Looking for candidates

Not of the political kind, though.

Over the summer, the Delaware-based blog Colossus of Rhodey did an updated “thorough guide to the Delaware blogosphere.” G.A. Harrison at Delmarva Dealings then suggested that I would be a good man to do a similar assessment of Maryland’s blogosphere.

Well folks, now that the campaign’s over I’ve decided to take up the challenge. It occurred to me the other day that since Bill Duvall at Duvafiles has bowed out of the blogging world (at least for the time being) I just may now be the dean of the local blogosphere. Insofar as I know, this actually depends on when Delmarva Dealings began, their archives run back to October of 2005 (two months before monoblogue’s debut) but I think there was another DD site prior to that. However, the predecessor site to this one (I called it “ttown’s right-wing conspiracy“) dates back to April, 2005. Also, Delmarva Dealings has had a couple extended hiatuses in its existence whereas I’ve pretty much kept monoblogue on a regular posting schedule for (gulp) almost three years! (Two weeks from tonight will be the third anniversary.)

Regardless, I’ve been at this long enough to have a little bit of familiarity with a LOT of blogs which have come and gone. But in order to make this a comprehensive look at Maryland’s blogosphere I need some help in discovering ones I don’t read often – in particular, those on the left side politically, those which deal with non-political topics (like sports), and those originating in the western end of the state. I do get a pretty good sense of what’s out there with my membership in the Maryland Blogger Alliance (there’s over 40 members in that) and BlogNetNews (which has over 60 members).

I’m all but certain though that there’s literally thousands of blogs and websites which are either Maryland-based or Maryland-related (like Salisbury News, written by a Delaware resident.) So I can’t be completely comprehensive in this quest, I’ll have to put in some parameters regarding readership and frequency of updating. It’s not going to be a ranking per se because one cannot always compare blogs which focus on different subjects, but it will be an interesting exercise in showing the rich variance of Maryland’s blogosphere.

Obviously most of my experience is with the political blogosphere – hell, I contribute to three of them! But if you’re aware of good websites which are Maryland-based, updated on a regular basis (once or twice a week isn’t going to make the cut, let alone a couple times a month), and can get me some readership stats (I haven’t figured a low-end cutoff number but I figure that if the site’s not getting at least 100 readers a week it’s likely not going to qualify on the frequency of posting measure either), then send a link to my e-mail address above, ttownjotes (at) yahoo.com. It’s also helpful to me if the blog is a member of a group (such as the Maryland Blogger Alliance) because that may be useful information to those who would like to find blogs in common with theirs.

I’m looking forward to putting together a list and beginning the review process – my goal is to have this ready by the end of 2008. By the way, if you’re a Maryland-based blogger who has a good recent article, feel free to submit it to the Carnival of Maryland (lower left-hand side of the site has a link for the purpose) and I may have it here on Sunday, November 30th when I host the 47th Carnival of Maryland. (Just in time for anniversary number three…hey, pretty awesome how that worked out. I wasn’t even trying.)

Also, I invite you to check out other sites I work with. I’m a contibutor to Red Maryland and Red County, plus I have a Myspace and brand-new Twitter and Facebook pages as well.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

4 thoughts on “Looking for candidates”

  1. Had to take a break from blogging and get back to nature (Allegheny Mountains) but now that I’m back, I see that the Republicans are no nearer to addressing reality than before the election. The party is on the verge of becoming a permanent minority. Locally, it’s past time to clean house in the leadership — now or never!

  2. You didnt list that pro maryland gazzette site that your affiliated with… you know the one that requires a content warning agreement to access? Why is that?

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