Although Terrence used to occasionally post at Homomojo, as I sometimes do, I hadn’t read his blog for quite a while until a couple of weeks ago. No particular reason, I’m just a busy guy sometimes, and keeping up with those already in the blogroll is time-consuming as it is. But I like to expand my options for learning and broadening my viewpoint as much as possible so I do try to click on a couple of new blogs every day to see what’s going on. That’s partially reflected in my recent adding and removal of several sites from my links.
But though I am just as finicky as the next opinionated blogger, bitching once in a while that “X never links back” or “Y is too self-important to even acknowledge links,” I don’t necessarily think that’s a fair assessment on my part. I know how hard it is to keep up with the myriad links and changes associated with this blog, and I only get a couple hundred hits a day. How much harder it must be for the larger blogs to keep current in their linkage. And quite honestly I have no right to expect that everyone I link to link back to me. My opinions are often far away from those I link to on some subjects, and they may not want to associate with a particular opinion. I can respect that, and recently removed some links for that very reason. But I would like to think that my blogroll will reflect a diversity of ideas, opinions, and viewpoints that will enable me to make the most informed and intellectually honest opinions I can.
Hence the name of the blog. 
Somehow I was brought back to RepublicofT a week or two ago and reminded of how great a writer–and by all evidence, a father–Terrence is. Yesterday’s Terrence’s revealing, honest post about bloggers, links, blogrolls, and the drama of The Great Blogroll Purge is a perfect example of some truly fine writing. (Don’t worry, I missed TGBP and Blog Amnesty Day too.) The part about links being a kind of currency is dead-on:
And everyone reads them (he’s talking about Kos, Atrios, etc.–clarification by Jamie) because “everyone reads them,” thus the cycle is perpetuated and upper tier becomes more stratified, much to the consternation of the strivers just below the top tier. In a monetary economy, those with the most gold have the power. In a linking economy like the one that exists in the blogosphere, those with the most links — the most currency — have the power. And they pretty much wield it as they wish.
I would say not only “as they wish,” but often capriciously, and, more often than not, arbitrarily. Which is why I’m glad to see other sites like the Malcontent who got a bunch of gay bloggers and readers to check each other out (that sounds cheeky, doesn’t it?), or ScottORama who is weekly highlighting blogs in his blogroll in hopes of exposing their readers to some really good writing out there, and the people behind the screens.
Try and remember to take the time to visit different sites now and then, because not every post is a gem. Your first exposure to a blog may catch them on a bad day, or if you’re lucky, on a good day. But there are some fantastic writers out there who don’t get the exposure they deserve.
And for God’s sake, leave a comment once in a while. 
Filed under: Musings | Tagged: blogstuff, Dreams, Experience, Life, Musings, The Life Eclectic
Does “That manner of showing the date of your posts looks really good” work as a comment?
Personally, I don’t think it’s capricious, though. I think it’s about whether or not they can serve as “blogfather” to a promising new player. That’s why someone like skippy was tossed overboard- he’s old news compared to the new freshness.
Does “That manner of showing the date of your posts looks really good” work as a comment?
Funny. Assuming that was to me, I was broadly referring to leaving comments on any blog you like. Or dislike for that matter. One can’t grow without input.
As to your other point, as Terrence pointed out, the “big guys” aren’t linking to very much “new freshness.” At least not nearly as much as I would like to think I would do. So it’s really up to us to promote what we see as nicely written lesser-known blogs.
Comments = blogger’s heroin
Thanks, Dreamer. If I were trying to ditch my regular job and depended on blogroll links to survive, I guess I’d be whining too. But I’ve found that the site traffic I get from blogrolls, even the A-list ones, is minimal at best. I’ve got far more of a site traffic boost from guest blogging over at FDL than being on ten thousand blogrolls could ever bring me.
I remember when the “the big guys never blogroll us” whine first hit a couple years ago. It’s related to the “why don’t the big guys talk about the stuff I want them to discuss” whine and the “the big guys suck up so much oxygen that no one can break through anymore” whine.
That was right before the big explosion in site traffic for woman-run blogs, such as FDL, and the flowering of the local blog movement. (Tip: Wanna get in on the ground floor of the next phase of blogging? Crave getting hits? Switch your focus to local news. Yes, that means getting up and away from the computer to pound the pavement, but hey, exercise is good for you.)
I use to do lot’s of posts hoping to become more “popular”. Now I post for me. I don’t have lot’s of readers, but that’s okay. I post for me.
I wish I was as evolved as Wayne. I’m still shooting for “mass love.” At the same time, though, I fear exceeding my monthly bandwidth allotment because I don’t want to pay more for my webspace.
It’s a dilemma.
I like to blog for myself (mostly). There are some things, however, that seem so patently idiotic that they beg for scrutiny, criticism, or scorn. But my blogroll and links are here mostly so I don’t have to have a huuuuge “favorites” list in my browser, and so I can share what I find interesting with the two or three like-minded people that exist out there. I like having everything that I need in one place–a place where I can spout off without fear of being erased/banned/what have you.