A new toy, and I have to check it out (by way of Jill and Hilde): The Social Network Explorer. It makes interesting claims, it says that I have only one blogger friend: Hilde on hildesin.blogspot.com. But if asked, I'd call both Jill and Lisbeth Friends... Then it goes on to recommend some people I might make friends: I know some of them, and we are at polite nodding terms, our connection is that we work in the same field. Why should I want to be their "blog-friends"?

I am feeling imposed upon by all these tools. I don't keep track of who reads and who looks in here, who links and who comments - I don't like the thought that others can use something like this explorer and decide the level of popularity of my weblog, or the number of the links, or the coolness factor of tose who have linked to me... It takes away something from the pleasure of writing, it invades my space on the net. Perhaps what I want is to write in a Jane's space, such as Mark Bernstein describes, where only those who know what to look for can find me.

No, I don't want that either... I just want to have my weblog in peace, one place where I can write, think, share, and not compete.