link love, relationships – and a treat

so much of blogging is about building relationships, and sometimes even friendships. and ideally, it’s not just about using relationships to further the blog; it’s about furthering relationships. maybe blogging can help us do that, can help us learn a bit about relationships.

take this:

linkfarming, linkbait, link begging and, urgh, link whoring.

these words don’t sound very nice, do they?

how about link love, blogging generously and building links?

much better.

it’s all about how we frame it. as bloggers, when we link to other blogs, are we whining to get attention, or are we nodding in someone’s direction? are we trying to grasp at something, or are we giving generously?

what’s the equivalent in real life?

name dropping vs. acknowledging.

manipulating vs. sharing.

politicians’ handshakes vs. friends hugging.

codependent vs. interdependent.

of course these things are rarely black and white. i would be a hypocrite if i said that my intentions were always pure as the driven snow, that i’m never whiny or graspy. but we can all honestly work to use blogging and all our relationships to make this world a better place.

when i link to a fellow blogger, i want to do it with the intention of acknowledgment, generosity and out of the sincere desire to assist my readers in accessing more quality content (i often spend way more time looking for good links than writing a post!) similarly, when i connect with someone outside of the blogosphere, i have the intention to enrich both of our lives, even if it is just in the most minute way.

and of course i want to have fun with it while we’re at it!

with that in mind, let’s join hootin’ annie this week in handing out hallowe’en link treats to bloggers i haven’t seen in ages or who i’ve never met before. (thanks, lifecruiser, for alerting me to this!)

today, the treats go to

hootin' annie's hallowe'en treat

benz insider (driving pleasure scientifically measured for the first time)
international mom (great header image!)
heavenly inclinations (god or not? heaven or not? hell or not? no one knows for sure)
taking place – a socially conscious blog
bioethics discussion blog – check out this post: if science is uncomfortable, delete it

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