Monday, January 19, 2015

A Long Overdue Update to the Sports Card Blogroll.

It's been too long since I last did this, and I feel really bad for letting things get this bad at the Sports Card Blogroll. But it's about time I clean it up and remove the blogs that haven't been posting for the last six months or more (I think I saw one that hasn't done anything in a year...A YEAR!!).

It pains me to do this because it means that the number of blogs on the active site may go down to under 300, and that's not a good thing. We need more voices to add to the Hobby Blogging Community, and I'm hoping that the number goes back up. Now, because I wasn't consistent in my blogroll maintenance, I'll compare where the roll was a year ago to where it is now.

After maintenance in January, 2014, there were 315 blogs on the active roster of blogs. I have since added 42 blogs during the year, and removed at least 28, so we ended the year at 329 blogs. Including Royal Card Review, before the purge, there are 330 blogs on the active roster. The following blogs are now going to be removed after being inactive for more than six months:
Pardon me while I count the damage...33.

That's 33 blogs that will now be removed from the active roster. Not counting Royal Card Review (again, added him before the pileup), we are now down to 296 blogs on the active roster. A number that has not been seen in a very long time.

Now, I put a comment next to the 83F Project. This blog was started back on June 2, 2006 by a gentleman named Scott Mortimer. His goal was to collect autographed cards of every player who appeared in the 660-card 1983 Fleer Baseball card set. Of the 678 possible subjects (meaning some cards had more than one player), he was able to obtain 631 autographs, a bit more than 93% of the set. His blog had no words to it, just a picture of the autographed card and a link to the player's baseball-reference page. His prizes include autographed 1983 Fleer cards of Hall of Famers (Cal Ripken, Robin Yount, Carlton Fisk, Reggie Jackson, Ryne Sandberg to name a few), to players have already passed on (most recently Tony Gwynn and Bob Welch). He has another website that mentions that he's also trying for the 1990 Topps Traded set, but now word on how that is progressing.

I'm adding the 83F Project to the Retired but Relevant section of the blogroll. It doesn't look he's added anything for the last ten months, but it would be a shame to have the site vanish into obscurity.

As it stands right now, the blogroll now contains 297 active blogs, and more coming soon (have to dig up emails for some of them). It's time to start looking for new blogs to add. Maybe I'll sneak a peek into Night Owl's reading list. He always seems to find new blogs. Nachos Grande had a big hit on his hands with his "Get to Know a Blogger" series. I think there were a couple that I didn't know of before.

If you, or someone you know, has a blog that is not on the big Sports Card Blogroll, drop me a line at bdj610@hotmail.com, or send me a note on twitter @bdj610 and let me know all about it. If your blog has been inactive for a long time and you plan on making a comeback, let me know that as well so I can add you back onto the active roll.

In the six-plus years that I have been a part of the Hobby Blogging Community, I have made contact with a number of writers and readers who share the same passion about the Hobby, if not more so, than me. Over time, established media and even the card companies have acknowledged the influence bloggers have in this industry. Lately, a number of bloggers have gone on to other social media sites to maintain their online presence. But it's blogging about the Hobby that got them their start, and it's in blogging that I hope will find passionate voices, new points of view, and hopefully, a rebound in the population of the Sports Card Blogroll in 2015.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama
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