This afternoon I was meditating on my own blogroll and it occurred to me to take a quick look at Glenn’s (I wrote a quick script and automated the process—it took only a few minutes).
The following links in InstaPundit’s blogroll are either dead or apparently on hiatus:
| Blog | Status |
| AfricaPundit | Has not posted for more than a year |
| Zachary Barbera | Has not posted for more than two years |
| Blaster’s Blog | Has not posted in four months |
| BlogoSFERICS | Inactive: current posts are here |
| The Bloviator | Has not posted for more than a year |
| Moira Breen | Inactive: current posts are here |
| Keith Burgess-Jackson | Inactive: current posts are here |
| Mark Byron | Inactive: current posts are here |
| C. D. Harris | Apparently inactive |
| Frank Cagle | Apparently inactive |
| Cato the Youngest | Apparently inactive |
| Joshua Claybourn | Inactive: replacement is group blog |
| CounterRevolutionary | Has not posted for more than two years |
| Bo Cowgill | Apparently inactive |
| Demosthenes | Apparently inactive |
| Steven Den Beste | Inactive: posting on anime and occasionally at RedState |
| John Ellis | Inactive |
| Amitai Etzioni | Inactive |
| Fried Man | Apparently inactive |
| GedankenPundit | Inactive |
| Andrea Harris | Inactive: current posts are here |
| Hawspipe | Inactive |
| William Hobbs | Inactive |
| Hoosier Review | Apparently inactive |
| Horologium | Apparently inactive |
| Iberian Notes | Current posts are here |
| Kesher Talk | Current posts are here |
| Ken Layne | Apparently inactive |
| Andrew Lloyd | Apparently inactive |
| Loco Parentis | Current posts are here |
| Kieran Lyons | Has not posted in nearly one year |
| Iain Murray | Apparently inactive |
| Charles Murtaugh | Apparently inactive |
| Fredrik Norman | Apparently inactive |
| Oliver & Watson | Has not posted in nearly one year |
| Dawn Olsen | Apparently inactive |
| Bill Peschel | Current posts are here |
| Quare | Current posts are here |
| Milton Rosenberg | Current posts are here |
| Matt Rustler | Inactive: may have moved but the page that displays is sufficiently corrupt that it’s hard to tell |
| Andrea See | Apparently inactive |
| Donald Sensing | On hiatus |
| Arthur Silber | Apparently inactive |
| Lynn Sislo | Apparently inactive |
| SKBubba | Inactive: link goes to group blog |
| SmartGenes | Apparently inactive |
| Sofia Sideshow | Apparently inactive |
| SpinSanity | Has not posted in more than one year |
| Sari Stein | On hiatus |
| Will Warren | Has not posted in four years |
| John Weidner | Current posts are here |
| Wunderkinder | Apparently inactive |
| Matthew Yglesias | Current posts are here |
| Pejman Yousefzadeh | Current posts are here |
| Zogby Blog | Has not posted in two years |
Now Glenn has 237 some-odd blogs in his blogroll. Of these roughly 55 links are either completely dead, point to something other than blogs, or point to blogs that are on either permanent or extended hiatus. That’s nearly 25% of the total.
Far be it from me to tell Glenn who should or should not be on his blogroll but its current state is sufficiently frustrating that it’s doing nobody any good—particularly the excellent bloggers who are still posting their hearts out but whose links in Glenn’s blogroll are obsolete.
I have two questions:
For N. Z. Bear my question is “How do all these dead links influence the Ecosystem?â€
For Glenn my question is “Why don’t you blogroll Van der Leun?â€
UPDATE: Pejman’s info has been updated per a comment.
I have a question:
Why won’t Dave Schuler put me on his blogroll? I wait and watch, watch and wait and still no love from The Eye.
Here’s something to meditate on:
Bloggledygook
Bloggledygook
Bloggledygook
If you say the word enough times, it takes over your consciousness and soon you find yourself in a state of divine, or I should say, glittering, enlightenment.
Simple oversight, Dan, simple oversight. Corrected.
Wow. What a great tool. Could you do that for Donklephant?
That’s a two part question, Justin. The first part of the question is that it’s very ad hoc—not generalized or user-friendly. The second part of the question is that, yes, I could. We’re both running WordPress and I understand its innards well enough to do it. I’ve never had the inclination to do it for my tiny blogroll.
If I get it working well enough for public consumption I’ll send you a copy.
As it works out there’s already a plug-in for WordPress that will check for basic reachability here. The next, more complicated step would be determining the last posting date. To do that we might need to identify the signatures of the various different blogging programs and find posting dates.
Thank you for doing this, Dave. I was blogging at blogoSFERICS for months before Glenn changed his link from “Flyover Country,” and I changed the name again 15 months ago. I’m pretty sure I’ve had a ‘lanche since then too.
Maybe he needs to hire a blogroll manager.
No problem, McGehee. I’ve been quietly validating Glenn’s blogroll for a while now and this is the first time I’ve mentioned it. I’ve emailed Glenn about it so he might just take notice.
See what a little begging can get ya?
In all seriousness, this is the kind of thing (among many, many others) that keeps me coming back to this blog every day.
Pejman Yousefzadeh has moved here:
http://www.chequer-board.net/
Thanks, phil. I’ve updated the table.
I have often asked myself, “Self why does Glenn not blogroll Van der Leun?” so I agree with you. Yes I do.
I could ask him, but I am too proud to link whore. I think.
I *was* on a brief hiatus but I’m back and blogging again now.