The Egotistical Priest
An irreverent and opinionated discussion of the many classes
in the World of Warcraft gaming universe.
On Links
by Vonya
I take my links very seriously.
If I link to someone over in my sidebar, it’s because I feel they have something that the people who visit this site may find interesting or useful.
I have a lot of criteria that a blog must meet before I will link to it in my sidebar.
1) It must be mostly WoW related.
2) It must have useful information.
3) It must have interesting information.
4) It must be updated on a regular basis with said useful or interesting information.
I’ve got my eye on a few more blogs that aren’t linked. I check in about once a week to see if they’ve updated, and if so, with what.
There are a few blogs that I’ve currently got linked that haven’t updated in a while (or if they have, it’s been meaningless posts, like this one that I’m typing now). I’m watching them, and if they don’t resume their old behavior of useful posting on a regular basis (at least once a week) then I’m going to remove them from my sidebar.
Something which is useful but impossible to read probably won’t get linked. Something that’s full of interesting stories but no real information on how to play the game or what they learned won’t get linked. Something that has precious gems of wisdom but is only updated once in a blue moon when the swamp gasses from Mars reflect off of the moonbeams from Alpha Centauri won’t get linked.
I have a ton of other websites that I visit. But if they do not meet those four criteria, they go in my personal bookmarks rather than on my link list.
If I have not linked to you and you’d like to be considered, send me an email. But don’t be offended if I don’t link to you. Even if I go to your site and love it, I’m going to watch it for a while before I decide whether to add you or not. Blogging goes through a veritable roller coaster of fun and agonizing responsibility. Someone who posts five times a day may burn out quickly, and have a month where they post nothing at all.
And having a giant wall of links over on the side isn’t going to encourage people to visit you. If I were a visitor to my site, I’d be intimidated by too many links, and I’d want to know something about them before I click on them.
I have to look at every site from the eyes of a visitor to my site. What do YOU want to see and read? Thus the four criteria above.
The links will move around. They may disappear and reappear. But if they’re over there, I found something I thought was linkworthy in them, and I’ll bet you will too.
August 29th, 2007
[...] August 29, 2007 @ 7:46 am } · { Administrative } Ego gave me something to think about in her post this morning. She stated what her standards were in chosing a blog to add to her blogroll. I [...]
August 29th, 2007
Very interesting. I’ve struggled with the contents of my links list (which is far longer than yours) and how I should determine who and what to link to. I am currently using the following criteria:
1. Druid blogs and resources are pretty much a shoe-in. I link to new blogs and try to mention them to help generate some initial traffic, hoping to encourage their author’s to continue posting. I greatly envy the activeness of the Priest blog community so anything I can do to help out new Druid bloggers is a plus. If after a few weeks the blog author suddenly drops off the face of the planet, I’ll remove the link. I may change this to “dimming” the link out, however, if I think the information that’s been provided previously may be of use.
2. The standards I apply to blogs that aren’t Druid related are higher than those that are. I am trying to find at least one really good blog for each class (Priests have so many fantastic ones, this one included). My general criteria for a “really good” non-Druid blog are: a) interesting content, b) intelligent analysis, c) frequent updates, and/or d) a sense of style. This blog, of course, fits all of the above. =)
3. If you’re in my guild, you get a link. Unless you start posting drunken soundclips of me from night 1 of Karazhan. Not cool.
Despite the aforementioned criteria, I can’t imagine that I would ever refuse someone a link that requested it. I’m too much of a pansy.
August 29th, 2007
sigh. I’m feeling under the weather, may only wind up getting one or two posts today. Can I get an exemption for that “regular” requirement?
(grin)
August 29th, 2007
Zingiber: Absolutely not! What else would I have to do at work besides read your blog? =)
August 29th, 2007
Sounds like a good set of reasons for when to link. Much better than mine, which can best be summarized as “’cause I felt like it”. Might even inspire me to try writin’ about some useful tips and strategies, instead of just stories for my own amusement. But I wouldn’t hold my breath …
Anywho, ya got a nice blog here. I’ve learned a bunch, which I figure outta make me better at my job. /salute
August 29th, 2007
You make me feel quite proud to, so far, have made the grade. I love your blog, and since I’m leveling a Draenei Priest alt, I am always delighted at your insight.
Of course, after posts like I made today, it makes me sad to think I have to keep making helpful and informative posts rather than posting more stories and recaps.
SHORT stories and BRIEF recaps.
I can see a day when I run out of tips, tricks, guides and suggestions.
Without humor, where will I be?
August 29th, 2007
@Ego
You have standards? I couldn’t tell… Though maybe that’s why my posts get caught in the “spam” filter…
But I agree, your one of the few blogs that doesn’t just link everything and any anything. Most of the time I won’t even bother with the links because I don’t know what I’m getting myself into.
Hopefully your wisdom will influence other bloggers.
@Big Bear Butt
One thing you have to remember about World of Warcraft and the Deveoplers at Blizzard they seem to be pretty random. And the game is ever changing… Soon you’ll have to advise the best spec for level 80 which might be Boomkin hands down everyone else is being mocked at for being Feral or healing. Who knows what the future holds for any class for that matter.
The thing is people can learn from stories and recaps of your instance runs. While they may only be stories to you someone else might go oh look at that we shouldn’t stand in the fire. Its all a matter of perspective. A lot of what I hold to be common sense a lot of people have no clue about… Sometimes its those little things that help out the most. Oh all Bears cant live without blah blah blah someone might not know about it
And if they do or disagree its sure to make for some interesting discussion 
August 29th, 2007
I like your plan a lot. And after reading Mania’s rationale for a blogroll page I had decided to do the same thing myself–I am still in the “emptying boxes and finding a place for everything” mode at my new home, so it’s not done. Yet.
*blink* And I’m flattered…no, honored!…to be on the front page. Now if I can only live up to the responsibility!
August 29th, 2007
To me it’s always amazing how strong of a WoW Blog community there is. Yeah, there’s 9 million subscribers (or whatever the number is these days), but most of them look like the WoW dude from South Park. Amirite? Not even close.
I agree with Egotistical Priest… I think some blogs pin links to every blog they find as some piece of flair on their suspenders. Sure it helps me find new blogs when I have time to click the 200 blog links, but do I really learn anything new from those blogs that haven’t posted since February?
So, thanks for letting me stop in. I’ll see you around.
August 29th, 2007
My standards are much more lax. Any link to me will involve a link back to them.
That policy works only because I don’t get very many linked to me. Success!
August 30th, 2007
[...] left. I am definitely going to create a separate Links page instead of that long list of blogs, as other bloggers have done. Once those to things are done, I may well revert to a bit cleaner 2-column [...]
August 30th, 2007
I’m probably one of the most guilty when it comes to having “dead” links on my blogroll.
The thing is that a lot of those dead links are to people who linked to me very early in the lifespan of my blog, or who commented on my early posts. Who basically reassured me that what I was writing was worth reading. And my link back to them is to show them that I deeply appreciated that.
And now, they haven’t updated for a while. They’ve probably left the game, or stopped blogging, and I know that I should probably remove the link. But still, keeping the link up is sort of like hoping that they’ll return.
August 31st, 2007
@Everyone
Drunken soundclips are highly encouraged.
Also, I agree, there’s an amazing WoW blogging community that I never even knew existed. I’m amazed at how many priest blogs there are — and on top of that, how GOOD they all are. It’s not like I’m finding a bunch of priest blogs that are awful, they’re all of them excellently done.
@Bear
Pffft, without humor, you wouldn’t be on the list. *winks* Also, I’m surprised at the topics I have still available, I’m sure you won’t run out of things to blog about. ^^
@Zasp
pffft, your comments get caught in the spam filter because I have it automatically catching all stealthed comments. No rogues allowed here, no sir. SOMEONE keeps stealing my wallet….