Back in the day when I was a junior miss in the world of blogging, blogrolls were everywhere. Everyone sported one on their sidebar in some way or another and honestly, it was fun to see your name in lights.
But then a somewhat silent backlash happened. Some folks started grumbling about how blogrolls were unfair "I link to her/him/MC Hammer/Xenu but he/she/it/don't touch this doesn't link to me and that sucks". Some thought it felt like a popularity contest. So blogrolls kinda disappeared. Some blogrolls seem to be sent to burn in delete hell, while most became dusty and buried. Blogrolls seemed to be no longer in fashion.
Being a die-hard lemming (who constantly falls outta line to talk to the kids under the back stair having a smoke) I deleted my once mighty blogroll. It actually happened after noticing a few bloggers I faithful read and who had once linked to me - no longer did.
Yes - I'm that immature.
It's not like their entire blogrolls disappeared -which would have been just fine - it was that I was culled (along with others). I'd be lying if it didn't feel like a craptastic paper cut to my throat. So I retaliated in the most immature yet equitable way I could think of - I just dropped my entire freakin' blogroll. No post about it - no fanfare or invitation to the burning - I just dropped it from the bar o'sides.
But it never seemed right. That's why I put out the call to populate my sidebar again (see it there? Under my woefully inadequate About Me link? "I tread lightly with a big stick" - yup that's my blogroll).
Well it's no where near done but I've officially been declared insane because of all the cutting and OMG ALL THE F'ING DAMN IT ALL TO HELL PASTING it takes to make a blogroll. So if I missed you leave me a comment (with a link please) and I'll update it because if I have to proofread it myself, I may just cry.And no body wants to make motherbumper cry, do they? Oh and what was the REAL REASON blogrolls went out of fashion? It's because who in their right mind wants to build and maintain these things? OH MY GAWD - I may just be able to use this in a court of law when I sue someone for my new found carpal tunnel syndrome. Yah, I'm looking at you - or maybe you in the back.
So yes, IMO blogrolls weren't the norm anymore out of sheer laziness.
Anyhow - overdramatic? Perhaps... but that's the kind of gal I am.
32 comments:
I can only manage to update mine once in a while because of the PAIN that it is... that and I have 40 meeellion people on mine.
Three words for you MB:
Blogrolling Dot Com
Take your opml from your feed reader, import in, and voila... a one line script with all your links.
Then, add the "blogroll it" shortcut to your Firefox link bar (because using IE or Safari makes the Baby Jesus cry) and you're good to go for the rest.
(fyi... tonight's captcha: skday)
I just updated mine too. Yep, it just about made me cry. And I told my "peeps" to check their own links to make sure they work...so if they don't it's their own faults!
Thanks for putting me on the 'roll. Sorry about the carpal tunnel.
I am honoured. I'd like my blogroll to do the drop-down thing too instead of having it all hanging out there, but I'll bug you about that when you're not all blogrolled out.
I don't get the difference between a blogroll and bloglines or whatever??? I stopped updating my blogroll because I stopped using it to read blogs. No??? I am a rookie here!
I agree. Total pain in the ass. (Blogrolling--not you.) I have to do some updating of mine, but it doesn't seem like fun.
I only update mine when someone asks to be on it. And then they're there for life. Kind of like the mob.
OMFG, the name of your blogroll makes me laugh!!
(Oh... was that not the point of your post...?)
Oh, you have to try bloglines - simpler even than blogrolling. (Although it's scary as hell if you just mosey on the site.)
Seriously. There's a little link for your Favorites drop down menu that says 'Sub With Bloglines' and if I click on it, I can add any blog I want WITHOUT A MORSEL OF CODE.
Same with my blogroll. Tell it where to go (blogger) and IT DID. ALL BY ITSELF.
Yep, sold me too.
If you check it out and get all skittish, email me and I'll give you the full benefit of my limited understandings of these things.
I appreciate an overdramatic gal. Helps me feel more normal.
I still sport one. I also have a mullet.
I should really update it, the blogroll, not the coif.
to those lovely people who do not understand the difference between blogLINES (or any rss reader) and blogROLLS:
I use bloglines to do my reading, google reader to populate my sidebar widget, but I use BLOGROLL to share the love.
Every time you add a person to your blorROLL an technorati angel gets it's wings - I mean rating boost.
Bloglines is just a way to organize your reading.
That's why there is such a debate over blogrolls - bloglines/google readers/rss readers do very little for the blogs rating - a personal sidebar blogroll adds to the blog you likes technorati rating.
Lesson over. My head hurts, I need a drink.
I update mine all the time to add more people and it's still not complete. The thing takes more maintenence than dying your hair blue. (Which take a lot of maintenance. You know...because of the roots? Never mind. Crappy analogy.)
I have not replaced mine out of fear of offending someone...best just get to doing the damn thing, those technorati angels are cuter'n sea monkeys.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who has NO IDEA what scifi dad is saying. (Man, I'm such a newbie!)
Awww...i'm gonna cry now, i'm not on the list!!!
Hehehe, I still have a blogroll on my site, I never took it off, i'm just too lazy.
Gabriella
i need more coffee, yes I am on the list..i just can't see well this morning!
Gab
And now you know why mine has been delegated to a back page somewhere. I haven't updated in a loong time. The thought of it makes me cry.
ummm... i hate to say this, but you didn't put me on... does that mean you hate me? or i've been culled before even getting on? how bad is that?
it's okay, you don't need to... really...
excuse me while i go sob into my morning coffee...
i'm SO bad at updating my blogroll. because i use bloglines...if i find a new site to read, it gets put on there...and if i continue to read and like it, i always forget to add it to the blogroll.
but people really need to not take blogrolls too seriously.
When I started my blog I put 4 sites on my blogroll and haven't added to it since. It probably needs to just go away. It's actually kind of lame.
Great.
I hadn't realized that blogrolls were out of fashion.
Since I used to have a T-shirt that read "My wife says if I go golfing one more time she's going to leave me. Damn I'm going to miss her" I think I'm going to go ahead and scrupulously update my blogroll.
And you're going on it.
I said about 3 or 4 weeks ago that I'd be updating my blogroll...never got around to it. Now I'm feeling exceptional guilt over the blogs that I haven't got on it *lol* I'm working on it, I really really am!!
I was so worried of excluding anyone 'cause I am so old and stupid that I didn't ever put one up when I moved sites.
All that cutting and pasting makes me dizzy!
I'm one of the ones who deleted the blogroll after realizing how out of date it was and how much work it would take to update. L-A-Z-Y, I ain't got no alibi...
Holy-crappoly! You've got a long one.
I have to say, I used to use mine as my reading list but since I started using bloglines... I haven't updated it for ages. I should do that some time.
I like how it drops down. I bagged my blogroll a while ago because it was on a separate page from my main blog and I hardly ever updated it and it was just a big pain in my cottage cheese ass. I installed that Google Reader widget instead, and I update that with new posts on a very regular basis. I consider it to be my 'revolving blogroll.'
you're right about the updating. I change mine frequently and have recently cut it way back. The primary reason? An attempt to cutback on the amount of time I am reading and checking blogs. And for that reason, it's worked for me.
so, count this as a share of the love...
Look how nice and alphabetically organized yours is!
I got rid of mine because, essentially, I'm lazy. Okay? Fine.
Finally, Denguy said you had a long one. Which made me laugh. Because I'm also immature.
Fine.
I killed my blogroll because I'm a party pooper like that.
In other words, I'm just too damned lazy.
I'll work hard at rectifying that.
Sometime.
Maybe.
I am an idiot. i cannot even see your blogroll anywhere. doh!
Post a Comment