A community of blogrolls
What is a blogroll and how do we create communities around it?
Most of us have used or created a blogroll. They are personal, curated lists published on individual websites. One question that comes up is: Is it possible to build a community around blogrolls?
What is a Blogroll?
Simply put, a blogroll is a list of links published on a personal website. In the early days of blogging, the blogroll was manually created and curated. The blogger will add their favorite links, and maybe some notes to accompany them. The American journalist David “Doc” Searls was credited with coining the phrase in a blog post from 2000.
Over the years, the blogroll evolved from a static list (manually curated, mostly with links to friends, family, or other personal connections) to a dynamic one- based on RSS feeds, with embedded content that is automatically updated.
Some people create a dedicated page for blogroll, with a comment section or not, or use different plugins to create the list as a column on their homepage. Others are making blogrolls on their About page or Now page. For example, the Blogger and WordPress ecosystems have options to easily create blogrolls.
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In the times before the search, aggregators, and social media feeds, the blogroll was a discovery tool, connecting people with ideas and stories in a decentralized way.
An inherent feature of a blogroll is that the links are selected by a human, giving them a “quality check”. There are more chances to read something if it’s recommended by a friend or someone you appreciate.
With a blogroll, both the reader and the writer have control. As a writer, you can control what you recommend. As a reader, you can control how are you reading it: quickly scan the link, or have a deep dive into it. Then, you can save that link in a note-taking app, add it to an RSS feed, or bookmark it.
A curated list is something personal. You take the time to select the links and decide what and how to include them. And this will show your personality. Because of this, a blogroll is more than a following list. It shows intent and curation.
For example, Medium has an option called Blogroll, that will show the people you follow on Medium. Even if it’s a good discovery tool, it’s impersonal, as I can’t express my decisions there.
The Community of Blogrolls
Some people may find it nostalgic as it talks about the early days of blogging and an era before intrusive algorithmic feeds.
But with the development of AI tools, spam, and SEO-optimized articles the experience of the web search is a horrible one, where the chances to discover something new minimal. The 404 Media team has made a good analysis of this change. Everyone goes online to learn new things, and to connect with close friends. When your search or feed is clogged with spam and bots, it defeats the whole purpose.
The questions that can guide the discussion forward are:
Is it possible to have a community of readers and writers that use the blogroll as an alternative route to discoverability?
Can we build on top of that, and create better social tools, that support the user?
Can we have a blogging etiquette and open-source standards that offer control, portability, and stability?
I don’t have a clear answer, but this is the beauty of a community: you publish your ideas, and pool resources to find a solution.
