That's the sound of a man working on his blog roll

Look, your blog, your blog roll.

I put whatever blogs I want on my blog roll.  I am not going to complain because you do the same.

You don't have Lance Mannion on your blog roll?

Fine with me.

You don't have intueri up there?

Your loss.

Jaquandor?

You're missing a bet.

Juno?

I don't knit either, but I like to read good writing.

Bill Altreuter?  The Linkmeister?  Pen-Elayne?  Idyllopus? Kathy Flake?  Phoebe Maltz?

Ok.  If you're comfortable with that mistake.

Marginal Utility?  Kit Stolz?

Too bad, you could learn something.

Mark Sarvas?  Quiet Bubble?  Scott McLemee?

And you call yourself literate.

Quinn Cummings?

I would if I were you, because we all need a good laugh now and then.  But that's me, and you're you, and like I said, your blog, your blog roll.

A year ago this week Atrios declared a Blog Roll Amnesty Day for himself, giving himself public permission to dump a whole bunch of blogs from his blog roll.

Among his reasons was the perfectly sensible one that many of the blogs there had gone dark.  But he also got rid of blogs he admitted to never reading.  Also sensible.  But it implies that his blog roll was there only for his own personal use, a public bookmarks file.  Which is fine.  Except that that's not what readers think a blog roll is for.  They see a blog roll as the blogger's list of recommended reading, and when a blog disappears from somebody's blog roll, readers, if they notice, are going to assume the blogger doing the disappearing no longer recommends the disappeared blog.

Atrios acknowledged that likelihood, if I remember right, by pointing out that his blog roll had grown too long to do his own readers any good.  They couldn't notice what blogs appeared and disappered because there were too many blogs to keep track of.  Their eyes crossing every time they looked at his blog roll, they just didn't bother to follow the links, so it wasn't doing anybody any good to be on his blog roll.

So he cut his blog roll to the bone and started rebuilding it with links to blogs that met criteria I don't remember his detailing.  Basically it came down to you were on his blog roll because he liked your blog and thought you worth reading.

A lot of people noticed though that as the list regrew that Atrios seemed mostly to like and think worth reading blogs that were already very well known and highly-trafficked.

A lot of people, mainly the smaller bloggers themselves, noticed that many smaller blogs that had been on Atrios' blog roll weren't reappearing and they deduced that they weren't likely to reappear.

And it dawned on other smaller bloggers who had hoped to get noticed by Atrios at some point that they weren't likely to gain that notice if Atrios wasn't reading them and wasn't linking to the other smaller bloggers who did notice them.

At the time this was no skin off my nose because I wasn't on his blog roll to begin with and because I don't meet most of Atrios' stated criteria for what makes a blog interesting and worth reading to him.  Which is just too bad for me.  It's Atrios' blog and Atrios' eyes and Atrios' time and he gets to decide how he wants to employ them.

His blog, his blog roll.  His blog roll, his posts, his links to make.

But then some other A-list bloggers followed his example, declaring their own blog roll amnesty day, and suddenly it was my blood on the ground.

I got axed from several prominent bloggers' blog rolls.

Got to admit it stung.  And it made me more sympathetic to those purged by Atrios.

But I told myself to get over it.  Their blogs, their blog rolls.

A curious thing happened though.

There was no noticeable drop in my traffic.

Almost nobody was finding their way to my blog via those people's blog rolls.

I am on a great many blog rolls, and I'm grateful. Thanks to all who have included me, but I can tell you this, on any given day, it's usually just you who's coming to my blog via your blog roll, even those of you with thousands of readers a day.

This would seem to support one of Atrios' points, that blog rolls aren't particularly useful to or well-used by a great many blog readers.  Like everything on the sidebar---including, unfortunately, ads---blog rolls grow invisible.

And considering how many readers now do all their blog reading through feeds and readers, blog rolls literally are invisible.

On the other hand, there are days when half my traffic that isn't coming from Google searches for naked pictures of Teri Hatcher and Scarlett Johansson is coming from a handful of blogs who do have me on their blog rolls, especially Wolcott, the gang at Lawyers, Guns, and Money, and Maha.

And, curiously, I still get a lot of hits everyday from TBogg's old site.  I'm not on his blog roll at his new digs at Firedoglake---his blog, his blog roll---but lots of his readers are still visiting his old place and using his blog roll to get places other than his latest post at FDL.

So some blog readers do pay attention to blog rolls.  Therefore, I manage my blog rolls on the presumption that my readers are paying attention to mine and using my blog rolls to find their way to other and more interesting places.

BUT!

I also reserve the right to link only to blogs I like and think worth recommending to my readers.

My blog, my blog roll.

That doesn't mean that if your blog isn't on my blog roll I don't like your blog.

What it more likely means is that I don't know your blog well enough yet.  I haven't had a chance to read it often enough to get a good sense of your work.

This, by the way, is why I don't do link exchanges.  You may be the best darn blogger going, but I can't know that from a single quick perusal based on the link you sent me by email.

For all I know your blog's a front for a porn site or a religious cult or the Republican National Committee.

Give me time.

Just remember that a better way to get my attention and my readers' attention is to comment, early and often and intelligently.  And blog whore whenever you can.  Try to keep it somewhat on topic, but do it.  Be humble but don't be shy.  And learn how to do the html to make the link a live one.  And make that live link the title of your post or the name of your blog not the URL.  URL's are ugly and make readers' eyes glaze over.

Jon Swift and Skippy, two of the most generous linkers going, are celebrating this weekend as Blog Amnesty Days.   They have set out to expand their own blog rolls infinitely and to encourage other bloggers to do the same.  This is a good thing not just for its own sake but for Western Blogtopia (TM Skippy).  There are lots and lots and lots of good blogs covering stories and addressing topics and issues that the A list bloggers can't get to or have no interest in.  There are lots and lots of good little blogs that could and will grow into big important and influential blogs if only readers find out they are there and as the A-listers are turning, quite naturally and inevitably, into a set of exclusive clubs and---this is important and a very good thing---as many of them are morphing into professional journalists with paid gigs and real world demands on their time that make them too busy to do as much blogging, let alone blog reading, as they'd like, they just aren't going to find their way to as many blogs down the totem pole.

This leaves it up to bloggers at the bottom edge of the A-list and those of us on the B-list who do get noticed by the Top Guns to spread the wealth.

As Mr Swift has modestly pointed out, links are capital.  It may be that some of us have irrational dreams of glory arising from our blogging, that some of us are to Atrios and his like as Bob Ford was to Jesse James, but most of us are like Mr Swift, just trying to do some good work, contribute to the debate, and entertain folks while we're at, and it would be nice to know that we're not merely playing symphonies in the desert and the only way we know this is by having readers show up.

Plus, for many of us, links are literally capital.  We are trying to make a little money on the side and our ability to sell ads and generate money from them depends on the volume of our traffic.

So, to paraphrase Fred C. Dobbs, can you help out a fellow blogger who's down on his luck?

Now, blog rolling is fine and dandy, but links in posts are worth far more than a spot on anybody's, even Atrios', blog roll.

This is a job I've fallen down on, and I'm sorry.  This is mainly due to analog demands on my time.  I will try to do better.  I wish I could promise to do as good a job as Wev McEwan does with her Read 'ems.  But I plan to resurrect an old weekly feature here I called Morning Gazette.

And, as I wrote a couple weeks back, I've been working on updating my blog rolls and doing it only by adding.  There's been no subtracting.  I don't need no steenking amnesty.

There are new blogs up and down the left hand column of the page.  Look it over, but you could do worse than by paying particular attention to the blogs listed under Posses where most of the new links have landed lately, including If I Ran the Zoo, Cogitamus, Blue Herald 2.0, Pensito Review, Simply Left Behind, and the Defeatists.

Ok, this has been my contribution to Blog Roll Amnesty Day.  Let me ask you to make yours, and now I'm talking to nonbloggers as well as bloggers.

If you aren't in the habit of exploring my blog rolls, please try it this week.  Like I said, there're no blogs on it that I don't like and wouldn't recommend entre nous.  My blog, my blog roll.  And if you read this blog by feed or reader?  Please, now and then click on through to the page itself and visit a few of the blogs on the blog rolls.  See if you can find some blogs to add to your bookmarks and blog rolls.

If nothing else, please follow the links in this post.

I'm done.  Gotta run.  Lots of good blog reading to do.

And remember.  Up above, I issued an open invitation to blog whore here.  Get in there and comment about yourself or favorites, ok?
 

Comments

[Buzz]

Who is Atrios? I've never read him.

[Linkmeister]

Thanks for the mention, and don't think I didn't notice your play on the Sam Cooke song.

If you're a baseball fan, The Toaster has about half-a-dozen blogs devoted to different teams (As, Yankees, Dodgers, Rockies, Cubs) and a couple of generalists. During the season I'm religiously following the Dodgers, so...

[CathiefromCanada]

Hi,sailor- new in town?

[Tom Hilton]

Thanks for adding us to the blogroll--much appreciated. And 'll definitely be checking out those other folks you recommend.

[actor212]

Wow, Lance, thanks for the link! I'm humbled...well, never really humbled, just taken aback a bit! :-)

[Caveat]

I've added you to my blogroll. I like your style, Mannion!

[SoNSo1]

Thanks for the link, Lance. It's something special coming from a blogger whose style I really admire.

Jeez, I might have to start writing better.

[skippy]

lance, thanks for joining in!

and you make a great point, that the smaller blogs cover stories that the bigger guys simply don't have the time to get into.

you da man!

[Rightwingsnarkle]

What was I gonna say?

Oh, yeah - I wanted to bring your attention to a terrific little blog, namely mine.

Now if I could just post as regularly, and with such vigor as you, maybe I could make a go of this.

[Batocchio]

Thanks! And well put!

[Demosthenes]

Well, I would blogwhore, but you just totally removed the need, didn't you?

No, instead, you gave me a whole bunch of links to read and, quite likely, add to my blogroll.

(Quinn Cumming's piece on Dragons and his dog was hilarious, for example)

[Heywood J.]

You need more H's, how's that for an excuse?

Hammer of the Blogs