After very little thought, I impulsively deleted the blogroll. Tim has been on my case for about six months now that it needed to be trimmed, and at some point I have to face facts- a not insignificant portion of our blogroll was dead. And I don’t mean dead links- I mean dead bloggers. Ex-bloggers. Bloggers who have ceased to exist.
I then decided to try and trim it, but it had become such a mangled mess of names and links I didn’t remember that I decided to just delete the whole damned thing. Over the course of the next few weeks we will build the links back up, so if you are not on there and feel you should be- that is what has happened. Don;t get your knickers in a twist- if I think you are interesting you will make it back up there.
However, being on the blogroll may no longer be a good thing. I have four new categories (and this I did put some thought into). The categories are:
Blogs John Reads
Blogs Tim Reads
Blogs We Both Read
Blogs We Monitor and Mock as Needed
If you see anything that is obviously missing, throw it in the comments. Otherwise, bear with us as we rebuild the list.
*** Update ***
Apparently I have botched the entire blogroll. Way to go, Tim. Couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you, and you pressured me until I did something rash. Does anyone know how to code WordPress websites?
*** Update #2 ***
SERIOUSLY. Does anyone know how to work with WordPress? My other guru seems to have died (or is no longer answering my email).
Duane
Dammit John. Just dammit.
capelza
*cries*
matt
I don’t know if you’re interested, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a Veterans issues category for sites like IAVA, Fisher House, ect.
Also, http://www.intel-dump.com is the best blog you never had linked, imo.
Robert
The Google cache is from yesterday:
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:Q1yLIlmv6mAJ:www.balloon-juice.com/+www.balloon-juice.com&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca
If you are looking for an intact blogroll with code, it still has one.
Hyperion
when the dust settles, i hope there IS a blogroll as i am accustomed to using yours to get to my favs. i liked your selections…i would never have found Right Wing Nuthouse otherwise. that Moron guy (sorry, couldn’t resist) actually has a brain and sometimes he even uses it.
caustics
I’d throw in Kung Fu Monkey and Pharyngula.
While I’m at it, I’ve always thought this guy deserves a wider audience. Not political per se, but absolutely brilliant observations. Plus he’s down with J.G. Ballard.
myiq2xu
My local bakery doesn’t sell blogrolls. Are they for breakfast or dinner?
yet another jeff
Rude Pundit, of course.
incontrolados
Don’t forget The Editors.
Not that you would . . .
I looked at the wordpress FAQ’s but didn’t see anything helpful. Sorry.
b-psycho
Don’t get too beat up over WP issues. My comments section was inoperative for the past 7 months & I didn’t realize it until recently.
Mike P.
Oh, I don’t know. I kinda like seeing (at the moment I write this) Crooks and Liars listed under “Center to Right.” We really are making political progress in this country!
Mark
As long as Hewitt’s listed far enough to the right to be off my 20″ screen everything’s cool from here
Tim in SF
John, your blog is far more interesting and valuable to advertisers without the blogroll. Less links = more value for the few links that remain. With a page rank 7 site like yours, you should get at least a couple hundred bucks off each ad on your page.
sab
Jeez. For future reference, I did kind of rely on your blogroll for many of my favorites. Now I have to figure out my own favorites list to remember who I’ve forgotten. I’m already having to deal with the issues of my spouse and I sharing a computer so we override each other’s drop-down list. So I’ve used blogrolls to keep track of my favorites. If NPR yells at that puppy with the heart spot because I forgot to read their blog today, it’s your fault!
incontrolados
big dittos — or is it mega dittos — or is it you’re a great ‘merikun — dittos
to Mark.
Jon Swift
I do hope you will consider my modest blog for inclusion on your new blogroll. Balloon Juice has been on my blogroll for quite some time.
Jon Swift
I do hope you will consider my modest blog for inclusion on your new blogroll. Balloon Juice has been on my blogroll for quite some time.
ConservativelyLiberal
Thanks for the great site guys! I am glad to call this place my online blogging home.
I am sure that you can get things straightened out at that end. Maybe create some new categories:
The Right (the good right)
The Center (ditto)
The Left (ditto)
The Loony Bin (self-explanatory)
Maybe have a category that changes weekly, and call it:
The Circular Firing Squad
;)
Make7
Can’t you just use the Links Manager within Word Press? Or have you deleted everything associated with your blogroll?
I think they have a forum over at the Word Press website where you could likely get some answers if you posted your questions.
____________
And Robert, it would be nice if in the future you could make your links shorter than a full Google cache address.
laneman
Keep teh links fewish and to what you suggest, rather than the link fest that is what I tend to see most of them as.
Tim F.
Bwahahahaha. While you’re unbreaking the site, how about activating polls? I’ve only been on your case about that since 2005.
AkaDad
I can has blogroll now plz?
Rome Again
Damn, you two fight like you’re married or something.
I love this little tidbit:
Uhh, John? Do you have any idea how codependent that sounds?
I’ve come to the conclusion that I really don’t want to know much more about your uh “professional” relationship.
Rome Again
Is that AkaChildren-speak?
yet another jeff
Hmmm…how about an actual blogroll category for “navel gazing” in addition to the category for posts?
mrsnrub
I worked on a wordpress site once, but it was like 3 years ago…
Not sure I can help, but I can see what I can do…
Krista
I’ve worked with it a bit. Add me on to your MSN Messenger, and I’ll do my best to help you out. I can’t promise success, though…
Krista
Or, if you want, just email me a list of the links you want in, and in what categories you want them, and set me up (temporarily, of course) to access the back-end of the site, and I’ll see if I can add them in for you. Whatever you prefer.
laneman
gotta love the hot-chick admins :o
tufdaawg
good to see that “dailykos” is listed as center to right. and sadly! no, also.
Tim F.
Until John fixes whatever happened to the blogroll, that is where all of the links go.
Punchy
Can you add a link to mlb and nfl.com? You post enough about sports to justify it, and that way I ken check this site on sunday morn, then hop on over to football to track my fantasy players.
Gracias.
The Other Steve
is mlb.com and nfl.com center right? or are they left?
Richard Bennett
Personally, I let the WordPress “links” feature handle it. You can assign weights to links to control how they’re sorted, and it all works pretty well.
Psycheout
Any blogroll that doesn’t include Blogs 4 Brownback is somehow incomplete.
Good luck with building a better blogroll. Sounds like fun.
Cernig
Nice to see Newshoggers there already. Thanks, John and Tim!
John, why don’t you just build the blogrolls with Blogrolling.com and then add their code to the sidebar? Y’know, like normal untechie folks :-)
Regards, C
Lee
I nominate Radley Balko at The Agitator
Probably not a real popular site with the more liberal readers here, but an excellent libertarian blog.
Spork
I second The Agitator. Radley is a bit more libertarian than I, but for tracking abuses of authority and blatant injustice, he’s invaluable.
Pixie
Dont forget Digby!!