To Blogroll or not to Blogroll

If I list every blog of interest that comes my way, my blogroll can get out of hand. You see some sites where the blogroll disappears down the right column into the ether and beyond.

This makes for some interesting decisions at times about who to put on the roll. Recently the author of All About Forensic Psychology approached me to let me know about his site. In my private practice outside of the university I do mainly forensic work and this site is an excellent one in that regard and one I read regularly. At the same time it is somewhat outside the area of psychotherapy technique and as a result I have not listed it.

Similarly I received an email from Oxford University Press about their blog. This appears to have some good psychology stuff on it but not all that regular (actually only on Mondays). There was a nice interview with Stephen Hinshaw recently about his book: The Mark of Shame, however not quite enough psychotherapy material to list.

Today I get an email from the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors about exchanging listings. This is what started this particular posting and I suppose the advantage of writing a blog is that when things get up your nose you can bitch about it. The email is addressed to “The Blog Editor” and goes on to tell me about the organisation and the many thousand of people they have accessing their website and all the benefits of mutual link exchanging and what a wonderful opportunity this will be for me. It then tells me if I list them they will list me (but I have to first). When I go to the front page of the blog most posts link back to something commercial. The vast majority of psychology and psychiatry blog do not push their own products or skills commercially in their posts. Many of them have advertising around the side but that is about it.

What got my goat on this email was firstly the impersonal marketing approach. Anyone who reads my blog can see clearly who I am. Secondly is the commercial nature of it. They would be making money off my link in exchange for one more notch for me up the Technorati ladder. Thirdly was the fact that for them to list me, I had to list them.

Nonetheless they are a psychotherapy website who also have some interesting general articles of psychotherapy and case studies in their library. I can’t deny the narcissistic pleasure of writing a blog and having lots of people read it or my own competitive nature and certain desire to be in the top 100 000 on Technorati. Do I list them? I am still thinking.

It seems to me that the creeping commercialisation of the blogosphere is even reaching psychology. Organisations and publishers are beginning to realise that many of the higher ranked psychology blogs access far more people than most professional journals.

Comments

[annette]

I despair about this type of approach also and wrote a bit of a rant on my own blog here: http://www.inter-actions.biz/blog/2006/09/pimp_by_blog.html. I do have a blogroll that I update and change depending on what or whom I'm reading. But the idea of soliciting for contacts convinces me that the people who do solicit don't actually understand how blogging works. I think blogrolls are precious things - they are a reflection of the writer and our time and connection is not something that's there for purchase. But then again, I guess pimping, alonside with it's accompanying oldest profession is still alive and well!

[Anthony R. Pisani]

Great post, as always. As an academic just beginning to experiment with blogging in this field, I agree completely with your "creeping comercialism" observation. If our sites begin to have the smell of serving self-interests, we will lose credibility.
One of the reasons Wikipedia has the credibility is has is that it is non-profit. The creator of it has launched a different for-profit company, but recognized that the integrity of Wikipedia as an information sources depends on its independence from commercial interests. People post good, accurate information to Wikipedia in a way they never would if there were financial gain associated with it. I think the same is true in the blogosphere.

[dr x]

I agree with Dr. Pisani. Moreover, I would also be hesitant to add someone to my blogroll under the conditions Chris describes. I always appreciate it when someone adds me to their blogroll, but I would never make that a condition for adding a site to my blogroll. The impersonal nature of the contact only makes the matter worse.

[psychoa]

It would be one thing to receive a letter letting you know of their blog and asking you to take a look but the whole "we'll link to you if you link to us" thing is creepy.

Blogrolling, I find, comes to feel quite delicate politically. Who do you add and on what basis and what does it mean if you or you don't add someone operating within the same sphere? I find myself, for instance, wrestling with whether or not to list people I read but largely disagree with. Am I endorsing somebody's point of view by listing them or am I simply pointing my readership to something I consider interesting or relevant or written by someone in my field?

[breast lift scottsdale]

When the skin is sewn back together, it is tightened and the breast tissue is repositioned higher up on the muscle wall.

[Calvin Klein]

thank you1

[Hire Web Developers]

I agree completely with your "creeping commercialism" observation. I always appreciate it when someone adds me to their blogroll, It is abrasive post for my mind. Keep writing and updating us.