Asymmetrical Information

This may not be much use about the size of the blogroll, but a number of tech sites (especiallu freeware and shareware) have a seperate links page. Maybe have "Read Every Day" blogs on the regular page with a "More Good Blogs" link to another?

Actually, Megan, I'm rather intrigued by your assertion that the "value" of the links goes down as the number you link goes up. I don't think that's quite the case. As an economist, you might want to consider this, as it seems to follow a pattern I've noticed with certain kinds of economic activity.

My blogroll isn't as big as yours, although it's big. I've had you on it forever (and by the way, thank you so much for adding me to yours--it means a lot, I'm a fan of your work).

But anyway, my point is this: yes, I suppose that in some way, my link off your blogroll would be "worth more" if I was one of only, say, 10 people you link.

And yet a large blogroll provides a service to readers. I've been surprised by people who tell me they use my large blogroll as their main jumping-off point. There also seems to be a phenomenon at work whereby, if you see the same weblog on blogroll after blogroll, you start to think, "Gee, maybe I should check this out."

I think I would rather be listed on 100 different blogrolls that had 100 entries on them, than I would to be listed on 10 blogrolls with only 10 entries on them. Yes, my immediate "value" on any one of those ten goes up, but overall, my "market saturation" is lower.

There seems to also be an intrinsic sort of "gift economy" among bloggers. We spread recognition of weblogs we recognize to be good, even if we don't read all of them every day. There's a certain amount of informal quid pro quo, yet it's self-regulating: the trash gets taken out eventually.

I would not be all that quick to make your blogroll smaller. I think there's an intrinsic value to all blog readers that a lot of better blogs have long blogrolls. Long-term it seems to increase traffic for everyone involved--and for all that some bloggers apologize for their big blogrolls, there don't seem to be all that many complainers.

Again I'll note, by the way:

I have discovered some of my very favorite weblogs by the simple fact that I've seen the same one on the blogroll of a half-dozen or more other blogs.

When I see someone listed on a very long blogroll, I do not assume, "oh that's all trash, I won't look at that." I almost see it like a stream of data, or commercials on TV. You see the same names popping up over and over, you start to get curious.

The value you provide to me, as your reader, with that long blogroll is that you're participating in that stream. You've given a moderate endorsement--"this blog may be interesting, I noticed it for some reason and didn't hate it"--and if I see a bunch of other bloggers reaching that conclusion, I may just go there.

If you blogrolled only 10, would I more regularly visit those 10? Honestly, I doubt it. My tastes may not match yours quite so perfectly.

There's got to be some sort of economic law I'm describing here. If not, there should be one.

Stop calling me Megan.

Oops. Sorry.

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