Matt Hill said: What's happened to your blog Will? It used to be interesting but now it's mainly pages of links. Where's Will gone? Please get back to what you do best: writing great articles that make one think. If you have nothing to say sometimes, post nothing, that's cool.
Rather than get into the whys and wherefores I'd appreciate your input as a (ahem) valued reader.
Let me, as a reader choose...
... if I want to see your links, I can subscribe to http://del.icio.us/rss/willmcinnes
... if I want to read your blog, I subscribe to your feedburner feed.
... if I want all, I subscribe to your tumblr (err, you do have a tumblr?)
Or, as you have it at the moment, you choose.
Posted by: David Stone | February 10, 2008 at 14:12
David Stone said it.
Keep your links in Del.icio.us and put some real Will in the blog (I know it takes more time, but we're worth it..)
Posted by: Flemming | February 10, 2008 at 14:57
Not a fan of delicous links tbh. I never read them on any of the blogs I'm subscribed to.
I think it's a form of lazy blogging.
Posted by: Stephen Davies | February 10, 2008 at 15:54
Well, I was actually about to email you to tell you exactly what Matthew told you.
I used to visit the site but stopped when you started to post links more and more frequently, almost as a substitute for good content.
I think the solution already exists. I've seen on some other blogs a section dedicated to that, with its own feed, like on Veerle's blog (bottom right, called Approved)
http://veerle.duoh.com/
Posted by: Gaetan | February 10, 2008 at 22:32
I find the links useful - although if i could feedburn from del.icio.us then i may think differently. However, the links do show what you're interested in and i don't think it's always possible to post profound/thought provoking topics and to post innane comments or easy commentary when you could just post a link i believe would be more pointless than the links in isolation and actually be damaging to NM's and your reputation.
Posted by: Helen Aspell | February 11, 2008 at 00:00
Wow, to be honest I'm really delighted to find all this out. Fascinating when you actually *ask* people isn't it...
Posted by: Will McInnes | February 11, 2008 at 09:14
You already know what I think :-)
I don't have a problem with the odd link here and there and obviously if you're linking to another article or post as part of your own content, then links are to be expected.
Too many links looks messy and makes it seem as if you have nothing interesting to say and are relying on other people's content. I have to agree with Stephen Davies that link bloat is lazing blogging.
I'm still a noob to blogging, but one thing I've learnt is to not subscribe to the idea that you have to post mega-frequently. I'd rather have good quality content infrequently than the other way around.
Didn't mean to miff you Will but I'm glad of the poll and open conversation. :-)
Posted by: Matthew Hill | February 11, 2008 at 11:18
Do what Dave says. Give people the choice of what to subscribe to. The links are really useful but I don't consider them to be blog posts really.
It also means that if people are putting your blog on their site (or a combined feed) via RSS then all the items will have titles that mean something rather than 'links for...'
Posted by: Luke Hay | February 11, 2008 at 11:39
I don't think you should stop doing them as some of them are pretty useful. - If I'm busy or have too many feeds to read its easy to skip them.
Posted by: matt keogh | February 11, 2008 at 11:43