Well… I suppose it depends on what kind of blogs you’re reading. Most of what I write is about me and my navel gazing, so there’s no real need to link.

Which would support your selfish theory.

Very interesting post. Being a ‘new’ blogger (just over 2 years) I never found this to be how blogging ‘was’ or ‘is’.

I see blogging as a completely selfish act. From myself who writes about stupid crap like our 5 cats, to people that write more serious posts. And can I mention those whose sites are riddled with ads so they make money? Isn’t that selfish too?

I think this death to links has happened, sadly before I even started. It is a fantastic idea and makes the sharing of concepts and opinions much stronger. It is a shame it’s not done as much anymore.

Probably why I like your blog so much. You haven’t let it die.

I’ve actually, within the last month, tried to make more of an effort.  Especially because most of the people who read my blog do so because someone linked to me.

I linked to *you* today, ya’ know.

I.  Am.  Perfect.

(Golly, this kid is arrogant. My own humility is obviously no match for him).

I link when I need to, or want to, rather. I mean, if I bring up another blogger’s name, or idea I’m expounding upon, then I link. It’s a basic common courtesy, I think. And I’ve only been blogging about 2 years, too.
Then again, I don’t blog even close to every day.

Like Finn, much of my blogging is all about me, my kids, my job, bitching about school, me me me so unless I link to myself, there isn’t much to link. 

I also find that as summer approaches, the blogs I read daily (or weekly now) are not posting as much so I seem to have less to actually comment on.  Which it’s kind of a bullshit excuse to rely on others to give me blogging material.

The other problem I have is that so many bloggers have gone to feeds that finding new blogs to read, which used to be easy because one could simply troll through a blogroll, is now more difficult as fewer people have blogrolls (at least in my circle) and the absence of linkage really does not lend to the ability to find new blogs to read.  I figure if I like a particular blogger, chances are I would like the blogs that person reads also.

I have a great circle of blog friends going, so I link to entries on their blogs a lot, if they’ve triggered a thought process that I’ve carried over to my own blog, or if their entry resonated with me, or even if I just refer to them in the text of my entry.  I also link if I find cool things, etc.  I’m “old school”, I guess (I have my nine year “journalversary”, as we used to call it, in September) in that I feel like blogging/journaling is a community thing, something to encourage feedback, sharing, response, opinions, etc.  Therefore, linking is not only polite, it’s a must.

This seems like a non-issue, or maybe I just don’t understand what you’re talking about.

When there’s a post I read that I want to talk about, I link to the post or the blogger.  If I mention a blogger by name, I usually link to the blogger.

Otherwise, why would I link to a blogger?  It does seem to me sometimes that some of your posts go out of their way, even illogically, to link to someone else, although if you ask me for a specific example, I can’t think of one off the top of my head.  I just remember getting that impression over the last few months.

Now that those stupid quizzes and memes have stopped cluttering up most people’s blogs, it’s less likely that people are going to link to another blogger with a (I stole this from XXX).

I’m in my fifth year blogging and I don’t think my blogging experience mirrors yours at all.  People still wrote their own material and unless there was drama, a meme or quiz, or a topic of such high interest, I didn’t see any of that behavior that you just mentioned.

I got back and forth between writing about things on my own and linking to other blogs and expanding (?) on their thoughts. 

This past week showed 6 posts on my blog and 13 links to other blogs.  An average of a little more than 2 links a day.  Last week could have been much less.  Or much more.  I don’t really know.

I think that one of the culprits, however, is the overall number of blogs out there.  I’m less likely to blog about something if I already saw it on someone else’s blog and they did a yeoman’s job with it.  If I have nothing to add, I don’t add.  I’ll comment, but I will assume that my readers (and only friends) will have already read about it somewhere else.  With a more interesting take than I would have given it to boot.

I link to bloggers but not a blog post if that makes sense? I’m not one to really right an entry about another entry I read somewhere but I will link my blogging buddies when they do something awesome (like Poppy) or need help with something.

Maybe I should start linking blogs more though. It’s food for thought, that’s for sure.

Since we’re all friends here, I will be totally honest...I actually don’t like reading blog posts with tons of links in them.  It’s almost like I have to do double or triple the work to read someone’s thoughts.  Also, it sometimes make the author look douchey because it seems that they’re like, “ooh look at me..I know all these people...I am cool!”.

That being said, I blog about me and for me.  If I link when it is highly warranted but not a lot generally.

I’m not sure when you should link or not link?  I mean if I mention then I’ll link them.  And I put them in my blog roll.  I’m sort of not really all that blogger savy at all.  Though I try.

Huh, this is interesting because I’ve had a lot of backlash from linking.

I’ve had people be pissed if their post or comment or whatever incited a post of my own - so I try to leave it out to avoid the “Oh yeah!  That person is a moron!” comments, etc. that can occur.  (For example, I didn’t link to you when I was bitching about being called a liar.)

I’ve had people be offended if I link to other bloggers and accuse me of linking as some sign of popularity or to attract attention.

*shrug* Maybe other people have experienced this enough so that they’ve cut down on linking, too?

Some people are such link whores, like making an entire sentence out of links, that drives me BATSHIT. It’s STUPID. Who’s going to click 7 links from one sentence? Chances are, then they’d get lost in some other blog and never come back. I noticed it when I first started blogging and it turned me off to linking altogether, unless it’s vitally important to the post.

And like, if I was to talk about Dooce, good or bad, I don’t link to her at all, bitch gets enough hits and I’m not trying to raise my status by being linked to her.
If I’m talking shit about someone and I link to them? Obviously, I WANT them to know I’m talking shit.

But in general, I have always tried to use my links sparingly.

what adam said in his second paragraph:

When there’s a post I read that I want to talk about, I link to the post or the blogger.  If I mention a blogger by name, I usually link to the blogger.

I link when it’s relevant, but for me it’s not relevant very often.  I also get a little tired of the over-linking.  I’ve seen the blogs that make an entire sentence out of links and it makes me a little crazy.  Rarely do I click those links because it’s overkill.  That said, I’ve found a lot of blogs through other people’s links, so I think you just have to strike a happy medium. 

I don’t think of links as a popularity indicator, nor do I get upset if someone links to me and creates their own post out of what I’ve said.  It just extends the discussion to a different venue, with probably very different viewpoints.

I started blogging in 1995...ouch...when I started there were blogrings and collabs. I really miss the collabs. We had a project each week to write on and then we linked back to the collab which in turn linked to us. Your readership went up, comments and links went up, people were social.  Now it seems that blogging has evolved into “all about me and me only” kind of thing. I don’t think anyone necessarily killed linking, I think the natural evolution of self-centeredness took over

All of you are wrong.

It was Col. Mustard, in the basement, with a crowbar.

hmm...I trackedback but do you have that function? Maybe I am just an idiot and don’t know how it works? That is more than likely the case.

I can’t make my acronyms work on my new blog so I doubt I’ll be linking much.  That makes it like work.  I don’t like blogging to be work.

I never link to people who piss me off for one reason...and it’s not passive aggressive, it’s social experimentation and so far it’s never failed.  They always comment and out themselves as the person I’m talking about.  You have no idea how many people have no clue who I’m blogging about...course that could just be because I’m incoherent.

I don’t ever remember “...bloggers would blog about something and there were brief comments usually left..and then made post of their own.” I have always seen people link when they need or want to link. 

And you know I fucking adore Sunday Smorgashboard.  I’m not sure want an illogical link is.

I also dislike the linking thing that Annie is talking about.  Drives me batshit

I also deliberately try to not link to a blog heavy with ads.  I hate them...and so does practically everyone except the person with the ads...so I try not to inflict them on anyone else.

I wish I could figure out my acronym problem.  It’s annoying me.  I like linking to who I’m talking about but I dislike hand coding a link.

PS:  I you

Truth is, I made a grand effort to join the blogging community when I started, which did lead to a few inter-blog discussions and linking. Nowadays, I’m struggling to get my shit together, and so I couldn’t be bothered to continue the efforts of promoting my blog.

Moreover, my list of daily blogs to visit has dwindled down to two. That’s not an exaggeration. If you’re looking for an ego boost, one of them is this blog.

I’m thinking it went like this “back in the day” when people like you and me started - People start a blog.  They don’t have any comments.  They aren’t used to blogging.  They don’t have many ideas.  They read others and get an idea.  So they write a blog post about it.  Then they link to the idea because they don’t want to feel bad about making people think it’s their idea.  Plus, if I link to someone I read, they might know about it and come over and comment.

Funny thing is I blogged today and linked to your toonlet post BEFORE I read this post.  This kind of thing has happened several times - I blog about something and find you and I blogged about something similar without me even knowing it.  Similar influences maybe?