Blogroll policy

We get regular requests to be added to the blogroll. Here are the prerequisites.

1) You must actually have a blog.
We received a request today from a web design site that didn't have a blog. We only admit requests from blogs to the blogroll. Blogs that are closely affiliated with commercial sites, or make money, are OK.

That doesn't mean we won't place a useful not-blog on the 'roll. We list many non-blog sites that we use for research, to help readers understand where we do our research. It just means we don't honor blogroll requests from non-blogs.

2) You must reciprocate.
Everyone seems to understand this pretty well - if you're requesting a blogroll link, offer the same. All links resulting from requests for links go into the "friends" section of the blogroll, since reciprocity is a friendly thing to do. (All blogs linking ours are prefixed this way: • )

We also have sites of people we consider 'friends' in that section, and often such friends are also listed in other categories. "Encyclopedia Hanasiana", for example, is listed as both a "friend" and under "Media and Communications".

Real "friends" are that way for any number of reasons, but generally there's a connection of caring. In the world of blogs, it generally suggests someone who is reading your site fairly regularly.

Like most blogrolls, ours is not as complete as we'd like. We do update periodically to remove dead links or sites that have wandered downhill. This is by way of saying that not all our true "friends" are properly listed elsewehere, because we are not aways on top of the blogroll (and not because we don't value our friends).

3) You must not be a fool.
If you're running a lousy site, if you're abusing your readers, if you're making wild accusations (againist anyone), if you're a spam site, or if you're just generally nonperforming, we won't list you. Or if you're a formerly good site gone bad, we'll delink you once we find out.

(Real fools cannot realize that they're fools, rendering Prerequisite #3 useless as a cautionary warning. More sensitive souls may read it and wonder if they are fools. If this is you, remember that acknowledgement of one's own foolishness is the foundation of wisdom, and that this Prerequisite should not apply to you.)

4) Your site need not agree with ours.
But it shouldn't be going out of its way to make us vomit, either. Our site, our links, our rules. Yet we regularly get email from leftists (this inevitably comes from the left) telling us what we "must" do and what content "must" be included. We ignore such emails.

For those unfamiliar with how and why the left attempts to shut down blogs, here is an example of such a situation. In this case, the Washington Post was obliged to close down the blog for awhile. Meantime, the writer whose words caused the furor scrambled for new phrasing to mollify critics.

The idea that we should follow some else's rules in running our own site, and that to ignore someone's imposed set of values and rules (orders) constitutes "censorship", is repellant to us. It is so far outside the realm of respect for individual rights that we would not know where to look for common ground with such people. Sites run by those proposing such constraints to promote "correct" thinking, therefore, do not get linked.

Housekeeping note: Because the "friends" list is now so long, we may at some point move it do a different (seperate) place in the blogroll.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

You might be interested in how other bloggers handle link requests - and how those policies are received. Robert Scoble, one of the biggest bloggers, says, "Never beg for links. Send me somethiing interesting." Steve Rubel says, "I'm not Scoble, but I'm going to be Scoble soon." They're both decent guys (despite some of the occasionally jealous or cranky fallout in the comments and trackbacks) with whom we've had minor, pleasant exchanges.

Blogroll policies vary widely. Every blogger should prominently post theirs, but too few do.

Here's some good advice from a commenter on Mr. Rubel's site:

1. Don't just ask the blogger for a general link to your site; email a specific post that you think the blogger may find of interest.

2. When you're sending your first such post, make sure it's a good one. The blogger may not read future e-mails from you if he/she decides your contribution is not up to snuff.

2. For starting a linking relationship with a fellow blogger, fact-rich posts with fresh information (rather than posts where you're simply rehashing old news or spouting your opinion) are more likely to get picked up.

2. Make sure the post you send is the kind of thing the other blogger typically writes about; this is critical.

3. Don't be intimidated. Some so-called first-tier bloggers think they're hot stuff but have no traffic. You'll find this out when they link to you -- and you get NO referrals from the link. Other bloggers -- including some that are really good about reading all their e-mail and valuing their contributors -- can send you 5,000 or 10,000 referrals with a single link.

4. You can always e-mail "second-tier" bloggers like me. I'm still able to read all of 'em.

Categories: Blogroll+policy