I will no longer link within my writing instead I will provide links at the bottom of the post just above the tags. I was listening to the Gillmor Gang[1] and Steve Gillmor talked about linking being dead[2]. From a value perspective linking is challenged due to all the splinks. Companies that sell words within their articles, and spammers really are killing the informational value of linking. So in effort to make my text easier to consume, I am refraining from linking from within the post. Posts will have a links section at the bottom and eventually I will provide an icon that identifies off site links. I will also be offering the RSS feeds for sites I reference in an effort to drive folks away from a page click page model.
Links:
Get the Gillmor Gang RSS here
[1] The Gillmor Gang Podcast
Get Steve Gillmor’s InfoRouter RSS here
[2] Links are dead, Doc: by Steve Gillmor
Tags: linking · RSS · splinks · Steve-Gillmor · tomcarroll.org5 Comments
5 responses so far ↓
The text was, surprisingly, much easier to read.
The idea is very novel and maybe, it will catch on.
I think keeping the thought uncluttered by distractions will improve the readers experience. As a prolific link follower I can’t eliminate links. If the link commons is respected it can be very powerful.
I like it. I makes for a much cleaner post and allows you to keep similar links together.
For some reason, the footnote numbers strike me as the same as just having a link, perhaps because I know there’s something to click on down below. I actually find it just as distracting as a link.
I know it’s not perfect. I can’t do away with the linking paradigm. I think there is value in linking if its not abused. It is my hope that people will finish reading my post before following the link. If not the links are easy to find.