Blogged

Blogrolling

Last week, I followed through on a resolution to replenish my blogroll…now that I actually have a working link list once more. I’ve gone back and forth on the value of blogrolls; they often seemed more trouble than they were worth, especially as the size of the list grew to unwieldy proportions. This is why, like many others, ginned up a scrolling approach to reduce the footprint of the list. Not a bad plan, but not the Grail which I sought.

As for use: in the past, I utilized my blogroll chiefly as a handy list of sites for my own use. Frequently visited blogs were easily accessed, as I almost always have a tab open to my own website. Then I started using iGoogle for that purpose, which made having a blogroll present for my own ease less important. The reason I stopped maintaining a blogroll, however, was a matter of site layout; as I changed the design of the website, formatting the roll in the way that I wanted became difficult. So I just put it off. This meant that I was just a spectator for the Great Blogroll Wars that embroiled Left Blogistan a while back. I could afford to sit back and smirk since the issue didn’t involve me.

With the last big change to Waveflux, however, the path to re-blogrolling became clear. The current layout made it possible for me to restore the feature in the precise way I wanted it: a fraction of the total list visible at any given moment, their order based on how frequently the blogs published new material, with links to the most recent post. All that was left was to actually add some websites to the list.

After inserting the sites I read most often, I elected to broaden the scope a little. I’ve adopted a rather liberal policy of linking back to just about any blog that includes me in its roll. Reciprocity isn’t required to be on my blogroll, however. There are several sites that don’t mention mine at all, which is cool. The real requirement involves RSS: if a blog doesn’t have a feed, it just won’t show up on the roll. That’s just how it is.

For the terribly curious, I will probably create a separate, static page that lists the linked blogs in full. It’ll be linked from the right hand navigation column.

So the blogroll is back, baby. Be sure to check it out under the “Randomized” header at the bottom of the home page. Some very entertaining and thoughtful posts can be found there, because that’s how I…er, roll.

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