So. I like blogrolls. 

I think they play an important role in the "atmosphere" a blog projects.  Maybe I'm alone in this but when I go to a blog that doesn't have a blogroll I form an opinion of the blogger.  He starts a notch down for me. 

Now the reason a lot of people advocate against including a blogroll has to do with SEO placement and Google branding your site as a link farm.  This seems a rather sad state of affairs, designing a site on a third party's arbitrary requirements.

Google apparently dings you once your page has more than 120 links on it...holy schmolies by some methods of determining my homepage has over 500 links on it.  That is if you take into account all the "digg" and "stumble upon" links for each entry.  Trimming my blogroll isn't going to have much affect on that result.

If you feel the need to try and stay under that arbitrary link count of 120 then by all means do what you need and that may result in a better Google placement.

While Blogging

Me? I like linking to things that interest me.  I like linking to a few of my "online allies" as I call them.  Friends in the real world and online that I have met or hooked up with.  If that impacts my ability to get crawled by Google...well FIGHT THE POWER MAN!

While Surfing

If I find a blog I really like and want to head down a link trail, I am interested in what blogs they link to, I want to follow their lead.  I want to go to places that they advocate.

It helps me find the nooks and cranies that interest me.  It dissapoints me when I come across a really interesting blog and he has NO blog roll...It's like finding a dead end in the superhighway.  I'm left shaking my head and wondering what the blogger was thinking.

And like I said my opinion of the blogger goes down a notch.