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Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Return of the Vermont Blogs
Jeez, there sure are a lot of them. Seems like everybody's got one these days. I'm going to have to start narrowing my criteria or something.
Cog Blog: From the folks who run the bike shop at the Old Spokes Home in Burlington's Old North End.
Orwell's Grave: Politics, etc. from Steven McArthur of Montpelier.
Poetry and Other Thoughts: By Kris Underwood of MamaSays.
MYRANT: By Stephen Bissette. He writes, "I'm a Native Vermonter who drew and wrote from a tender age and loved dinosaurs and monsters, none of which I've ever outgrown. I graduated in 1978 as a member of the first-ever class at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art, Inc., entered the comics profession and carved out a career until my retirement from the field in 1999. I made (and left) my mark with SWAMP THING, TABOO, '1963,' and TYRANT, among others."
July 25, 2006 at 11:35 AM in VT Blogs | Permalink
Comments
Wow, you're just now getting MyRant on the blogroll huh? If I'd known I would have clued you in long ago. Great blog.
You could start categorizing the blogs (e.g., political, humor, commercial, craft, etc.) and then just have links to separate pages with the blog categories. I find long alphebetical blogrolls to be pretty useless because you usually can't tell what a blog is about from its name. Perhaps a separate blogroll page with a brief description of each blog? That is more work, I realize, but it would be more useful for those of us who want to browse the VT blog offerings. Just thinking onto my keyboard...
Posted by: Bill Simmon | Jul 25, 2006 2:13:31 PM
Just providing my two cents on the subject Cathy, that as far as surfing VT blogrolls in general goes, my preference with such blogrolls when it comes to exploring them is that they are either listed alphabetical or otherwise neutrally, with no other hierarchical nature or listing within that grouping. This is because, if a blog makes it onto someones VT blogs blogroll, I would rather explore these blogs on their own merits without having them categorized in any fashion. In addition, since some people have a preference toward political or other type of blogs and therefore may give a higher priority to spending time on visiting and reading them, they may miss out in discovering some of the very unique and interesting offerings available out there if these blogs are listed under sub-categories that they are not inclined to browse within: e.g., I do not tend to bother checking out political blogs as much as I do other blogs of more interest to me, including general interest or personal blogs, so I could miss out on some interesting blogs were they categorized and listed under a sub-heading of political; especially due to time and online access constraints on my end, etc. However, the way your blogroll is structured now, I always check out each and every blog when I see it is a new or recent addition no matter what its subject may be. In this way, it also helps by trusting the judgement of the blog surfer. This also helps from breaking away from or not helping to foster the snobby culture of blog cliques that seems to be developing and growing, including within Vermont blogosphere. Those are just some of my random thoughts concerning these matters for what they might be worth. What you do on your own blog is of course your own business.
Posted by: mwb | Jul 25, 2006 2:44:24 PM
Had meant to write:
[...]
This also helps from breaking away from or not helping to foster the snobby or elitist culture of blog cliques that seems to be developing and growing, including within the Vermont blogosphere.
[...]
Posted by: mwb | Jul 25, 2006 2:49:24 PM
Yeah, I've thought about categorizing them, but I'm not sure there are really enough to make it worth doing. And I'm reluctant to do it.
I agree with Morgan's point about wanting people to visit all kinds of blogs. I organize my blogroll geographically in part because I want to break down the walls between those cliques.
I think the solution might be to organize the blogroll by county, but that would mean that I'd have to figure out where everybody's located, and that involves contacting and chasing down a number of folks. In other words, a lot of work.
Still, I think that's where I'm headed.
Bill, I hadn't heard of myrant until this morning. I found it on the VDB blogroll and added it. If you see any more that I'm missing, just holler.
Posted by: cresmer | Jul 25, 2006 2:53:27 PM
Cathy wrote:
[...]
I think the solution might be to organize the blogroll by county, but that would mean that I'd have to figure out where everybody's located, and that involves contacting and chasing down a number of folks. In other words, a lot of work.
[...]
That is an idea that just might work Cathy, although you are correct, it will take quite a bit of work. It would also be interesting and one inviting open exploration of the blogs listed.
Maybe, for new submissions, if there was an online submittable form for 802 Online for VT blogroll recommendations that could include boxes for including the county the blogger is blogging from, that might help.
As for all the existing blogs within your VT blogs blogroll, maybe some of us 802 Online regulars would be willing to volunteer to do some of the contacting and tracking down needed to help figure that out for you, so you would have a little less work and time involved. Those interested could take a block: e.g., A's thru C's or whatever.
For my part, I would be willing to volunteer take a block of blogs and doing the work needed to try to find such information and get it back to you. On my end though, I would probably need to take only one letter at a time however, just to make sure to have a better chance at getting done what I volunteer to do.
Would something like that be workable and of use to you Cathy?
By the way, one problem I foresee with a county by county sub-listing is what to do with those blogs that are team blogged from people across the state. Of course, one solution is to just list those as being Team blogs.
Posted by: mwb | Jul 25, 2006 3:10:47 PM
Thanks for offering to help, Morgan. I'll let you know if I require your capable assistance.
Posted by: cresmer | Jul 26, 2006 9:18:48 AM
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