Category: Weblogging

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I was, and was not, surprised to see Mike Sanders hang up on weblogging today. I could see glimpses of burn out in his recent posts. In addition, he’s involved in new conflicts that would leave a sour taste in anyone’s mouth who is witness to them.

My decision to do away with a traditional blogroll started, in part, with Mike. In March this year, he removed several people from his blogroll, and posted a note that he did so because the people were “terrorist sympathizers”. After the uproar attached to this action, he put the people back on his blogroll, and issued an apology, of sorts.

In my comments attached to the Roll Call post, Jonathon asked:

 

In terms of the delinking debate, will you include posts with which you vehemently disagree?

To answer Jonathon, the first post I was going to link to and excerpt in the new system was Mike Sanders’ post on removing people from his blogroll. I considered that one to be pivotal within the weblogging history I hope to capture.

There are few weblog postings that have had as much of an impact on me as Mike’s. Based on this posting, between one moment and the next, weblogging had changed for me. It was no longer me writing in a vacuum; it was about me being part of a community, one in which conflict exists in addition to comradery. As difficult as the events of the time were back then, the end result is that weblogging became a much richer experience for me. For many of us. And I would be less than remiss — less than honorable — if I weren’t to acknowledge this.

Mike brought much of the battle he retreates from on to himself. He used the term moral equivalency as a stone on which to stand and look down on others. He re-interpreted viewpoints in a manner almost guaranteed to frustrate the originators of the viewpoint. He used labels as weapons. He also sent emails to people that would exacerbate an already tense situation. Mike introduced conflict.

However, Mike also started conversations. He got people to think. He helped us to understand the power of this medium and he made us all realize how much impact simple words, and simple links, and simple actions, could have.

The (negative) concept of de-linking is partially responsible for me removing my blogroll. However, in its place will be something that, I hope, will be much better than passive links. Ultimately, I think we’ll benefit greately from this change. And I owe this, in part, to Mike.

The conflict he introduced, the discordant notes he played with many of us, added to the richness of this medium. He writes today:

 

So I would like to dedicate this post to any people I have angered. Consider my giving up blogging as your own personal victory. And get on to the important task of developing love towards your family, friends and community.

 

I feel no victory. His weblog will be missed. His silence will be heard.

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I’ve managed to come up with a new page design for all my web site resources except one: this weblog. However, in the last few days this design has crystallized in my mind. I know how I want it to look. Better, I know what I want it to say.

One major change to the design will be the elimination of the blogroll. What started out as a way of introducing favorite webloggers to our readers has somehow become a weapon used in a war of hypertext popularity.

If you search in Google on the words weblog delinking you’ll see weblog entry after another focusing on the use of ‘delinking’ to make some kind of point about an individual. The world is falling quickly into wars fought with bullets and bombs, and we, in the comfort of our safe homes, wield weblog links as if they’re swords.

I loved what Photo Dude wrote on this:

 

We also now have public delinking ceremonies, for those times when someone with whom you’ve become belinked strays from your personal political sphere, and therefore must be publicly shamed and flayed bloody with the stripped strand of HTML that once formed a connection. Personally, I find a One Flavor link list to be boring, but then I thought the point of weblogs was to experience the diversity of people, thoughts, and philosophies around the world, not delink them when you disagree. If I only link people like me, or who think like me, that’s going to be one short list. What’s the point?

There’s a high level of inflated self importance in such a delinking. Myself, I’m certain that my little link to anyone is but a snowflake in a blizzard, of no impact at all, added or removed. It’s a shame others think their links are such precious pearls.

 

Precious pearls. Instead of writing ourselves into existence, we’re delinking others out of existence. And we watch the rise and fall of our weblogs and others in popularity sheets such as Blogging Ecosphere and Technorati and congratulate ourselves on our positions in comparison to others. Phaw! I’d rather resort to outlining.

Hypertext links were meant to bring us together, not become Teflon-coated projectiles. What is is about people that whatever we touch becomes a weapon? That’s not what this is all about. Or at least, I don’t think this is what this is all about. So I’m getting rid of my blogroll.

In it’s place I’m creating a set of files containing lists of my favorite essays/postings written by other webloggers, sorted into my own categories based on my interpretation of the posting subject. I started this as a test case with my Comfort Food posts. And the process of adding new links continues as I dig through archives (Blogger sucks at this), and read what you write today and tomorrow.

Technically, the link, author, and excerpt for these postings will go into a subject-related RDF/RSS file. I’ll then link to PHP pages that display these postings when you click on the subject (displayed in random order). Since the pages are valid RSS 1.0, you can even subscribe to these pages if you want.

Additionally, PHP code in my main weblog page will randomly select entries from one or more of the categories and print the link, author, and excerpt on my front page (in addition to the comments and trackback links and excerpts).

The posts I select are ones that have made an impact on me. The weblogger may not consider the post their best writing; others may prefer different posts. However, by linking to the writing that I connect with, the reader learns more about the other weblogger, and more about me. Something a dry, featureless, blogroll link can never provide.

More importantly, once listed in the pages, a link to a post will never be pulled. As time goes on and we drift apart, these moments of connection will remain. I may not read a weblogger now because they’ve taken a direction I won’t follow. But I did at one time and one moment, and that moment will be captured and persisted. Eventually these pages will form a more accurate history of my personal weblogging adventure than my own posts.

So what am I saying with all this? I guess this is my way of saying you’re all going to be delinked. Go away with your bad selves.

 

 

 

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I don’t know why I get these little feverish blogging spurts on Friday afternoons. After all, Friday afternoon is the Weblogging Dead Zone — the black hole for weblog posts not read.

Still, someone has to keep weblogs.com rolling.

Speaking of rolling, the next Hobbit movie, Twin Towers opens next week. I know that Dorothea and David are looking forward to it. However, I’m not sure they match the anticipation of Ben and Tempe Vierck. Ben posted a link to a photo of Tempe in advanced stages of pregnancy, and in the comments to the posting at Tempe’s weblog, she wrote:

She is head down. You’ll have to talk to her about the dropping part. I would rather she hold off until after two towers. (Emphasis mine.)

That’s fan dedication. BTW, I was the first weblogger to correctly guess the sex of Ben and Tempe’s upcoming baby, based on a sly hint of Ben’s. But I’m not telling. Neener, neener.

Four weblogging couples expecting babies within the next month. Going to be exciting around here.