j's scratchpad

Critt types: “How simple is that? My blogroll tells you with whom I’m having a conversation.”

I use the aggregator on this blog as a blogroll. For a while, I thought about adding a traditional blogroll to the sidebar, but I decided against it. A blogroll, especially one done in the style of sj, doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about the sources I read. If you don’t know the names or what the secret codes mean, what is the value of that kind of blogroll to someone other than the blogger? (Are blogrolls for the blogger or the blogger’s audience?) (sj includes resources besides blogs–sources without RSS feeds.) But if you scout out my aggregator, then not only do you see who or what I think has some kind of value, but you have the instant opportunity to read something from those sources (though feeds roll off my aggregator and different days bring different things, like color comics on Sunday and special weekly feeds). Not to mention that it would be redundant: here’s the list of blogs I read and, gee, here’s the list again in my aggregator, since I’m lucky enough to have a blog with a public aggregator.

But is “conversation” the right word for my blogroll/aggregator? I would say it isn’t. Yes, I often find blog fodder in my aggregator, but conversation implies some kind of interaction between multiple parties. If someone posts something and I pick it up on my blog and nothing else happens, there is no further exchange, is that a conversation? Am I conversing with Critt now? Or does the conversation happen when he responds to what I’ve typed? (What happened on my blog a few weeks ago regarding Google Answers is what I would call a conversation.) How do I know that the people I read read me (aside from services like Share Your OPML, Technorati, and my referer log)?

Many times, I feel like I’m blogging in a void. I might pick up something someone wrote, but will that person notice that I’ve blogged about it? How often do I miss when people pick up what I’ve written? I frequently say something and there is no answer, not even an echo off the distant cliffs. (Then why blog, right? ‘Cause I’m trying to distract Shimon? No, that’s not it. Maybe ’cause I blog for the sake of blogging and I’m not worried about readership? Maybe cause I’m trying to reach that certain someone who hasn’t commented for ages and telephone calls and e-mails fail me?)

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2004 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.