Armed Prophet has no real animosity toward the "ubiquitous Professor," Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit. (In fact, he's so ubiquitous that the preceding link is just this side of worthless. He doesn't need links from bloggers with my kind of readership; rather it's those of us small-readership bloggers who appreciate the occasional link (which I've been fortunate enough to get on a couple of occasions.))
That said, I find I've been clicking over to Reynolds' site less and less. Why is that? Because of posts like this one, where the sole text (hyperlinked in original, but not here) consists of:
- DONALD SENSING has all sorts of interesting stuff. Just keep scrolling.
Look, I know Reyolds is a "linker," in blogosphere parlance, and indeed his links to new and interesting blogs are part of what keeps the blogosphere new and interesting. He's like a venture capitalist, where his return is not oodles of money but oodles of hits and almost unparalleled stature.
But in recent months, I've seen far too many posts like the one above. First there's the fact that Sensing's One Hand Clapping blog (fine, there's a link) gets hits on its own, not to mention plenty of links from Reynolds on a fairly regular basis. Then there's the related point that Sensing is a fellow Tennessean, which gives the appearance of impropriety regionalism.
Neither of the above issues would matter in the least if Reynolds had answered one question that simply begs to be begged: Why should I go read those posts?
Look, prof. I don't have the abilty to stop time like that one guy in that Nicholson Baker book! I've got places to go, people to meet, things to do, posts of my own to blog! You've gotta give me a reason why I should take a few minutes out of my day to read one of your friends' websites.
This isn't personal. I don't want (or expect) a link from him, and for all I care I could never get another. I also could add several caveats to the above comments, mostly based around the obvious fact it's his site and he can do what he wants and my choice is not to read it. The point is, I'm not reading it.
Maybe that's how the blogosphere works in the long run. You find your "in" with a blog like Instapundit that reflects your interests, and as your blogic knowledge expands, you start to find things on your own and favorite sites outside of your old circles. Like friends in the real world: you make new ones, fall out with others, and check in from time to time with the ones you have less time for.
Well, I have less time for Instapundit these days. But I still read the almost-as-ubiquitous blogs of Sullivan and Kaus, on a near-daily basis, as I did when I began. Surely that has something to do with the fact that they're writers. But I do read what Reynolds writes for his MSNBC column. Back at the original page though, I make a rule of skipping any post that ends with "Heh" or "Indeed" or "Read the whole thing."
Anyway, I do have other things to do. To start with, I need to make some dinner.
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