Lorelle looks at the reasoning behind needing permission to add a blog to your blogroll. The conclusion is that you don’t really need to ask them, but if you did, Lorelle feels that there are very few situations where the person would say no. Also, she takes a look at something she does not like with the whole blogroll scene, trading links to create massive blog rolls.
After thinking about what it would take for someone to say no to a blogroll request, I realized that the person requesting permission wasn’t so much as asking to put your blog on their blogroll as implying that “if I list you, will you list me?” This I have a problem with.
If you put me on your blogroll, do not expect me to put you on mine. Do not expect anyone to add you to their blogroll just because you asked them or listed them. People often treat blogrolls like link exchanges, making it an obligation and requirement for inclusion. That’s fine in the most sincere sense of fair play, but let’s think this through. If you link to everyone who links to you, your blogroll list could be really, really long.
I see some blogrolls with long lists of links that feels like it’s a half meter down the web page. Outrageous. And semi-useless. Do you, as a blog reader, carefully go through 25 to 75 blogroll links to check out each one? Or do you skip over them as time-wasters? Or do you think a super long blogroll is just a link exchange gimmick and ignore it? Honestly, what do you really think when you see such a long blogroll?
I think with most things surrounding blogging, keep it simple is always the best method. On all of my blogs, I add people that I am interested in. I actually run through the list every morning to see if they have updated their sites. I also use it to show my readers what I am interested in. I think keeping it small is great. Make a links page if you want to list off everyone and their brother. Keep your blogroll short and sweet.
You actually click through your blogroll on your web page to read other folks’ blogs? Is this 1995? Have you not heard of a feed aggregator?
My bloglines account has thousands of subscriptions, and so does me feedburner application. If I just want to look at what my friends are up to, I actually go to their sites, yes.
I treat my blogroll of a list of sites that i enjoy and recommend. At present my personal blog’s blogroll contains everything from friends to links to favourite comics. I don’t automatically add someone because they link to me but instead if they are worth linking to.
lLDwHw354rfOb