Eric Sheie, on like-minded blogs mindlessly linking to their stuff to beef up traffic and exposure:

Blogging is a meritocracy, and a purer one than talk radio, for little or no money is involved. While it might be possible for like-minded blogs to “sex up” each other’s blogs by mutual linking, if they are not interesting, no one will read them. Also, blogs not only have to be to be interesting, but they must constantly be maintained and fed, and these “welfare” type blogs, while they might get a head start by automatic links, will eventually wither and die on the vine if they don’t keep posting interesting material — and maintain their blogs on a more-or-less daily basis.

I could easily see a situation where there might be thousands of blogs, all interlinked to each other — with no one reading them. Sure, a biased analyst could write an article that the blogosphere is now officially “liberal” but what would that mean if no one is reading the liberal blogs? What is the value to anyone of another pronouncement about the blogosphere? This is not something that anyone can “take over” or control, for God’s sake. Unless, of course, the liberal cabal, having first seized power by means of stealth super-linking, then hands over the Blogosphere to the UN! (Let us pledge now that we will fight them on the mouses! We will fight them on the keyboards! We Shall NEVER Surrrender!)

[...]What I think would be really cool would be a rating system that takes into account the frequency of posts, the number of links per post, the diversity and originality of content, and the length of time the blog has been around. There is wheat and there is chaff, and it is easy to tell the difference. Quantity is never a substitute for quality. Some bloggers have both, and they make me green with envy. The game becomes one of constant improvement, and those whose focus is on getting free links from ideological automatons will never have a clue.

First: and let me don my “cynic” cap right now; that would so take away the middle-school cafeteria ambiance of the blogosophere. Second: not all bloggers are purely political. Content is judged more by the reader’s reaction, more than against a set of standards; although good spelling and grammar are de rigeur for all forms of writing. Y’all who’ve known me when I was politiblogging know that my blog now carries a different tune. I have had a few comments from friends I know that I no longer politiblog; not true. I’d rather use my time reading the good stuff and giving them some miniscule traffic along the way.

Let’s just say that I try and not make my political leanings limit the subject matter of my material, even though I by and large link to political bloggers. The zeitgeist of this blog is, ultimately, about me and how I think, more than what I think about a particular issue.

(By the way, Eric. The concept of a woman standing up to pee is as alien — “Never, dammit! Never!” — to me as the idea of me having to sit down to pee. It isn’t good for my wang biz. What a way to start an essay, man.)