As regular visitors know, I had a blogroll here for years until I switched to a “shelf” format for a while, a format that did not support one. I’ve had mixed feelings about the current value of blogrolls. I find that on most blogs they are hopelessly out of date and don’t really reflect the places the blogs’ owners visit. On my own blog, when I took mine off, I had a closer look and realized that many of the blogs I linked to were no longer active. I would say disappearing blogs has been a general trend, at least among bloggers I’ve followed over the years.
Along the way I packed in the shelf format. I liked it at first but there were problems with it that turned out to outweigh the advantages – so I’ve reverted to a more standard blogging format. When I adopted the latest format, I didn’t even think about establishing a new blogroll and nobody has mentioned it to me – that is until today.
Today I received an email from a fellow who had some kind words about my blog, but who lamented the fact that I had no blogroll. He suggested I start one. Well, OK, somebody out there cares and I’m paying attention. This is what I’ll do. If I receive 8 comments on this blog (no, comments on Facebook don’t count) from (8 different) bloggers who say yay to a blogroll here on 27th Street, I’ll start one up and do my best to maintain it better than I have in the past. If not, I’ll assume there is limited value to having one and I’ll carry on without.
27th Street 
I vote for blogroll as well. That said I have never used anything other method to keep in touch with my blog friends, so it’s critical to me to have one. And I do enjoy perusing the blogrolls of others, to see who else is out there.
Ok I’ll make one
On Monday, February 3, 2014, 27th Street wrote:
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I like blog rolls although have seriously neglected my own for the longest time. When I visit a blog and they have a blog roll somewhere on their sidebar/menu, I click on the links and check out the websites. Many of the blogs I visit regularly have been found that way. And, given that I have no luck with feed readers since the demise of Google Reader, I might go back to using my blog list instead!
ok…so far, good points.
Thanks for your comment Adriane. I find that certain blogs get loads and loads of comments while others don’t. I don’t know why that is really. Neither 27th Street nor Mister Anchovy’s ever attracted that many comments. Today, I cross-post onto Facebook for the benefit of a handful of people who don’t go blog-hopping but appreciate the easy link, and I find I get way more comments about my blog posts on Facebook than on my blog. I don’t much like that, but c’est la vie. As I’ve mentioned here before, I consider it a wonder that people visit here at all, and those who keep coming back are very special to me.
If the personal blog space is becoming a little archaic, I confess it makes it even more attractive to me. I like having my little spot in the cyber universe. I like that it isn’t phone-driven and I appreciate that I can dress it up any way I like. I appreciate the small but amazingly loyal little community that comes here regularly.
So, we have one vote for a blogroll….let’s see what if there are more opinions out there….
I’ve already promised to start blogging again, and I’ll send you the updated url… but I just read a thing about how personal blogs are going the way of the dinosaur. (You mentioned this almost a year ago in “evolution/revoltion.”) Even if people stop by they don’t comment, they take your content and post it on their Tumblr or their Twitter or their Facebook wall. The analogy was that it’s like people used to visit your home and stay a while… but now they just stop in for a minute, take some cookies, and go back to their living rooms.
This was on a very popular design blog — Design*Sponge — that is now a business, with a book or two published and a great podcast and half a dozen daily posts. The original author was saying she’s noticing fewer and fewer comments, although their traffic is still fairly consistent, but nothing like it was at its peak (it’s probably all me trying to find older posts). So this is even happening to the the for-profit blogs, who are trying hard to drive traffic to themselves via social media. People would rather see Design*Sponge posts on their Pinterest page with links straight to the products/podcasts/DIY projects themselves, instead of having to go to actual blog. People don’t even want to go to their living room anymore.
I guess social media has changed the blogosphere forever. Like you, I feel like the forums I frequent (Dodge Caliber, Drum Corps, woodworking, etc.) still have a lot of activity. But it’s like meeting everybody for a cup of coffee at Starbucks instead of going to somebody’s house. Sad.
I let blogging lapse and sullied your blogroll as I was going through some depression, which is a shame, since it would have been therapeutic. I just didn’t have the energy to do it, like depression does. I’m healing nicely now and ready to start the next thing, and I vote that you and I just keep blogging for ourselves and for whoever happens to come to our door. (Now if we could just find out how to get them inside and tied to the couch…)
Good lord, Adriane, get to the point. blogroll: if I come to your house, I’d love to meet your friends and relatives. Make it a party. I vote for a blogroll!