This is too cruel
Friday, May 11, 2007 at 9:07AMSince when did a blog become an instrument of torture. Go and have a look at what Jerry has on his blog. It is a very cruel thing to do to me. I am sure you all sympathise.
After my post last Sunday complaining about how annoying out of date blogrolls and webrings are, I have cleaned out my own blogroll in the sidebar. Any blog that had not been updated regularly and had not been touched in the last 2 months have been removed from the list. For me blogrolls are about links to people who stay more or less on topic, are active in the community and talking! There were a few that had fallen silent that really hurt to remove.
I have a whole bunch of new ones to add as well which I am doing bit by bit. As regular readers will know most of my blog reading is done in an RSS feed reader. For years I used Bloglines and was happy with it, but early this year I tried out Google reader and it won me over.
If I read blogs via a RSS feed reader why have a blog roll? Blogrolls link groups of people together that have similar interests. Anyone discovering my blog for the first time can browse the blogroll if they are interested in similar blogs. It is easy to forget that there are people who are still learning how to use the net and discovering blogs. as new readers they do not know about blog search engines or blog directories. Also very often if someone is interested in a niche blogrolls are the best way to find blogs on that topic is via other blogs.
How do I find new blogs? Many this year I have found because of Take a stitch Tuesdays. The other way I find them is via Technorati particularly their blogs that link here service, which means usually if someone has linked to me in their blogroll or a post I find out about it. I also make use of searching via tags but that is something I do only when I have time to browse.
Another reason it was time to have a blogroll spring clean is that if the side bar is cluttered up with out of date blogs it does not allow new bloggers to break into the conversation. Simply put it means that they are forgotten. People may come across their blog and mean to add them but it one of those little jobs that don't get done. The thought is there but unless action is taken nothing happens and they remain unlinked to and not read by many.
It can be very disheartening to keep a blog and not have many readers. The way to get readers is to have people already in the community to link to you. Also as I was checking through the links I intuitively felt that there were definite groups and clusters of blogs within the textile community that were formed and everybody linked to each other but stopped adding new links. I may be wrong about this and would love other peoples impressions.
To anyone new to blogs on textiles and coming from outside the community this could create an impression of cliques online. If you don't understand what I mean – browse some bloggrolls and you will see the same names again and again. There is nothing wrong with the more established blogs being on everyones side bar but when there are no fresh faces in the group it is not good for the health of the community. The textile community online does embrace new hands and new bloggers but I feel it could give the wrong impression. Let me know what you think about this I could be wrong about the impression we are making.
Anyway as I update the blogroll and add new folks to it I will be highlighting them. This morning I was reminded of newish blog Stitching with a Shimmy. I first came in contact with Romilly via TAST but had not checked back for a long time. This blog was started early this year and has developed into a good read. I was reminded of Stitching with a Shimmy because Romilly wrote a rave review about my site and I discovered it via my referrers – in other words she linked to me. But scroll down, dig about in the archives and take a look at what is there. Romilly writes a few posts a month but I am sure there is a great community member behind this blog. Pop over, have a read and you will see what I mean and leave a comment so she knows you have been there!
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Reader Comments (12)
Your post about blogrolls etc had me thinking about my own reading habits, and something I've been pondering for a wee while now. I've recently been chopping back a few blogs I no longer get joy from out of my blogroll - mainly people who longer stitch, or who rarely post ... and it was really difficult to do it. I find there are always more and more interesting blogs to read, which in itself poses it's own difficulties in that there are only so many hours in the day to spend on reading blogs. I've found my blogroll is so extensive now (over 200 feeds) it's hard to keep up to date ... and in some ways it stops me from adding too many new blogs into the mix for that reason. It's not that I don't want to see new blogs, in fact I love to read new interesting blogs, but I'm finding the more I add to my blogroll, the less time I have for stitching, and seeing the number of unread feeds clocking up is quite overpowering sometimes, taking away from the pleasure of the reading itself. I don't think I'm articulating this very well, so I think I'll leave it there for now ... but your post is very thought provoking :D
PURE TORTURE !!!!!!! But also sweet that Jerry takes such an interest in your art that he would explore and purchase items for you.
Personally I think Jerry is a jewel for thinking of you. Think of all the great treasures he will be bringing you.
As a new blogger, I am still investigating all the textile blogs out there. Of course I want people to read and link to my blog, but I understand that I have to provide content, join active groups, and make comments on other people's blogs before I can expect any activity on my blog. I joined and am active in Stitcher's Blog Questions of the Week and the Christmas Ornament SAL. I've found lots of good blogs to stick in my Google Reader from there. I also have a permanent blogroll on my sidebar.
Yes, I do see some of the same blogs on many people's blogrolls, but I know that the ones that are there provided some interest or they would not have been added. We used to breed and show pedigreed cats. The majority of the cat fancy turned over every five years. We stayed in for twelve years, becoming "old hands" relatively quickly. If I consistently blog for the next five years, I expect I will be found and read by those who like my projects and my writing. I never expected a huge following in my first year (or even my fifth). You cannot love all the things you do. You cannot expect to do the things you love for fame and fortune. You have to do the things you love BECAUSE you love them.
Yep I agree Jerry is total darling- he actively encourages me in anything I want to do and never in 27 year even looked even slightly sideways at what I spend on my interests.
I understand about having too many blogs to read – I find that every now and then I feel a bit overwhelmed as I not only read the textile blogs but read tech related blogs too (for work teaching and mindtracks etc) so it is not unusual to have my reader to creep up around the 300 mark. At this level it means that I never read everyones blog every day – they get read more like once a week. If it gets that high I start to feel pressure 'to read' so I do a prune of feeds. It then feels more in control for a while until it creeps up again – it’s a cycle that goes up and down.
Thanks Kathryn for your view as a new blogger – and you are doing the right thing to be linked too –
anyone interested in cross stitching should check out your blog http://threadsofdesire.blogspot.com/
Thank you for steering me to Romilly's blog. What an interesting read.
I was fascinated by Jerry's Renaissance winder and the 3d is perfect. I have seen his drawers before and love the spool handles.
Maureen
That is so funny, he's tantalising you for sure! What a sweet hubby.
Hey, that looks like a decent sized bag, and a very long till receipt!!
You two seems to have a good time together! I am happy for you.
Sharon,
I hope blogville isn't becoming like high school - with the "popular" blogs! In reading your post, I was reminded to link to you when posting TAST posts. Thanks for that reminder - we tend to think everyone knows what TAST is, which inadvertantly leaves out new people. Also, I didn't know about Google's blog search - I've been wishing for that for a long time and didn't know it already existed! Thanks again....
Jerry is such a sweetie to you! It is really cool that he would know what to buy for you... don't think my hubbie could do that. Of course, you've been using beads alot longer than I and I'm sure Jerry has been there for many purchases. Hope you share what he bought for you!!
Yes I understand that people forget to link and I was reminded myself the other day I was browsing the blogs and wanted to find out who started the inchies challenge - I have been watching the challenge and enjoying it - blog after blog were posting images og inchies but no back link - even a search on google using 'fabric inchies' did not turn up anything but blog posts talking about them! So I thought I had better get on my soap box and remind people to link back to stuff they do otherwise it excludes people. Mind you I did find a lot of inspiring inchies!
I was interested in what you said about blogrollls here. You are always making me think things over and I appreciate it.
Probably not too many blogs are like mine and revolve pretty much just around the TSTC. I was happy just directing anyone who happens to get to my blog without being familiar with yours on to you by using a limited blogroll. I also link to you and the TAST page at the beginning of each week where I think anyone new would get the most complete picture and be able to tie in directly with you, the flikr account and the webring.
But I've never given it a second thought until your post about what kind of impression that might give others. I certainly don't want a new comer to think no other blogs are worth reading or that their blog is not of interest to me. Is there any way to know if that is the impression people come away with and if a blogroll is the only way or the best way to dispel wrong impressions?