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November 12, 2006 / Filed under: Links

I've decided to remove my blogroll list from this site, and replace it with a "virtual blogroll."

Static blogroll

The original, static blogroll has become a chore to maintain - having to add new people, subtract those who no longer provide content, and re-order them, based on who I think is "really on a roll," lately.

At the same time, it's also too stagnant. Sometimes months go by, and the list never changes. It just becomes "dry content." The same thing, every time. Static links are boring.

For those that were on the list (you may know who you are), I want you to know that I still love you. (In the "appreciation" sense of the word, that is). And I still read your blogs, and greatly value what you have to say. I also appreciate anytime I contact you directly, and you reply back...

All of you have helped me become a better person - by taking such a strong interest in what you do - you have helped spread that knowledge and passion onto me.

It is great to be able to contact any one of you - anytime I feel the need. Many of you live in other states, or countries - but with the power of the internet, you're still just a simple email or IM away.

Virtual blogroll

But just because I am no longer providing a static link to your site, that doesn't mean I won't reference your thoughts anymore.

I am starting to use a new format for linking to other sites, dubbed my "virtual blogroll." Google Reader provides a "Shared Items" section of the application, in which I can reference links that I find worthy of reading. So as long as you all provide some form of content syndication, you will be pulled into my "Shared Items widget," which appears on the front page of this site.

I feel this is a better way to reference others. It solves all three problems with the "static blogroll":

• I no longer have to physically add new people. The links I reference are, hypothetically, the people on my virtual blogroll.
• I no longer have to worry about removing people that no longer update their sites. If you don't update your site, your content won't get pulled into Google Reader, and therefore won't get referenced in my virtual blogroll.
• I don't have to physically re-order the blogroll. If you are writing a lot of good content, I'll probably reference your site more. In this manner, you'll have more links coming from this site to your site - which, in a sense, is moving higher up on the blogroll.

What do you think?

Like all things on the web, this may be temporary, and I may some day put the static blogroll back in. This is just a new thing I want to try, and I think it will work out much better.

I just feel that blogrolls are too much like "Contact" sections - the content never changes, so what's the point of it?

Let me know your thoughts on this, and if you currently link to me - how do you feel about this change? Do you think it's rude of me to not directly link to someone who links to me?

This could be an interesting topic for another forum.