Weblog Reviews Clarification

I’ve received several emails about my “reviews” of the ElderBloggers Weblogs, a couple being thank-you notes from the Weblog owners and some others wondering about my kindness in the reviews.

Let me explain: These are not reviews and it is not kindness. Nobody gets on the Older Bloggers list unless I like the Weblog.

I have an offline list of additional older bloggers sites, but for one reason or another, they don’t strike my fancy enough to be included. That doesn’t necessarily make them bad blogs; it just means I’m being subjective. And to that point, friends will tell you that I’m a tough critic, probably too tough.

There are two other criteria for inclusion: you must be at least 45 years old and you must post at least once a week. Beyond that, I don't need to be deeply interested in the topic of the Weblog or even agree with what the blogger writes (well, within some limits). What I want is to be engaged by what I read, and that is almost always closely related to the passion of the writer for his or her subject.

(Any or all of the above criteria may change as time goes by.)

So don’t think of these as overly kind reviews. By the time I write about a Weblog, I’ve already decided it’s good. My stories, in reaction to endless blogrolls with no apparent criteria, are to give readers some information on which to base a decision to visit.