The Role of the Roll, and why it matters

Per an email I received this morning, I’ve been nominated for Best Religion Blog in the Bloggers Choice Awards. Frankly, I know this isn’t the best religion blog out there, but I’ll put up the link for voting when I have it; it will go in the upper right corner of my page.

I’ve been mulling the role of the Blogroll (that list of “Blogs and Sites” that runs down the left side of my blog). Occasionally I receive requests to add blogs, but each time I am torn, and I generally do nothing.

The Blogroll started out as a list of blogs I read (like the Muqata). Then I added some blogs that mentioned me, out of gratitude (like Ari Kinsberg). I also added a couple of blogs I respect, even though they don’t link to me (like HaEmtza and Hirhurim).

A question: When I include a blog, am I-
Telling people, “Go read this?”
Telling the world, “I like reading this?”
Saying, “These people link to me, so I’m linking back?”
Letting people know, “Hey, these other blogs are out there, in case you were wondering?”
Or just being kind to others and giving them a boost?

Of course, removing blogs is a whole other matter. I don’t think I’ve done that, even for the ones I barely read if ever, but I am sometimes tempted. Jack, you sometimes have posts that make me wonder whether I can, in good conscience, send people your way... but then you post something else that I just love (like the Leningrad Cowboys and Russian Red Army Choir). I should really accept that the Renegade Rebbetzin has left the building, but I can’t bear to remove my all-time favorite blogger from the roll.

But let’s get down to business: Why does any of this matter? Why is RWAC wasting your time with a Hamlet-ish “to link or not to link” monologue? Two reasons:

1. The blogroll conundrum underscores the way that much of life is a replay of adolescence and high school. (I read a book called Stargirl, recently, which also reminded me of that fact. Didn’t like the book. Too heavy-handed to be meaningful for me, but probably perfect for adolescents as it will validate all of their fears and doubts about themselves.)

Here we are with our blogs, so many of us looking for others to link to us so that we will become more popular, better known, more successful, so that more blogs will link to us, so that we will become more popular, better known, more successful, so that more blogs will link to us, so that… you get the point, or the lack of a point. It's a popularity chase that seems more instinctive than rational.

The hunt for popularity is a Jewish problem too. We are taught that the opinions of others are a check on our own egos (Pirkei Avos 2:1), and we are taught to learn from everyone (Pirkei Avos 4:1), but we are also taught not to overemphasize popularity and not to follow the crowd when the crowd is wrong (Sh’mos 23:2).

2. And then second, this matters because it ties in to a major problem I face at shul. What do you publicize, how do you select? One person has this cause, another one has that cause, to whom do you give a platform, and which platform do you assign? It’s a political nightmare.

One person comes back from Israel and wants to speak about her trip. Another one came back from a trip through Eastern Europe. A third one volunteers for a tzedakah, another one for a soup kitchen. Five people want to put printouts of their favorite emails and Dvar Torah sheets from their kids' schools, for everyone to read.

Even if they are all interesting, all worthwhile – which is not a given - you still need to make choices, rather than flood everyone. So do you shut down everything? Bad idea. But then how do you handle it?

Don’t look to me for answers; I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my Blogroll.