by Damozel | I may be a day late and a dollar short blogroll-amnesty-day-wise, but I'm always prepared to run behind the caboose till I see my chance to jump aboard. Besides, it's a concept I feel strongly about. Once again, as D Cupples has already said, Jon Swift leads the way in making the blogosphere a more civil place in which to share our views.
Blog unto others as you would have them blog unto you. I don't call people nasty names because I don't like being called nasty names. I don't try to out pseudonymous bloggers because I don't want to be outted. I don't attack bloggers' families because I don't want my family attacked. And when someone is kind enough to add me to their blogroll, I add them to mine as well. It seems to me that it is the polite thing to do.
Joe Gandelman from The Moderate Voice jumps in with a lesson from which this blog has certainly profited:
[B]logs increasingly seem to be segmented into left/right groups that will only link to those they already agree with (some folks apparently still think an opposing idea causes brain cancer but we’d argue strictly reaffirming and pasting what you already totally believe could cause brain atrophy), the discussion among blogs and in comments often resembles screaming and trying to negatively define those who hold hold other ideas, and few blogs are really doing citizen journalism. Blogs have become internet versions of talk radio shows at worst, internet op-ed pages at best.
Blogs are supposed to be discussions, which should assume that there is more than one argument. But too often only the left links to the left, only the right links to the right. If the trend continues, it makes it harder than ever for bloggers to write what THEY feel and see, versus what they think they NEED to say to get a link from a bigger blog that will help provide them with readership. In other words, the only way now for many blogs to GET readership is to write posts FOR the big blogs, in essence. (TMV)
We've tried hard to avoid falling into this trap, linking to blogs, bloggers, and columnists with whom we strongly disagree. For one thing, we're modestly aware that we don't know everything, and that we've each at some point or another lived to retract an opinion to which we previously were absolutely committed.
There are certain bloggers---naming no names!---who seem uninterested in the views of others and simply issue their views like proclamations without really seeming to consider anyone else's thoughts. I no longer read those blogs because I know what they're going to say on every issue before they do. They doubtless see themselves as maintaining some detachment, but detachment implies the ability to entertain, and even to honor, points of view that are not your own.
We link to a number of blogs that never take a blind bit of notice of us too. FOR NOW. We do it because we actually do consult these blogs and we are hoping that eventually they will notice our fidelity and reward it in the only way that matters. Of course, the day may eventually arrive when we don't need them....A blog is just as powerful as the number of people who consider its comments authoritative, after all. Some of the blogs that have achieved a high status and high name recognition may eventually find that an ongoing policy of ignoring the newer blogs that pay them the compliment of regarding them in this light eventually translates into link attrition. After all, the only thing that gives a blogger authority is the fact that other bloggers regard him or her as authoritative.]
Joe Gandelman of the extremely influential centrist blog, The Moderate Voice, has a cautionary tale:
It is TRUE that a new blog — particularly those who are not of the hard-left or hard-right — can have enormous trouble getting linked to by the big blogs. So how can they build a readership? Blogs need links. I have seen blogs that spent a ton of money on advertising be downsized or vanish because ads don’t build the readership. Links that drive to content that appeals to readers who want to come back for more build readership.
When I started most bloggers were nice but one was particularly snotty and emailed me about “Ohh yes, it’s so hard to get noticed” and basically said I was not “ready” to get a coveted link to his blog (which I have never read or linked to since) or to be on his blogroll.
I had a similar experience of being dismissed by some self-important whippesnapper with an over-inflated ego and the sense that his--or her---credentials as a "major blogger" made it unnecessary to pay attention to the rising generation. I promptly deleted the links from my blogroll and in my piece and I won't ever be referring that blog or blogger again. (If this happens on a large enough scale, what price then the status of a "major blog"?)
Anyway. D Cupples has done her usual bang-up job of identifying great blogs. I wanted to thank some of the ones that were good enough to blogroll us early in our blogging career, thereby fueling our sense that there was someone listening and helping us to attract more readers.
You never forget your first links. These are the very first blogs who took notice of ours (set out in alphabetical order). Thanks, guys! You might not know how grateful we are, but we do!
Achenblog
Bill's Big Diamond Blog
Central Sanity (now merged with The Moderate Voice)
D-3
Dyre Portents
Fact-esqe
Jon Swift
Legal Schnauzer
Liberal Values
Mercury Rising
Midtopia
My 2 Cents
Pharmafraud
Russ McBee
The Gun-Toting Liberal
The Moderate Voice
Semidi
Steven White
We're grateful to everyone else who has ever linked to us as well, of course---and as D Cupples says, if you're one of those and don't see your name in our blogroll, drop us a line. We believe in sharing the link love.
"... Jon Swift leads the way in making the blogosphere a more civil place in which to share our views."
::gag::
Posted by: Callimachus | February 05, 2008 at 09:09 PM