Dean Esmay had an interesting post the other day about long blogrolls versus shorter one. He favors the longer lists; they offer more choices. He also promotes the idea of reciprocal linking:
...offering to exchange links with me goes a long way toward making me think you're the kind of person I'd like on my blogroll.Well, I agree and disagree. If someone is kind enough to put me on their blogroll or offer to do so in exchange for my linking them, I would do so without hesitation. (Ted's Shop of Dirty Photos and similar sites excluded, of course.) What a great feeling to think something I've written has made someone think enough of me to want to share my site with others. I'd certainly return the favor.
As far as being offered the choice of a long blogroll or a short one, my own tastes lean towards the smaller lists. The megarollers (see Instapundit and Samizdata) present such an incredible array that it's difficult to try and pick a few out of such an offering.
Some bloggers have long lists, but divide up their blogroll into categories. See Mean Mr. Mustard and Emperor Misha. This makes it a little easier; if I'm not in the mood for war blogs, I can go shop in the Humor section.
Short lists are my favorite. Say Joe Blogger has only 20 links on his list. Maybe I've already been to 15 or 16 of them. Now there's only 4 or 5 sitting there making me wonder what I've missed. I'm far more likely to take a peek at one (or all) of these than take a random stab into a megaroll.
This method just works better for me because I usually don't have long periods of time to persue some of those longer ones.
Although it sounds like an interesting game, doesn't it? Sort of like eating the 12 pound prime rib and winning a t-shirt from the steakhouse. "I've Read the ENTIRE Instapundit BlogRoll!"
Posted by Cathy at June 29, 2003 08:44 PM