Blogroll Bloat?

So I'm reading centuri0n's blog ('cause I always do, and I like the graphics) and notice that he's been given an award. The Blogroll Bloat Award from CoffeeSwirls.

And I'm jealous, because I've got some SERIOUS blogroll issues right here at the Pew. And I think I've got more links in my three blogrolls than he does, anyway.

But what really made me think was this statement, from CoffeeSwirls -- "If you link to everybody, nobody wins. You can quote me on that if you like." (And so I do quote you.)

I've got a ton of links to people all over the Blogosphere -- some more than once. Some of the blogs in my own blogroll (Views from Other Pews) I don't read anymore. I read maybe a third of the blogs in the LoRB list, and fewer than that in the Church Directory/Evangelical Outpost blogroll. Isn't the point of a blogroll to let people know what you read? So they can go there and read it too?

I've got a bunch of blogs that I actually read every day, thanks to RSS and Mozilla Thunderbird. Most are on theblogroll, but some aren't. So it seems that I need to do some updating and changing.

Here's what's going to happen: I'm going to export my personal blog list from Thunderbird to an OPML file. Then I'm going to import it into either Bloglines or Blogrolling (probably the former). Then I'm going to use that for my blogroll. That will be the top blogroll, the "Views From Other Pews." And you'll know that I actually read those blogs every day.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the other two blogrolls. I want to keep them, just because most of the sites listed ALSO have the list, and they link to me. But they're going to be lower profile on the page, more "below the fold" so to speak. And I'll keep the main blogroll updated weekly or so, for when I add new blogs, or delete old ones. This way, readers can tell exactly what blogs I really am reading, and which blogs are just there for the links. It's not a commentary on the quality or value of the blogs that aren't on the main list -- it's just an admission that I only have so much time each day, and I have to limit the number of people who I read.