February 3rd Is Blogroll Amnesty Day

About the only thing besides a martini-soaked foot massage from Bjorn the Houseboy that can get me out of bed when I’m not feeling well is a modest request from the very modest Mr. Jon Swift and the paunchy, yet strangely sexy, skippy the bush kangaroo.

In fact, I am very honored to be asked by the aforementioned gentlemen to take part in the celebration of the “unity of progressive infrastructure amenability.” (I wonder if this will get me on the A-list of B-list blogs, or at least the E-list blogs? Really, I’m on the Liberal BlogAds Network blogroll by the skin of my teeth so the fact that this blog is seen by some as a potential help rather than a hindrance is, well, totally surprising. And to be quite honest, these days, if is hasn’t been obvious, blogging has been tougher than usual for reasons I won’t go in to, but that involve Bjorn the Houseboy of course.)

Anyway, I am proud to be a part of great tradition, to blaze a new trail of blogging communitarian spirit, to boldly go where no minxes have gone before, to follow in the footsteps of great American bloggers (even though one actually uses the phrase “panties in a bunch”), to, to, to…..okay, okay; I’ll stop.

But what is Blogroll Amnesty Day? I’m glad you asked. I’ll let the eloquent Mr. Swift take it from here:

I remember how difficult it was to get people to notice my blog when I first started out. “Build it and they will come,” apparently only works with magic baseball fields. The only way to get anyone to notice my blog was to get them to link to me and that was not always easy. I linked to other bloggers and clicked on those links hoping they would notice my link in Sitemeter. I sent emails to other bloggers asking them to take a look at my latest piece or to add me to their blogrolls. I instituted my “Liberal Blogrolling Policy” offering to exchange links with anyone who linked to me. As more blogs began to link to me and add me to their blogrolls, a curious thing began to happen. More people came to my blog from those links and from Google. And many of those readers then visited the blogs that I linked to. Though it cost nothing to link to someone, I realized that on the Internet links are capital. Every link has value. And when two bloggers link to each other, they both profit.

The idea that links are the capital of the blogosphere seems so obvious that you would think an economist like Atrios of Eschaton would have realized it long ago. And as he is a progressive who has accumulated quite a bit of link wealth, you might also think he would be in favor of redistributing some of that wealth instead of just letting it trickle down. So when he announced last year that he was declaring February 3 Blogroll Amnesty Day, and other bloggers followed suit, I assumed he meant that he was opening his blogroll up to the masses. I sent him a polite email pointing out that his blog was on my blogroll and I would really appreciate it if he would add my blog to his. I never heard back from him.

When February 3 rolled around, many bloggers discovered to their horror that instead of adding new blogs to his blogroll he was throwing many off, including some bloggers who were his longtime friends. Blogroll Amnesty Day, it turned out, was a very Orwellian concept. Instead of granting amnesty to others he was granting amnesty to himself not to feel bad for hurting others feelings. Though Atrios has stubbornly refused to acknowledge that he made a mistake, some bloggers who initially joined him, backtracked. Markos of the Daily Kos instituted a second blogroll that consisted of random links from diarists. PZ Myers of Pharyngula now has real Blogroll Amnesty Days where he invites anyone who has blogrolled him to join his blogroll. And in the wake of the bloodletting quite a number of smaller blogs, like my friend skippy the bush kangaroo, changed their own blogroll policies and now link more freely to others.

Ironically, Blogroll Amnesty Day had a net positive effect for the blogosphere as a whole. I discovered a number of great blogs and made new friends and I am sure that is true for others as well. And so instead of remembering February 3 as a day that will live in infamy, let’s turn this day into a celebration of the power of smaller blogs. Let’s recognize that building an inclusive community of diverse voices is what the blogosphere should be about, not creating a new elite to replace the old mainstream media elite. This year there were a number of stories that the big blogs missed that were being covered by smaller blogs such as the Jena 6 and the situation in Burma. I hope someday that Atrios and other A-List bloggers will join us in recognizing that they could learn a lot from reading smaller blogs rather than getting all of their news from a few limited sources. And instead of attacking big blogs or each other, I hope smaller blogs will take this opportunity to expose themselves to other voices that often don’t get heard.

Here, here Mr. Swift! In my numerous interactions with the press I’ve been known to say that “links are the currency of the blogging world” TM, or something close to that anyway (for some reason it usually doesn’t make it into the quotes). I have also had a liberal blogrolling policy over the years which is pretty obvious as you scroll down the page (although sometimes people have to ask because I’m not very organized). Blogging is a blast, but it can be really hard work. And I gotta tell you that there is no feeling more exhilarating for a struggling blogger than getting on the blogroll of one of your coveted blogs. Its like you’re a blogroll virgin again; touched for the very first time, except this time, it actually feels fabulous and you don’t get all sweaty. I, for one, intend to do my best to maintain what blogroll karma I have thanks to the likes of Jon Swift and skippy the bush kangaroo.

Enjoy Blogroll Amnesty Day (I’ll do my best to update):

WTF Is It Now???

Zippidy Doo Da

Chuck for…

The Art of Peace

Three Sticks

The Barefoot Bum

My view of it

Rotus

Drinking Liberally in New Milford

Kikos House

Konagod

The Political Cat

The Great Endarkenment

Newshoggers

Publius Endures

Also, in the miscellaneous category:

• Do you like comics and cartoons? Check out Nature’s Grafitti whose latest is Beesus.
• Flawedplan of Writhe Safely simply has excellent taste and excellent taste should always be rewarded.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge some of the unsung heroes of Nevada’s corner of blogtopia on this very important day in history:

• Desert Beacon is by far the best blogger in Nevada and perhaps the world.
• Scandalmonger of Vote Gibbons Out celebrates the the scandal that is our state government, lead by America’s Worst Governor, Jim Gibbons. In unforgettable images!
• Although he’s a bit of a dullard sometimes, I do make it a habit to read Dullard Mush.
• My sistah in Las Vegas, Sin City Siren, does her best to keep up the feminist fight.
• Reno Rambler keeps track of all things bicycle. He also has excellent taste and is a school teacher. A saint in other words.
• And of course for all things Carson City, Nevada, AroundCarson is a must.

Similar Posts:

• Why Jon Swift Shifts The Minx into Top Gear
• Newspaper To Local Blogs: Drop Dead
• Minx Is Ms. Under 300,000

---

Enjoy this post? Leave a comment below or subscribe to my feed. You also can sign up for email delivery by clicking here.

Subscribe via RSS or Email

Click the icon to subscribe. You know you want to.

Reno and Its Discontents Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved · A Reno Fabulous Media Production · Powered by WordPress and ElegantBlue