I, like many of the commenters above, have found interesting sites by random click-throughs of blogrolls on blogs that I like. And, I've gotten readers through other blog who have blog-rolled me.

[Ms. Q]

I don't know how I would discover great blogs without blogrolls. I discovered you on Dylan's blogroll. Otherwise, I probably never would have found you. I use RSS feeds to read my regulars but I add new ones all the time based on what I find on other people's blogroll.

[GraceD]

So keep the roll, would you, Ms. Populi? Good.

In other news, I look forward to getting your autograph at Blogher. Be prepared for the paparazzi, Rox.

[Dean Landsman]

Your RSS aggregator is a tool for you. The blogroll is a service to your readers. Your recommendation to your readers might differ from your RSS aggregator. Blogrolls make mention and note of interesting or worthy sites. RSS aggregators serve to keep you updated on new posts in blogs of note.

My blogroll lists all sorts of people, places, things. My RSS aggregator is much smaller. But I actually use my own blogroll to link to a variety of blogs, nearly every day. The aggregator informs me of activity on the ones I don't necessarily check all the time.

Two very separate functions are served by blogrolls and aggregators. And, FWIW, I've discovered new or interesting blogs from your blogroll, and from time to time will peruse it to see if there's something new in there. Don't take that neat aspect away!

[Aurora]

RSS = Real Simple Syndication

It's an XML file (usually) in some various format (RSS 0.92, RSS 2.0, Atom 0.3) that a RSS syndication program, like FeedDemon, can read. Think of it as treating websites like email. One program, read all the sites you want instead of surfing to each one. Sometimes, I really don't see the point, but anyway...

One facet of it is pretty cool. My new site has an OPML feed which gives a list of all the feeds I syndicate on my site with the aggregator module in my CMS. In other words, every hour, I've set up my site to syndcate the latest from BBC, Media Matters, and Reuters Top News. The OPML feed has those three feeds listed.

Theoretically, I could make my blogroll an OPML feed if I syndicated all my daily reads on my site. But, in my opinion, at least in the case of personal weblogs, that would detract from the experience. You can't comment without going to the site, you can't see the design the site owner sweated and toiled over... I just prefer visiting.

[Dave Burkitt]

Stick it on a back page with a conspicuous click-thru. Then anyone who wants to look at what you like, and follow thru can do so, but the initial page-load will be fast.

[/b]

I love finding new blogs via blogrolls. then following links a the new-to-me sites to other new-to-me sites. Without blogrolls, I'd find many fewer new places to go.

[Maggie]

I use the blogroll. Let's face it, not every blog entry is a winner. If I click on during a "dry spell" I probably would not add it to my favorites. I have, however, gone back at a later date using the blogroll to find I really enjoy that blogger. Please keep using it.

[Kween]

I personally think all this is nonsensical and people ought to really get a life. This convo is so trite and baseless. Like its actually hurting you to leave the links on the site, what merit does taking them down actually do?
You guys need other hobbies.

[libcat]

I tend to find new journals by following links their writers leave on other people's comment pages, but every once in a while I'll just randomly pick a name from someone's 'roll. In fact, both methods are how I found you---from your comment in one of Michael Bérubé's David Horowitz posts, which I came to from one of Bitch, PhD's posts, who I found in Anggarrgoon's 'roll. So yeah, even though I use LiveJournal (which kinda sorta uses them, only not really), I'm in favour of 'em :)

Am I the only person, anywhere, who thinks "blog" is an ugly, ugly word that should be banished, permanently?

[The Liberal Avenger]

Nearly every site that adds me to their blogroll ends up driving me a handful of clickthroughs every day. I assume that my blogroll does the same for the sites that I have in it.

I also think the de facto community "circles" that grow up around blogrolls are pretty cool.