How Should a Blogroll be Designed?

[Brian Cronin]

When the blog started up, Joe was the first one to add blogs to the blogroll. I then added a few more, and when Joe and Alex left, I kept adding and adding and adding...

And now we have a whole ton of blogs on the blogroll. Which is cool by me. There's not a single blog on the blogroll that I wouldn't mind someone seeing on our recommendation.

The only problem is, with that many blogs on the blogroll, how the heck do you keep them all separated?

For the most part, the current system is "newest blogs added go towards the bottom," but it can be pretty confusing.

A lot of people do it alphabetically, which I guess is a way to go.

I like the idea of highlighting blogs that I think are especially cool, and I wouldn't like, say, Progressive Ruin being buried towards the bottom just because it begins with a letter later in the alphabet.

Heidi at the Beat ranks blogs, which is helpful for the reader, but I dunno if I'd be down with ranking people.

So, anyone have any bright ideas on how to do a blogroll?

-Brian

[Dan Apodaca]

Is it possible to arrange it by types? You could group by subject matter and/or type of blog (reviews vs. humor vs. analysis, etc.).

[Brian Cronin]

Yeah, I considered that, too (and I might very well end up doing that), but pretty much all of them would fall into "General Commentary," no?

-Brian

[Dan Apodaca]

Yeah, I considered that, too (and I might very well end up doing that), but pretty much all of them would fall into "General Commentary," no?

-Brian

Probably. But hey, it's not your fault if the bloggers don't distinguish themselves.

Maybe a split along the lines of the commentary? Pop culture vs. business vs. personal stuff or something like that.

[Reptisaurus!]

It's a problem alright. Maybe throw some pretty colors in there. It would make the blogroll easier to read. And prettier. And more colorful.

[Brian Cronin]

Okay, so how about:

Fun/Humor

General Commentary

DC Commentary

Those are the only categories I can think of (no one seems to blog about Marvel).

-Brian

[Dan Apodaca]

Is it possible to include description blurbs for the blogs?

'Cause then you wouldn't even need categories.

[Brian Cronin]

Is it possible to include description blurbs for the blogs?

'Cause then you wouldn't even need categories.

There are descriptive blurbs when you scroll over a blog's name (at least I made blurbs, and I see them on my computer :)).

The problem with making them bigger, though, is that, like it does now, they would all still sort of blend together.

-Brian

[Dan Apodaca]

There are descriptive blurbs when you scroll over a blog's name (at least I made blurbs, and I see them on my computer).

Oh, cool. I guess I've always been too impatient to notice.

[Paperghost]

Okay, so how about:

Fun/Humor

General Commentary

DC Commentary

Those are the only categories I can think of (no one seems to blog about Marvel).

-Brian

Don't forget "old comics". from what I've seen, a lot of sites (daveslongbox, invincible superblog etc) seem to mostly cover old stuff with the odd new review. I know that's the template my site takes, simply because I find it more entertaining to read / write about old comics. Of course, not everyone might be happy being put in the "old comics" bracket (though I can't think why), but it might be something you could use.

[Brian Cronin]

True, but I'd generally classify those folks in the Fun/Humor category (same as yours - have I added you yet? I meant to add you to the blogroll awhile back).

-Brian

[Paperghost]

True, but I'd generally classify those folks in the Fun/Humor category (same as yours - have I added you yet? I meant to add you to the blogroll awhile back).

-Brian

You haven't, but my goodness, tis an honour to be considered! Thanks :)

You are of course on my blogroll - not a very big one yet, because i'm still working my way round and seeing what i like, blogwise. but i find theres almost too much material to take in from the ones listed so far so im trying not to fry my tiny little mind too quickly ;)

[Brian Cronin]

Yeah, it was easy when I only had a few blogs on the blogroll. That wasn't a problem - everyone could basically see the blogs there.

But I kept finding new ones, and it eventually got to the point where it's a big mess that people can't possibly be finding other blogs just by seeing them on our blogroll (which is why I started the "Comics Blogs Should Be Good" bit, because I figured people WEREN'T noticing blogs on the blogroll).

-Brian

[Brian Cronin]

Now I know why I didn't add you - I thought your blog was a bit too general stuff for me to put it in the blogroll (as I only put comic blogs there).

But I've seen you've begun doing more and more comic stuff on it, so on to the blogroll it goes!!

-Brian

[Paperghost]

Yeah, it was easy when I only had a few blogs on the blogroll. That wasn't a problem - everyone could basically see the blogs there.

But I kept finding new ones, and it eventually got to the point where it's a big mess that people can't possibly be finding other blogs just by seeing them on our blogroll (which is why I started the "Comics Blogs Should Be Good" bit, because I figured people WEREN'T noticing blogs on the blogroll).

-Brian

i have a similar problem with my security site, vitalsecurity.org. i had to kill blogroll links on the frontpage because there were so many, then create a standalone page for them all. then it got too crazy and i had to kill that page too. im currently pointing to a 404 for it while i try and work the problem out :confused:

[Matthew E]

I was going to suggest that you separate out comic-creators' blogs but then I saw that it was already like that.

Theoretically you could separate out comic-store-owners' blogs, but I'm not sure what's to be gained from that. Although they might like it for the... I can't quite call it advertising.

I tend to think that blogs can do three things: inform, entertain, or enlighten. (This is similar to Dan Apodaca's 'reviews vs humor vs analysis', above.) It'd be easy to group some blogs into these three (the ISB entertains, linkblogs inform, A Trout In The Milk enlightens) but what to do with the Absorbascon, which splits its time between entertaining and enlightening?

Maybe the best way is to come up with as many small-to-medium-sized categories as possible (Marvel-related blogs, linkblogs, etc.) and then take all the rest and arrange them alphabetically.