You know, we all have blogs that we love. They end up being our “must read” list. I have several friends that fall into that category, and you know who you are. But I have a problem. My regular read list is almost 120 links long. There is no way I can ever read that many blogs. I simply must thin it out. I don’t want to lose the links though, so I made a “sometimes read” list and a list of people that I have met in person because if I convert to Blogrolling I want to use the * to mark fresh content blogs.
So, how do you cut blogs off of your read list? I hate to do it – I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I have to make that list shorter. The blogs I read are lost in the shuffle. I tend to keep people that are similar in demographics to me – but as we all know thanks to Blogwhore, that’s not always an accurate choice. I love lots of blogs where the writers have nothing in common with me. Should I group by “category”? No, who wants to be put into a box? Then my next thought is to be sure to link to the people that leave comments here a lot – but then again, if I’m pressed for time and speed reading I don’t always leave a comment at every blog I hit. So? What should I do? Ugh. I hate decisions…
23 replies on “Just How do You Choose?”
Some things just have to be done. I can’t seem to get below 145 without cutting out blogs I read.
Maybe a “seldom” blogroll. I’m thinking about that. Kind of like a data-mine. Who knows….?
Right now I have 55 links on my blogroll, and I would say that I read about 2/3 of them every day, the rest a couple of times a week.
When I moved my links over to Blogrolling, however, I did remove a few sites. Mostly, these were blogs that hardly ever seemed to be updated, plus whose owners never seemed to visit me. I didn’t lose any sleep over saying buh-bye to those….they probably didn’t know I was linking to them in the first place!
However, there are some blogs whose owners probably don’t know I exist…but I keep the links up because I truly enjoy reading the sites. And that is the main reason anyone should be linking to anyone.
In my own case, I am finding lots of cool blogs, since I took over *This-or-That*. I know that I will never have time to read them all on a regular basis, but I would still like to link to all of the regulars. What I will probably end up doing is creating a new page just about *This-or-That*, including links to the sites of all regular participants. To be included, people would have to e-mail me to request this.
Just my input! 🙂
Christine – I think the “This or that” list would be great! I know that Promo does that for the Monday Mission and I think it’s pretty cool – although it would be hard to maintain once you hit the popularity of something like the Friday Five.
Hoopty – I think that the “sometimes read” list is where a lot of those blogs I never read will end up. Sad, but true – some things just have to be done.
There are a lot of blogs I read that aren’t in my blogroll, mainly because they are in the blogrolls of other sites I visit regularly. But then I use my list for navigation, not for linky love.
On my site, linky love goes in the blog itself, which is where it has more impact. And you’re great about spreading the linky love around. I mean I’ve just visited Cheryl’s site for the first time.
That said, if you can’t part with anyone, make that pop-up style links list Robyn has (who I don’t link to but get to from Color Me Pink Christine – switched to her after you switched to randomly displayed link list.) She uses categories, but they’re not of the boxy variety. Or even if they are stereotypical categories, just give them silly names that mean something to you, don’t actually say Gay Bloggers or Fat Chick Bloggers and you’ll be fine.
Actually, ever since I switched to the random link list (which will have to go away when I put blogrolling into place), I’ve had a “Full Link List” link there too, with everyone in alphabetical order even. Now it’s still there, but it has my main blogrolling list at the bottom too!
It’s always hard for me to weed ’em down, too. In a perfect world I’d read everyone who links to me and comments on mine — but I don’t even have a “real” job and I can’t keep up. I don’t know how everyone else does it. Blogrolling.com’s update feature makes my life a million times easier though. And my main page’s link list is very small. Those are the ones I read first-thing when I get up. Having the others on a pop-up page eases my guilt some. But I’ll always feel “bad” when I have to let someone go…
Oh, I know, I cited it as one of your various BlogWhore worthy talents. I just meant for your blogroll compatibility issues, the multi-roll pop-up seems ideal.
well, as for me i just have a PHP/MySQL database for all my linkys — some i read all the time, some less often, depending on a myriad of factors, but i can’t give up links lightly.
if i make you a blogskin will you not drop me 🙂 ? not that i’m that good at it, but i can give it a shot!
i’ll volunteer to be on whatever list you put way in the back, behind the couch… you won’t hurt my feelings!
I promise my feelings won’t get hurt if you shelve my link, as long as I get a * when I come down to Houston this *cough, bleah* Summer. ;o)
How do you get people off your blog roll? 🙂 Easy. You just do it, and then deal with the fallout for the next few days.
Like e-mails such as, “*pouts* Why did you take me off your list?” or posts on the person’s own blog, “I hate Gretchen; she took me off her list. She’s so mean.” [Didn’t see the comment myself (cuz I wasn’t reading their blog anymore, DUH; I guess that’s the point!), but I was informed of it]
At first my roll was about linky love, but then I got way too many on there, and I realized I was using mine just for my own selfish navigation purposes—it held the links for the sites I wanted to visit every day, and the sites that I wish I could visit every day.
So yeah, just cut ’em loose, and any complaining will go away in a few days.
I go back and forth between letting it all hang out, paring down to the ones I actually read and creating lists for various frequencies… the latter probably serves me best. There was a whole “thing” a bit ago about dropping links that kinda through me – until that point I really hadn’t thought past the fact that I kept a list for my own use and I really think that’s what it should be: a convenience, not an obligation.
My link list has always been about people I like to read. I’m pretty anal about accepting new reads. I’ll lurk for months before I actually add someone. Also, I don’t link to linkers just because. I’m mean, but I pay for that space and so I’m putting up who I want… Maybe we should start a link subscription service (I’ll link to you for $2 a month… or something)
My list of “newly noticed” reads started when I asked for recommendations, and it’s getting long enough that I’m ready to move some to my (non-Blogrolled) main link list. I’d also like to have topical blogrolls (graphics, news sites); that may cut down on the enormo-roll that my list of regular reads is threatening to become while making it easier for people to find a topic they’re interested in.
I link because I like the writing, and I want to read more of it. I agree with Phoxxe that the list should be as much for you as anyone else.
And for goodness’ sake – comment when you want! It’s the Quaker way, after all – speak when the sprit moves you…
It’s a tough thing to decide. No matter what you do, you might hurt someone’s feelings. “You can’t please all of the people all of the time.” So don’t worry too much about it.
I have to agree with what most people say: just link to the ones that you are actually interested in. Myself, I’m very picky and only link to sites where the design appeals to me and the writing is both updated often and interesting. But I don’t think linking just to get links is the way to go. I also only comment on sites when I have something to say – many of the sites that I *do* read I don’t comment on.
I went through my links lists when I switched to blogrolling. It took a full day, clicking on every site. And then I simply pondered why they were on there, shared history? Love of their writings? Fantastic Design? Do I make a point to comment on them? I’m down to 57, with about 15 must-reads.
It’s not fun, but the people that aren’t on my blogroll will most likely never know.
I have a solution for everyone. Just link to me, and I’ll link to everyone else. Let me be your portal to the blogosphere. The homebase hub of the online journal crowd. I am the path and the doorway and the…
…what was I talking about?
Hey,
Since I rarely comment here I guess you can kill my link. I mean, my writing stinks, I never update my links and no one ever visits me anyway. Sure, go ahead and cut my only tie to a ‘classy’ web site. See if I care.
*sniff*
I want my Mommie!
Actually, I need to update my links and redesign my site. If it’ll help at all, I tend to link only to those I read every day. Right now my favorite’s list in IE lists 173 Blogs. I read about 25 a day and repeat each week. That doesn’t count the daily’s on my site.
Oh yeah, if it’ll help my case any, YOU’RE one of my regulars.
Now, love me, dammit.
Cut mine loose, Christine! I figure the less readership I have the more lame I can be! 🙂
Ok, I am NOT cutting you loose, Tess. And GeekMan, you’re not going anywhere either (but I already babbled about that in an e-mail to you both). wKen, thank you for offering to become the next Blogdex. wKendex. Mikey, my little nerdboy? You’re staying right where you are. As is KD. See, I think I’ve figured it out – there are a lot of factors – what you write is a huge one. How it effects me. AND … leaving comments truly helps get you some love. To me, comments are the ties – the way I get to “hear” what you think about what I write. Like Donna said, speak when the spirit moves you!
Wow, that is some thread there Christine!
FWIW, I have a tool that I talked about today that I use to let people add their own link when they do the Monday Mission. It would be useful for the THIS OR THAT idea.
It lets you insert categories and you can tweak the code to have it display how you want, so it might help you in some way.
My links are kept according to some sort of insane calculus that only I and the spiders understand. Mostly it’s people I read, but I feel this obligation to keep a few people on the list that don’t really update anymore, but were the first people to leave me comments when I started blogging. Postman Pat and Rain both made me feel like, hey, this is something I could really enjoy, and while neither of them update pretty much at all anymore, I still can’t bring myself to cut ’em loose.