When Even Blog Linking Gets "Political"
A thoughtful post by my personal favorite kangaroo - OK, I don't think he's really a kangaroo but I adore him and his blog - Skippy reminds me of something that seems to come up frequently in Blogtopia (yes, Skippy coined that!): who gets links and who doesn't.
Like the blogger who contacted Skippy demanding a link to his blog, I too would love, love, love a Skippy link. But you know what? I respect Skippy so I respect who he chooses to link to permanently, who he does not, and the system by which he decides which is which.
Unlike that blogger - and a scant few who have contacted me demanding rather than requesting a reciprocal link (I'm an odd choice for that since I'm neither highly trafficked nor do I go out of my way to promote myself - I feel that each blogger gets to decide which links (s)he chooses to include on his or her rolls. Look at my blog rolls and you'll see both the usual suspects as well as some that aren't usual choices but I feel are:
- a) educational
b) enjoyable
c) just good writing
d) all of the above
For myself, I'm tickled pink when someone I like and respect like David at In Search of Utopia or Max at MaxSpeaks or the General at Patriotboy or the Corrente folks or Mad Kane links to me. But I would never ask them to include me. That's entirely up to them. They have the right to link to those they choose.
And while someone like Skippy doesn't link to me permanently, I know that if I have something good, I can send it around to him and others and, if they like it, they'll give me a nod. Just as when you - my usually respectful and kind readers - share a link with me and I like it, I'll give it a nod and sometimes, it joins the blog roll.
Mutual respect is a wonderful thing. I'll take that over ego any day.
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