Is Weblog Nation still the best selective web site to keep track of interesting blogs?

January 15, 2002 6:15 PM

Is Weblog Nation still the best selective web site to keep track of interesting blogs? Was it ever? It seems a bit staid and badly classified. The last category, for instance. is a mess. Yet, for rookies like me, it delivers.

So does anyone know of a better, more critical and more up-to-date one-step guide or portal, that cuts out the dross and concentrates on what's good?
posted by MiguelCardoso to General Weblog-Related at 6:15 PM (15 comments total)

I'd suggest that if nothing else, it's a tiny bit unmaintained. I emitted a 404 for Indirection for most of a year before simply throwing out the hostname, due to my first somewhat forced attempt at retirement, but it's still listed up there. Blahg never got listed (anywhere, really), so my second attempt at retirement doesn't count.

Do I have a better suggestion? No, not any more. I'm seriously out of touch with the modern weblogging world.
posted by majick at 6:27 PM on January 15, 2002

Tim Blair and Vehrs/Adragna have been keeping track of a large number of high profile sites which routinely update multiple times per day. Scan each site for "BlogWatch" entries. Blair produces one per day, and Vehrs and Adragna produce one each. (Vehrs covers me [blush].)

But I suppose it depends on what you mean by "interesting blogs". The ones in BlogWatch are those involved in social commentary; they're not "I had a date last night!"
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:47 PM on January 15, 2002

i always use kottke as my measuring stick for interesting websites. his taste isn't exactly mine, but he has an eye for good stuff in his bookmarks. zeldman has a good list as well. otherwise, i simply stumble over whatever it is that someone else has in their bookmarks or has otherwise linked to.
posted by moz at 7:03 PM on January 15, 2002

you can give fyuze a try. it'll do a decent job of tracking some of the more popular websites. if the site you want isn't currently listed, you can add it, so it's exapandable to your needs. think of it as page full of "slashboxes," similar to the old my.netscape portal. oh, and make sure you use a relatively up to date browser (IE, Mozilla)
posted by ikarus at 8:35 PM on January 15, 2002

How embarrassing. This page has not been actively maintained in at least two years; furthermore, it was really created for my own use, rather than as a community resource. I keep meaning to bulldoze it and start over, but, well, you know how these things sometimes go.

The weblog portal problem is one nobody's adequately solved, in my opinion. As with the weblog update tracker problem, nobody's come up with a solution that's scalable, usable, and not shot through with bad data.
posted by jjg at 8:53 PM on January 15, 2002

I still say that the best way to find quality weblogs is to check out the links off of sites you already like.

another really interesting approach is the blogdex social network. using stuffed dog as an example (yes, our own dave adams) you can see three columns:
sites that link to him
sites that link to him and that he links to
sites that he links to

at the bottom of the middle column is a listing of recommended sites, which, I presume, consists of those sites that that link to a large proportion of the sites on column a and b, but that aren't linked by the stuffed dog himself.

(I'm actually not at all sure how cameron works out his recommendations, but it's still as interesting as can be.)
posted by rebeccablood at 8:54 PM on January 15, 2002

I still remember how excited I was when Jesse linked to me on TPOOWL. I thought I was as pleased as anyone could be.

I think RCB trumped me, though.
posted by anildash at 11:08 PM on January 15, 2002

Well, anildash, if you were excited back then, I now feel like one of those screaming Beatles fans, with the hairdo and the trembling hands.

To actually wake up and see jjg, rebeccablood and anildash, one after another, recommend blog-tracking methods on my little beginner's thread, is a real thrill. Wow!

I discovered MetaFilter through Weblog Nation! And Rebecca's Pocket and Anil Dash's New York weblog and Kottke and Bifurcated Rivets... all my favourites.

Those "jjg" initials and the "I've changed my mind" screen you get from the old WN address as you're transported to the new one, are so dear to me - and imprinted on my brain - I've never updated the link. And never will.

I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who, knowing nothing about weblogs, used WN as their launching pad. So it's not you that's embarrassed, jjg - it's me!

I'm trying not to gush here. But who cares? I am unable to seem cool at anything; much less this.

Gee, thanks!

And thank you Steven Den Beste(for the two superb recommendations), moz(I had actually never been to Zeldman, thinking stupidly he was a figure of fun, as mysterious as that Will Wheaton character that keeps popping up) and ikarus(the fyuze site looks good and the fact that it's adaptable makes it perfect).

And in the name of all us rookies out there too:

Cheers!

Miguel
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:25 AM on January 16, 2002

"Rookie"? "Beginner"? Huh?

MiguelCardoso has posted 39 links and 931 comments to MetaFilter
and 33 threads and 557 comments to MetaTalk


posted by luser at 7:39 AM on January 16, 2002

I actually anointed Miguel a veteran just a few days ago. Heh.
posted by werty at 8:02 AM on January 16, 2002

I think RCB trumped me, though.

yes, if only the world had known that my hand would go to the first weblogger who listed me on their personal weblog portal....
posted by rebeccablood at 10:21 AM on January 16, 2002

Hey Jesse, any stewing ideas for the other Weblog Nation?
posted by jason at 10:43 AM on January 16, 2002

I don't have any specific plans just yet. I'm hanging onto the domain in case I think of something.
posted by jjg at 12:31 PM on January 16, 2002

yes, if only the world had known that my hand would go to the first weblogger who listed me on their personal weblog portal....

I am frantically paging through the wayback archive right now, trying to determine which female blogger I linked to first...
posted by anildash at 7:06 PM on January 16, 2002

I had actually never been to Zeldman

What's that crappy old lyric? 'I've been to paradise, but I've never been to Zeee...'

thinking stupidly he was a figure of fun

Stupid thinking indeed. Good to hear you've seen the light, Miguel.

[luser] "Rookie"? "Beginner"? Huh?

Indeed. If Miguel is the Universe, he's well into his turquoise period.
posted by rory at 9:45 AM on January 17, 2002