File this under “it’s about damn time,” LexBlog VP, Greg Storey, writes about Medium’s decision to bring back a very old feature of all blogs (legal blogs included), the blog roll.

From Ev Williams, the CEO of Medium,

If you’re on the desktop web, you can see it in the left-hand sidebar of ev.medium.com. If you go to your profile, you can turn yours on. It lists the people and/or publications you follow that have most recently posted. That’s it.

”That’s it”is right. It really is that simple.

List the blogs on your blog that you find of interest in order to promote those blogs or to give your readers a wider variety of resources on a particular niche.

Your blogroll can be set up based on your personal preferences, and it can be updated at any time.

I was pleased to hear that the next version of Airbag, Greg’s blog, features a blog roll, and that Greg has added a blog roll to the next new product offering for LexBlog.

Why? From Greg:

Because blogs and blogging was better when authors helped promote the discovery of other publications. While other content platforms seek to turn everything into a Squarespace competitor (drag and drop, WYSIWYG site building), Medium will find greater success in focusing on creating the best blogging experience possible.

Authenticity is not only vital to the individual publication but the entire collection. Helping to promote your fellow bloggers adds to our own genuine expression. Tools that focus on providing authentic core experiences will have more impact in a world increasingly controlled by AI-driven, segmented, omnichannel bullshit. 

Greg’s right, blogs and blogging is better when bloggers promote the insight and commentary of other bloggers.

Blog rolls didn’t really go anywhere. They may have left the States, but they’ve hung around Europe and Africa. Blog rolls were routine on legal blogs I recently looked at from overseas.

Perhaps they haven’t been over run by “make believe blogs” written by marketers for lawyers seeking a billboard, rather than a publication, on the Internet highway.

Citizen journalism and open discussion go hand in hand in advancing the law and our discussion about the law. Promoting others comes with the territory.

Looking forward to the return of the blog roll on my blog – even though I’m curious where it fits on the iPhone version.