Blogroll Update

Hi, everybody, and welcome to the weekend!  As you may have noticed, our spring cleaning around the blog has gone very well (Thank you, Hermione!).  I wanted to follow up on our recent blogroll poll.  MBS readers confirmed by a wide margin my belief that the blogroll is valuable and worth the time it takes to maintain.

By a 2-to-1 margin, you said you weren't very interested in links to blogs written in languages other than English.  I have mixed feelings about this.  My inclination is to return links from legitimate blogs with similar content.  In addition, an English-only policy seems uncomfortably provincial to me.  However, as a practical matter, my lack of understanding of languages like Spanish, German, Czech, and Danish leaves me unable to assess the content of these blogs.  A link from me is a recommendation, or at least a suggestion.  I don't feel as though I can send MBS readers to a blog that I am unable to read.  I may change my mind, but for now, that's how we will handle this question.

The alphabetical versus chronological vote was a lot closer than I expected.  While a majority preferred the status quo alphabetical list, a sizable minority opted for the most recently updated format.  The only practical solution was to do both.  If you haven't seen it yet, I added a time-based blogroll at the bottom of the right column.  By default, it displays only the most recent 25 blogs.  However, readers can expand it to show all blogs.

I'm pretty enthusiast about this new blogroll.  Were I inclined toward hyperbole, I might claim that it's bigger than the Universe and better connected than the Network.  But I'll let you be the judge.  Whether you're looking for an old favorite or seek to discover the latest and greatest, I think you'll find there's something here for every spanking enthusiast.

I was pleased to see that the results from the content question were in line with my current practice.  The types of blogs you said you wanted to see linked are the same ones I've been trying to find.

I'm still pondering some sort of category notation on the alphabetical blogroll.  The challenge is that many blogs fit into multiple categories.  I don't want five little marks after a blog name.  Nor do I want to list a versatile blog in five different places.  At that point, the updates become insane.

I am grateful to MBS readers for telling me what you like (and sometimes don't like).  Working together, I believe we can make this a better blog.