Monday, March 11, 2013

Administrative Question

I've been feeling like I'm a little tired of my layout.  Specifically, I feel like my blog roll is getting out of hand, and it's something that's hard for me to keep updated.  I follow around 150 blogs, but I do so in my reader, so I never really look at other people's blog rolls.  Last night I decided to remove it from the sidebar, and I do feel like it helped clean things up a bit.  What do you guys think?  Is it something you refer to, or am I OK without it?

Here's a picture for you to look at while you think about it.

{downtown}

28 comments:

  1. Hmmm, I, for one, use Bloglovin' so don't refer to anyone's blogrolls. :)

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    1. Thanks for that info. I still haven't quite figured out Bloglovin' - what is it exactly? The logo kind of freaks me out!

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    2. Haha, the logo freaks me out too! It puts me off. I don't want some scary naked chick on my blog, lol (though I believe you can choose from several different logos?)

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  2. I do check out others blog rolls to find new trolling sources.

    (Oh and forgot to thank you for mentioning Reader a while back. Am now firmly addicted to using this RSS reader. What an improvement over outlook!).

    That said, I hate where mine is located and the space it takes, as well (theme formatting that can't be changed)... and also don't bother updating it!

    Don't know if that was constructive!
    Nice pic. ;-P

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    1. It was constructive, thank you! I've also considered making the blog roll a separate page under the header, but it would be so much work, and it wouldn't solve the issue of updating.

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    2. Apparently Google Reader is being discontinued as of july 2013! Just got a pop up today. ..

      Guess I had better check out Bloglovin after all...

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    3. I know. I'm kind of mad at them!

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  3. I love Bloglovin. I've been adding at least 5 new blogs a day to my feed and always know when someone has posted something new. I tend troll bloggers comment section for new blogs as many of the people who comment are new to me bloggers.

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  4. I took my blogroll down some time ago...it just takes up too much room! I do occasionally check out other folks blogrolls, but more often click across to a new blog that is mentioned in an actual post. Hope this helps.

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    1. It really does take up a lot of room, especially when it's so long! I also tend to discover new blogs through links in ones I'm already reading.

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  5. I used to have a blogroll but I got rid of it too. I used google reader to read my blogs.
    It is nice to see be able to promote others on your blogroll, but my side bar was just getting way too full.... in fact, I'm reaching that point again - I want clean and simple. One day I'll get round to it :)

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    1. I agree - I really want to promote the blogs I love to read, but I don't want to make mine unreadable because it's so crowded! I'm trying to figure out what else I can get rid of from my side bar, but not having much luck.

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  6. Thanks for the photo to help along the thinking process. I got rid of mine quite a while back for the same reason, it's too much on my page. I like a clean blog for me. The 8 billion blogs I follow are all listed still under my profile. I don't know what bloglovin is really but it sounds like all the cool kids are doing it, maybe I should look into it? I just got Disquis for my comments to get rid of the pervy or spam comments I get on occasion... I feel like I've caught up to some of the cool kids a little bit.

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  7. I just make it so it's the last 10 people to post, and include all my blogs I follow :)

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    1. This is a great idea! I find huge blogrolls a bit overwhelming. Seeing the lastest ten would be a way to promote great blogs without it being too much.

      I forced myself to jump in to Bloglovin and figure it out. I quite like it.

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  8. there's way too many good blogs to keep a blogroll updated, and you're right about it muddling the sidebar visually. 150 is a lot to keep up with! i was adding the blogs i follow over to my wordpress account and thought my list 70-ish was a lot...

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  9. Sometimes I do check out other people's blogrolls, but if you want to clean up your look, it's the first thing to get rid of I guess!

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  10. When I started reading blogs in 2009 I found a lot of new blogs through blog rolls, but for the last couple years I tend find them through comments or sites like Pattern Review and BurdaStyle instead. I use a reader too, but comment on the real site so I do sometimes look at them though.

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  11. I've wondered about the same problem aswell, and I removed the blog roll. I use Bloglovin (you don't have to use the frealy woman logo), it's easy, and I prefer it to Google Reader because I can actually see the layout of the blog instead of the default Google Reader layout. Plus adding new RSS feeds is super easy - and the app for the phone works well too (still waiting for the ipad app though).
    I tend to add new blogs when reading interesting comments or when the blog is mentioned in another blog post, so I'm not using blogrolls that much! Hope that helps..

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    1. Thanks for all your input, everybody! This gives me a lot of creative ideas I hadn't thought of. I really appreciate it!

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  12. Hi again Gail, I've just read that Google Reader is closing July 1st, you might have to make the move earlier :)

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  13. I do look at other people's blogrolls from time to time. I limit the room mine takes up on my blog by having only the 25 most recently updated ones show up--that means it's not always the same list showing but everyone gets their turn when they post.

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    1. Yours is one of the ones I actually do look at occasionally! I like this idea, I may set something like that up.

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  14. Once in awhile, I might check out someone's blog roll, but only if I'm bored and have time.

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  15. I've noticed I get a fair amount of traffic TO my blog from the blog lists on other people's blogs, I don't know if that's a factor for you.

    I have occasionally looked at peoples blog rolls for possible new blogs to read, and have sometimes had posts catch my eye. A friend mentioned to me just the other day that she'd added a whole heap of new blogs to her reader after taking a look through the blog list on my blog.

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    1. Well, bummer! Now that I've decided to do the ten most recent blogs thing, I can't figure out how to do it! I don't want to link it to my Google Reader because that's all messed up, and it's going to evaporate in a few months anyway. Anybody have any tips? I reeeeeeaaaalllly don't want to have to enter all the blogs I follow one by one!

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