I recently started peering over Doc Searls's weblog for the odd tidbit. A few weeks ago, he got into a tiff about how bloggers who don't link are the scum of the [blogging] Earth. I had heard that idea before, but never considered it a basic tenet of the faith.
I've seen myself trying to pepper my comments and messages with more URLs recently. It hasn't made a huge bit of difference to me. Today, Doc pointed out some things that esr had written about blogging -- that there are different archetypes for bloggers: the thinker, the linker, the journalist, the diarist and so on. I think esr's on to something again.
Doc's comments never really felt like they applied here. The obligatory link to http://search.cpan.org/ is irrelevant and even annoying here, because we all know how to find Net::Server or Acme::Pony by sheer mention of it.
Pontifications about blogging actively leading to the demise of the New York Times within the next seven years, five months, three weeks and three days aside, this is just yet another data point that blogging is still in its infancy, regardless of its supposed age. :-)
