Amy Derby has a neat post up about blog etiquette. I agree wholeheartedly with her assessment of reading/commenting on others’ blogs out of some skewed sense of reciprocation. Given the number of blogs I follow, that’s way too much time taken away from work I should be doing. Besides, not everyone has thoughts that inspire me to respond. Not every post calls for a response. I don’t, either. That doesn’t mean I’m not reading. Besides, not everyone who reads this blog comments every time. I’m fine with that. That means I gotta work a little harder to bring you a topic you want to talk about, right?
But what about linking to other blogs? There I’m a bit more picky about protocol. I do link to sites that have not reciprocated, but that blog has to hold something particularly special for me or for the readers here. It’s okay if you don’t find my blog link-worthy. I may link to you for a while, but I may not. I have a TON of links and when I get in one of my housecleaning modes, the non-reciprocating are the first to go. Second to go are those blogs that have been dormant for two months. Seriously. If you’re a blogger, you gotta update once in a while. If not, I don’t care how much I admire you or love your work – your link will disappear. That’s because I view my blog roll as a service for readers. I don’t want to send people to a site that’s still talking about Memorial Day when it’s nearly Halloween.
What are your hard-and-fast rules about blogging and reading? Do you comment on every one you read? Why/why not?
Lri, I agree with this post wholeheartedly. I am getting ready to add some new cool blogs to my blog roll (I can’t believe I’ve left Amy’s off – that was not intentional…. Like you I feel the need to make room by removing those that don’t seem very active. There is one I have been hesitating to let go of because the blogger has such a great blog full of innovative ideas, but she hasn’t posted a message in four months.:(
I must say I also agree with your post.
I wouldn’t keep a link to a blog that hasn’t been updated for months. In my opinion, I don’t even understand why the author of such a blog would bother to keep it online.
I don’t comment on every blog I visit, but I do with my “regulars.” It makes for a happy BlogLand.
Nice post.
I won’t remove a blog from my blog roll for inactivity if the author has posted a “hey, I’m going to be gone for a while” message. I’ve followed blogs where the bloggers took some time off for pregnancy, medical issues, and the like, but they warned me that they would be gone for a few months, so I was just excited when they came back.
As for commenting on every blog I read, it’s just not possible. Unless I could wrangle a full-time job as a blog commenter, I’d spend my entire day commenting and would never make any money!
As it stands now, I should be writing weight loss articles, not commenting here. 🙂
I don’t comment on every blog I visit—I’d never do anything but read and comment. 🙂 I comment only when I have something to say.
I don’t pay much attention to whether someone on my blogroll links to me or not. The main reason for the blogroll is to introduce my readers to other blogs I think they will like. However, when I redesigned my blog, the blogroll didn’t make the transfer. So now I’m having to reconstruct it, and I’m sure I’ll leave someone off that I really want to include.
I need to be able to comment. I’d love to read -can’t remember the name of the blog, I think someone named Susan writes it — regularly, but she’s set up the comments so I can’t comment; therefore, I don’t go over there. I don’t comment every time on every blog I read, but if it’s set up so I CAN’T comment — which means “Choose Identity” function or Open ID function on Blogger, who won’t acknowledge my existence in any other way — the blog is tossed off the list. Or if I have to sign up to be a part of a forum/community/newsletter to read the blog — no, thanks.
If the person NEVER visits and comments on my blog, I toss it off eventually in most cases, because I think to have a “friend” you should be a friend, and that means supporting each other’s work/blogs/etc. Honey, you’re not THAT busy or important that you can’t stop by once in awhile, and if you think you are, why should I bother with YOU? Because trust me, I juggle at least a dozen projects at a time, plus I’m usually working on Broadway. So when people do the “I don’t have time” BS — that’s what it is, BS. You mean you don’t think my blog is worth it. Which is fine, but, for me, blogging and internet is INTERACTIVE, not voyeuristic. If it’s not a two-way street — my time is better spent elsewhere.
If it’s poorly written — I know, shouldn’t have to mention it, but a lot of people who find me claim they “want to” write but don’t write regularly and the blogs are full of errors and give me headaches. Those are quickly dropped.
Not updating regularly.
In fact, I’m about to do fall cleaning of my blogroll and toss off a bunch and add on a bunch of new, regularly visited blogs!