Spring Cleaning at the Sedshed

Spring is here.  Time for a cleanout.

Last year I did some blog cleaning and have made it my mission to do it regularly.  The blog clean involves:

• Removing links to blogs that have been abandoned or deleted.  If they have just been abandoned, I will keep them in Google Reader in case the blogger decides to revive their blog later.
• Removing links to websites that are no longer current or no longer interest me.
• Adding new blogs I read to my blogroll.

I've also added a new widget called Popular Posts which I first saw at No Reading at the Breakfast Table.  If you're viewing this post via a reader, click through the see the list of popular posts (according to the number of hits) down the right side of my blog.

Some of you may also have noticed that I've turned the comment moderator back on.  I did it last year, but then felt it would be ok to turn it off.  Well, after a few problems with spam and anonymous comments, I've decided it will now stay on permanently.  To be honest, I'm not really a fan of moderating - it kind of feels like when I was at school and the whole class would be punished because one naughty kid wouldn't own up.  I like to give non-bloggers the option to comment so that's why I chose moderating.

I feel that I've given my opinion on anonymous commenting enough times, particularly in Blog Policy? and Blogging Etiquette so I don't really need to go into it again in great detail.  Just to be clear, I'm referring to comments of an argumentative or aggressive nature where the writer chooses to cowardly hide behind their anonymity.  The post So...Why Can't You Tell Me Who You Are? at Backyard Missionary says it far better than I ever could, and the comment, I am only really concerned about anon comments where I don’t know who it is and they are being a knob pretty much sums it up.  Trying to respond to an anonymous commenter is like having a conversation in the dark.  Knowing who they are and where they're coming from with their statements makes all the difference to how you respond.  Blogging is a bit like coming over to someone else's house.  As a blogger, I wish to welcome lots of different people who choose to come and read what I have to say.  But when you come you are on someone else's turf and under their rules.

Fellow bloggers, can I ask a few favours of you?

If you read this blog regularly and have a blogroll, could you please add my blog to it?

Could you please click the following widget on my blog so I have some idea of who my readers are?

Thanks!

If you want to get into spring cleaning, blogs are a great place to start.