I had an additional idea after my post on weblog directoriesand blog discovery. It’s bit like a link blog.
One could create a small directory of weblogs using, for example, Wordpress:
- Each post is about one blog. Title = Name of Blog, Body of post = description of blog and link. Categories = (optional) broad, shallow depth, Tags = very important, this is where you get down to the fine grain of what subjects the blogger frequently posts about.
- Primary emphisis on the site search function of the blog as the main discovery tool, Secondary ways to explore and find blogs would be Tag Cloud and/or Categories.
Pros:
Fast startup. no special directory software to buy, install and learn how to use.
Anyone can create a curated directory of blogs they like. Unlike a blogroll the blog based directory would be a place to list: a common canon of blogs, blogs you don’t read daily but that you understand have value.
Search function on hosted wordpress.org, wordpress.com or even blogger.com blog might be better than the search function on many directory scripts.
Cons:
Scale. Turning a weblog into a directory will not scale as well as a real directory script. There is a lot more to maintaining a directory than just creating it, blogs go dead or are abandoned by their owners (churn) so over time it would be hard to manually clear out the dead wood of dead URL’s. I’m not sure how many listings-as-posts one individual could maintain nor do I know the limits of the blog script’s search function. My shoot from the hip guess is you could maintain about 200 listings doing it part time.
Having blog owners add their URL would be cumbersome without a Submit function.
Cumbersome interface. One is pushing a blog to do a directories job. We are improvising here. So will an average visitor know what to do? Will they know to use the search?
All that being said, everything is off the top of my head, but I think it can work. I like the idea that anyone can do it and I think it would be easier to manage than a static webpage filled with a hundred blog links. I think it warrants a proof of concept, and I have an old free hosted blog with ads, that I can wipe the content of and repurpose as a test. I might try that.
If you have read this far and want to try this feel free. Don’t wait for me. Where to find listings? Start with your blogroll and blogs listed in your RSS feed reader. Please let me know how you get along.
Any comments, questions, observations? Am I totally daft? Let me know.
