This sounds evil, but is not intended as it. I decided against the „blog crush“ thing made up by Darren. It’s in my eyes somehow worthless because its just another push-and-pull promotion for blogs.

Let me point out why I think so, and why I believe I have a very different opinion on this matter compared to all the readers of his (or my own) blog. I’m not going to use all points, but those that just… make me wonder if that push-and-pull promotion is nothing else but a game for bored kids.

you like the way they blog
I read over more than 200 blogs each day and scroll through various ones each day and night. But there’s not been something in a blog that would make it so uber-special for me to like somebody that much to admire them for what they do. Writing is an art, writing is a profession, and writing can be personal or anything else. But to admire one for what they do will not help yourself with your own writing, or will it?

their RSS feed is at the top of your list
Well, with that increasing number of RSS feeds, I could list about a dozent of authors who are good at their work, and as many who are not. If I’d judge in a radical way, none of even the blogrolls should ever exist.

you leave more comments on their blog than you write posts on your own
I like giving comments, but as an author of a blog, you should clearly maintain your blog and not increase the comments of somebody else just because he/she is your beloved author. Where will this end, would one expect to be invited to co-blog?

you let them know about posts you’ve written in the hope that one day they’ll notice you
Trackback, Pingback – the most beloved tools for every advanced blog author. Why should I email somebody about something I wrote if I can ping or trackback them in a modest way? The author will notice it – either by finding that ping in their moderation queue or by reading their own comments.

So this is it. While I know my daily reads and love to read them, there’s no benefit of endlessly promoting other people with this or that campaign. Why? Because they clearly do not understand how much value that brings for them – as in new readers. And on the other hand, most people do not visit those who link to them at all, nor acknowledge what other authors do.

Considering this above, I’m not in favor of having a blog crush. Why should I admire people for being what they are? I am who I am, and this is equal to what any other blog author or reader is. There’s nothing special in all of us but ourselves. No need to admire this ;) On the other hand I could easily transform a couple of blogs of my daily reads into a blog-crush related post. But who needs such? It’s yet another link farm development. In the end, traditional methods are much better than these push-and-pull campaigns.