Admittedly, I know nothing about what makes a blog appealing. It's an art, not doubt. And some people are brighter than others.
Current philosophy seems to side with lots of links within a blog. I don't get it. But then, I don't get a lot of things. Isn't a link an interruption? Something that jolts you out of the writer's thought process?
All that time in college when I was ignoring footnotes , I had no idea everyone else in the class couldn't wait to get to them. "Screw that Gatsby, what does Bunny Wilson have to say?"
I do understand that once in awhile, when it's really germane, or specifically identifies the work of someone else (so I'll remove the art blogs from my tantrum), a link is useful. But sprinkling links just for links' sake... doesn't that show, kinda, insecurity with one's own content?
Maybe I'm just in a bad mood. I tripped on the trail and my dogs are howling. Anyone got a crutch?
Monday, May 4, 2009
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28 comments:
Be that as it may whenever it was, I love all of the links in this post. Your point is well taken about the bloggus interuptus--got completely sidetracked from Einstein to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_leaf_paradox
Tea leaf paradox? wa?
"coquemoody" (no lie)
Oh, anuddathing:
"In other words, apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?"
- Harold Pinter
What about the 'wrong' knowing, huh? Ever thought about that?
I wasn't going to say anything about your tantrum. Or your mood. Or your dates.
GG
I'm sure that Edmund (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Wilson) Wilson would appreciate that you remembered to call him "Bunny."
I like links. Like footnotes, which I also enjoy, you can use them if you want, but you don't have to either. I think some links can really by fun.
Nothing wrong with debate. (I was going to link that too, just to irritate you.)
A year or so back, I needed to cut down on the time I spent blog reading. Rather than unsubscribe blogs from my Bloglines list, I just decided not to click on any links anymore. Another form of skimming, I thought.
Funny enough, it works.
Hey, what did you do with the 2nd Act in AltaDena, KB!! Is the Alta Hiker more attractive or appealing?
I'm linker, dammit, and proud of it!
Just back from reading your linky-dinkys. I've decided to include more links in my posts, but they'll all be completely un-germane.
wv cessine
I'm with Margaret. I ignore links and footnotes, unless it's something I want to know more about. I hope your aching dogs feel better soon.
CO, AH seems to be the usual moniker, but you can call me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TgiQRo5g9g
I'm such a follower I make myself sick. I hate doing links. I could run 5 blogs a day if I didn't have to do all the links on BADP!!! So why do I do them? Cause the rest of you do them! Maybe if I'd had a mentor when I was an adolescent I would be better at handling peer pressure today. Well just for the record KB, I didn't look at any of your links. Sorry, but rebellion has to start somewhere.
V
WV: CONDI ( As in Condi has her tail in a crack in the news today!) NO LINK. If you want to know more, turn on cable news.
I have to read through all the way first. If I click on links as they come up, I forget what I was reading. Interruption. I go back and look at the links when I'm finished, if I have time.
However, like Linda, I mostly don't have the time. Unless it's yours, and I know I'm going to get funny pics and a Harpy.
Back in the early days of blogging, one was instructed to link, link, and link some more because the theory was that it would return traffic to your blog.
I provide lots of links, but I think they are a visual distraction. I have to give props to those from whom I borrow. In that way, they do function quite like footnotes.
I'm also a lazy clicker of other people's links. But thanks for the twits.
I can't stop laughing
"Once in a while" - educational & "bad mood" - priceless.
WV: spazanar (about all I have to add to this funny post.)
Other then I didn't read any of them. I'm too tired and it's too late.
Mid-Town G
Virg & Tash, you're hysterical. Midtown, hope you're sleeping. Now I'm off to Sydney Eye because Julie has finished her thoughts on the mentoring question.
those are some darn nutty links!
I followed your link or perhaps I should say your dog and fell down the rabbit hole. It was like visiting grandma. Hammer toes and bunions, diabetic ulcers Wow! good times
I wasn't aware links had any other purpose besides providing shopping footnotes. Live n learn ...
I wish my screen name was Cheap Floozy. Oh well.
And for the record I don't know how to do links on comments and don't anyone send me instructions. It's just as well.
V
WV: aquarea. Nice name if you're a mermaid
During the dot com boom in the 90s, web copywriters were told to link link link to other parts of the website within the text of the site. In other words, if you mentioned customer service, always link to customer service section, and if you used a term that might be unfamiliar, link to the glossary section, and if it was a retail site always pepper text with mentions of other products and link to those pages. It became sort of second nature in my brain to use links in a similar philosophical way -- for things people might want to know more about or for references to other posts.
The idea of Easter egg hunts with links started within that framework as a kind of down-the-rabbit-hole exercise in cyberspace -- especially with gaming sites and art sites. I wrote a gaming website once that shot links off in all directions but it was always a really fun kind of sideline, and an educational alternate narrative to the site's straightforward game. (The guys who ran that website loved David Foster Wallace.)
I think there is a real art to using links to enhance the content of what's there. I also love the idea of a circular, non-linear kind of storytelling which I think can happen with good use of links.
Clicking on links is optional. The nice thing about them that you can just open them in a tab and either look at them then or save them for later.
I'm reading a T.C. Boyle novel and every few minutes I have to stop to look up a word in the dictionary. I keep my iPhone next to me because it has a dictionary app. I could use a real dictionary, but the I phone is lighter.
cussubj
Links are the reason Twitter can be such a time suck. You can read the 140 word entry in a nano second, but 90@ of the tweets link to something. Read this! Consider that! Buy this! Support that! Attend this! Sign up for that!
Sigh
I am so busted.
What Laurie said. Good links are a terrible thing to waste
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