Blogroll Cleanup?

I don't link to anyone and everyone. Call me old-fashioned, but I still cling to the notion that "surfing" the web is good. Simply using "push" technologies to "subscribe" to content is akin to using a GPS to navigate - you won't learn nearly as much as you would if you were willing to roam and explore. I've never asked anyone to link to me either, or taken it personally if they did not. Reciprocating may be blogworld courtesy I guess, but I don't consider it important. Hell, some people don't link to anyone. So how do I choose who to link to? Well I don't really have a system, but maybe I should. Generally the list is like bookmarks for me. If I link to it, I probably read it, or at least check it every day or two. But certainly my blog reading isn't this limited. Most of it is within two clicks or so though. Luckily a few of those I do link to maintain much larger blog rolls, so I just use theirs.

Every now and then I add or subtract a link. In general, if you piss me off enough or do something I view as grossly disrespectful to me or others then you're gone. This is simply taking some responsibility for what is published here. Same reason I moderate the comments. But like I said earlier, it doesn't work both ways; while I hold some respect for everyone I link to, just because I don't link to you doesn't indicate lack of respect or anything else.

So what is all this about? Oh yeah, my system. You see, normally if you don't update your blog for say, a month or so, I pull your link. People abandon blogs for a number of reasons, and if it's not important enough to you to maintain then it's not important enough for me to link to. But this winter, almost half of my blogroll is going un-updated. If I enforce my rule, half of them will be gone. And that's not the end of it. There are two other rules I am considering. Remember what I said about pissig me off? Well hello, it is not 1999 anymore, so stop making your links open in a new tab/window. I mean please, have some self-confidence, ditch the lingering abandonment issues you've been carrying since Mom left you in the Workout World nursery when you were nine. That's not the worst of it though. I know some of you like to express your artistic side with a photo in your blog header. Sweet. But does it have to take up the entire screen? Am I really supposed to scroll just to see if you wrote a post about the deuce you dropped this morning?

If I enforce those two rules, that means I shit-can another few and I'll be left linking to about four blogs. One of which will be Gewilli. At least the sun is shining. Thanks for reading.