I can see the point of avoiding feeling pressure and expectations, especially when you have such a well read blog as yours. Being linked from Tobold - in a post as it is - is quite a big thing for many bloggers and will give you a bump in the readership, almost as if you'd been "wow.comed". So yeah. Many bloggers would probably want to be on such a list.

However I actually appreciate blogs that keep a well tended to and regularly refreshed blogroll. It raises my curiosity and points me to new places. And somehow I think it also puts your own blog into a context. Your blogroll says a little bit about what kind of blogger you are, even if you're not aware of it.

Your lack of blogroll probably says something too... Tobold is a loner that thinks for himself and walks on a road of his own? :)
 

I never noticed you don't have a blogroll. Can't say I really ever notice that anyone does. It certainly never occured to me to click on one. I thought they were mostly for decoration.
 

I also think that blogrolls help people discover blogs. Half of the blogs I followed, I've found on larisa's blog-roll. (the other half, I've found on *their* blogrolls).

So I honestly think that keeping a blog-roll is my little way of keeping blogs I like from dying out due to not getting read. This way I know I am linking to blogs that will make for a good read, and hopefully letting others discover them too.

I guess, that if I was in a teasing mood, I could say that by not keeping a blog-roll, you are actively working against blogging as a way of communication.
 

I like blogrolls - it shows me what authors read themselves and what they recommend. If I like a blog a lot, chances are I'll like some of them too, it's a bit like browsing your favourite books on amazon and then seeing what other books are being read by users with similar interests. i've always foud my best sites and links via other people's pages, not googling or similar.

that said, I can fully understand why bloggers would remove an author from their blogroll they cannot support and do not want to promote due to questionable or discriminative content. your blog roll is personal and you have no duty to promote anyone, especially not if being associated with this blog makes you uneasy.
 

Why do you give people like this attention? He's clearly trolling or link baiting. You're just validating the inanity. The best thing to do in situations like this is to ignore the guy and let the situation blow over. If you want to make a post relevant to the situation in general (e.g. why you don't have a blog roll) don't link to him when you talk about it. His kind of drama whoring should not be rewarded by a link on a big and weighty site like yours.
 

Gotta ta agree with Evizaer - Adam's just a whiny punk looking for attention. Who the hell blogs about having been removed from other buggers' blogrolls two days in a row, other than attention whores? So why is you stroking his ego and wasting yer readers' time with linkage to him?
 

I like blogrolls. I have a few blogs on my list that I only visit to use their blog rolls :)

On the other hand: It is your decision alone.
 

Tobold,

You are a wise man.

I have from time to time noticed how your blog differs from others. This is just another subtle way you are way ahead of the curve.

Like Bhag I never really noticed that you didn't have a blog roll. Your content always was the most interesting thing to read.
 

Thanks for the link, that was some good 'back in HS' drama reading. Nothing like breaking down the cool kids table at lunch and why you are no longer invited. WoW-themed blogs certainly have a... different tone to them from what I've noticed.

I've thought about removing my blog roll a bunch of times, if only to stop getting emails from people about it. Like you said, if I like something you posted, I'll link to it, or drop a comment on your site. Aside from not caring enough to keep mine updated (or using it, for that matter), stats also show not many readers use it either.

I like Werit's blogroll because you can see the latest posts on it, but just a straight link blogroll seems to be a waste of space.
 

Adam's just a whiny punk looking for attention. Who the hell blogs about having been removed from other buggers' blogrolls two days in a row, other than attention whores? So why is you stroking his ego and wasting yer readers' time with linkage to him?

Kind of reminds me of the reader who clicked on my link labeled "blood elf porn" and then complained that it linked to a site showing blood elf porn.

The point of this post is that having a blog roll leads to whiny punks complaining about it. What better way to demonstrate that point than linking to a whiny punk complaining about a blog roll?

I don't think that any link is automatically "validating" the site linked to. You can very well link to stuff you *don't* agree with. Even if you complain about something, putting in a link to the source is good blogging practice. The "I don't like it, so I pretend it doesn't exist" approach doesn't work at all.
 

I tried reading his blog, but something about it made it difficult to read. He needs better paragraph structures or something.

I agree with Larisa, being linked to from Tobold, usually puts my monthly numbers at over 1k, when I'm normally floating at around 200. During the RealID thing, where I was also linked from other sites on top of Tobolds, I reached over 2k views.

What I noticed was that all those views did not translate to repeated views. On the other hand, Larisa recently added me to her blog roll, and from there I'm getting 20+ views consistently with each update.

Which to me means that some people don't add blogs to their personal list. Instead they go to their favorite bloggers, and from the blog roll, will sometimes check out the other blogs.

If Larisa were to suddenly take me off her blog roll, I wouldn't retain those readers, because Larissa would no longer be "approving" of me.

If you were to have a blog roll Tobold, I believe that those whose blog were on it, would see an increase in views, unless of course they were on a similar level as yours (or what I call the European Blogger Mafia).
 

@Pangoria Fallstar: "The European Blogger Mafia"???? Is there such a thing? It sounds intriguing!
 

Well, if'n ya say "here be belf porn", is reasonable fer there ta be belf porn on the other side of the link. Anyone complains is kinda silly. And who don't like belf porn, anywho?

Today, though, ya was a little light on the caveat emptor. Caveat clickor? Lazy Romans, not having useful idiomizings fer computers and internets....

Anyhow, I see yer point. Ready fer ta move on now.
 

@Larísa & Pangoria

"The European Blogger Mafia"

lmao, now that's something you should write about!! x)
 

I'm amused there is anything related to envy and prestige over a blogroll at all. Who gives a crap? I chalk a lot of things up to the death-bed question. If you're not going to be thinking about the regret or happiness on your deathbed, who gives a fuck.
 

This comment has been removed by the author.
 

Hello, this is the European Blogger Mafia.

All your base are belong to us.
 

Thanks for the link, Tobold. I rarely read other blogs than yours as I prefer your focus on infrastructure rather than the common blogs that ramble on about what the author grinded yesterday for four hours. While I've quit WoW and don't have any particular interest in rogues, the topics that were being discussed on the linked blog over the last few days were very interesting.

After reading through the blog posts that the author made, I'd have to say I absolutely agree with him. Trying to inject WoW with feminist ideas of equality is a ridiculously absurd idea. A FANTASY MMO has no room for selectively taking 21st century moral concepts and including them into a genre which uses wholesale slaughter that borders on genocide as a staple of gameplay.

The posters there, and here, who instantly judge the blogger as "whiny" because of his post regarding removal from blog rolls totally miss the point of having a blog. You get to express your opinion on whatever you want.

It is also obvious that they have not read the post, else they might understand that it isn't a post whining, but a post describing what a blog roll is to people, and whether or not a blog roll is a good thing, a bad thing, or just a thing.

The post itself was great. Do you use your blog roll to create a clique? Do you use it to list other authors that you like? Or do you offer a blog roll to your readers so that they can see what you read, and where you yourself comment like everyone else? Those are all excellent questions about blog rolls.

And yet, most people skipped reading the actual link, and automatically assumed that the blog post revolved around crying about being removed from a blog roll.

Ultimately, Tobold, it doesn't matter that you don't have a blog roll, but I'd be much more inclined to visit other blogs, if I know that you were a commentator on that blog. I prefer your blog to most others, so actually seeing the blogs that YOU go to would give me incentive to visit more blogs.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily benefit you, so I can understand not wanting to have to decide which blogs to include, and which to exclude. Just having the blog roll itself says things about you, no? Gives hints to what your opinions are.

What a great topic for a blog post. If only someone would blog about that topic...got any links, Tobold?
 

Tobold I actually only recently started using a blogroll at just my two copper and I like it quite a bit. It helps me quickly go down a list of blogs which I'd like to read every day and also provides readers with a way to find new content. By maintaining a good blog roll people will revisit your site over and over to check out the list of blogs.

It's getting a little long though so I'm considering moving my current blog rolls to their own pages to avoid cluttering up the front page. That would be my suggestion if you choose to start a blog roll.
 

Oh, I have my Google Reader for the list of blogs I read every day. I don't dispute the utility of such a list. The question is whether it is wise to *publish* that list.

I once had some unknown blog add me to his blog roll, and then writing a blog post how impolite I was for not putting him on my blog roll in return. If I actually had a blog roll I'd get a lot more of those complaints and requests to be added to it.
 

You just need a very simply, very fair way of determining what links go in your blogroll. Say, an absolute limit of 20 links that will each go to the highest bidder. The higher the bid, the higher on the list you get.

There you go, nice and fair. >:)
 

I don't agree on adding someone just because you are on their blog roll. I'll never do that personally.

I've had people on my blog roll for ages, and never asked them to add me to theirs because personally, that's not why I add people.

The ones I do add, is because I read them. Its like saying, "Hey, I read this stuff". I've been thinking of adding a "bookshelf" as well, to list books I'm reading, but then again, my blog is more a public journal for me than anything else. I'd be happy with no readers, since what I'm doing is for myself.
 

Reading that reminded me of the days when people cared about who was on everyone's "Top 8" of Myspace. I think you chose the right course, that kind of stuff is not worth it.
 

Did you not used to have a blogroll? I thought I remembered when I first started reading your blog, I used those links to find more gaming blogs first.
 

Wow. Some people take their blogging and role in the universe WAY too seriously...Are these the same folks who arent happy until they have 1000+ "friends" on hyves?
 

@N1ck-

"totally miss the point of having a blog. You get to express your opinion on whatever you want. "

I miss nuthin'. Of course the dude is free ta say what he wants - but if people think it isn't very good they's free ta tell him so. Or remove him from they's blogrolls. Is how blogging is done.

"most people skipped reading the actual link, and automatically assumed that the blog post revolved around crying about being removed from a blog roll."

Now, how could I have done that? There weren't nuthin' here fer ta indicate nuthin' about what was in the post. Now, unlesses I could read Tobold's mind, the only way fer me ta find out what the post was whiny was ta go read it.