Secrets of the Sidebar: Love and Links for the New Year

To start the New Year, I'm going to reveal something from last year.To start the New Year, I'm going to reveal something from last year.

No, I am not going to take my top off.

No, I'm going to give you the Secrets of the Side-bar.

I know many of you have been wondering what is up with the groups. But only one man has been brave enough to ask me. So either no one cares, or you are all afraid of me.

I choose to believe the latter.

Anyway, here's the thing with the groups:
I want to have a long blogroll. Because that is how I find new blogs, other people's blogrolls. And I believe in enabling others to travel the web in this manner. That's why, when I find a blog that I've never seen linked to, I'll usually put it up. Because it's a corridor into a different section of the community.
But I don't like having the blogrolls go on too long with nothing to break up the links. They just blur together, and good blogs can be overlooked too easily. If I put them into small, sizeable groups the individual blogs are easier to find, and I can rearrange them easily to draw attention to people I want to get more traffic.

Why are you in a certain group? Well, some of you have something in common with the others in your group, but others are grouped together just because I added you all at the same time and wanted to keep the group a certain size, or I wanted to expand a small group.

Does the numbering matter? No. It doesn't even affect the order the groups are listed in. I just couldn't think of any neat names for each group.

Are you at the bottom because I hate you? No, you just don't talk about comics enough.

Are you at the top because you're undeniably wonderful, the best thing since Kyle Rayner's butt? Not necessarily, but I do think you or someone else in your group should be getting more traffic.

And don't be surprised if one day I rearrange them to not be alphabetical anymore, too.

To celebrate the New Year, I'm going to go over each group, link you to them, and tell you why they're there. Some of you are going to get a paragraph of praise. Some just a sentence that states that you are cool. But for a lot of you, it's simply that I got an overall feeling reading that I'd like to come back, and maybe others would too.

And, should anyone come up with a fun name for a certain group, feel free to comment. I did eight separate posts to give you enough room, after all (and I apologize sincerely to anyone with a feed that messes up this format).

And so, without further ado, Let the 2006 Written World New Year's Linkblogging Marathon Commence!