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October 05, 2004

Link Etiquette?: Always Leave Something Juicy Behind

I have an rule about how links are supposed to work. I wonder if everyone agrees.

Basically, I think that when you link someone else's find or analysis, you're permitted to excerpt a taste of what they're quoting or saying, but it's always important to leave something fairly important behind to click on. After all, if you just quote all the good parts, you've left your audience with no reason to click on the link-- the blog that tipped you gets the link, for what that's worth, but very little traffic at all.*

I'm pretty good about observing this rule, although sometimes the site I've gotten something from is just a one-line mention, so it's hard to describe the article linked there and still leave something behind for a reader to click on.

Just to show you what a good guy I am, I'll mention that I once linked a one-sentence blurb from Marcland. I really couldn't leave anything behind for readers to click through to, so I scanned his site for something else interesting, and found something quickly (he has lots of interesting stuff, after all): photos of Saturn's rings from the Cassini spacecraft. So I stole his link, but then linked to something that was just on his site.

And I left out lots of good stuff in the Six Meat Buffet story I just linked-- including a link to the actual article. Yeah, in a way, I'm making it less convenient for my readers. But then, my readers are only getting the story due to Six Meat Buffet's work (assuming they didn't find the story through some other source), so, inconvenient or not, it's the tax that has to be paid to Six Meat Buffet.

My own pet peeve is when someone just republishes an entire top ten I wrote. The whole thing, start to finish. Bloggers always link me when they do this, but with 10 through 1 already published on someone else's site, what's the point of the link? Might as well call the link Honestly, there's no reason to click on these red words whatsoever. Spend your time doing something more productive, like calling your mom and thanking her for the birthday afghan. **

I also think there's gray area: What do you do when someone just quickly links an article with a one-sentence digest, but you find it more interesting and want to quote and analyze at length? It seems silly to withhold the direct link to the article from your readers in favor of linking to the blog where you found the link; and yet, if you don't do that, you're stealing traffic that the blogger-source actually earned.

Again, in that case, I think it's best to find something else interesting on that site and then link that. Link the article directly, but make sure that your actual source gets some traffic somehow.

I think that most people do observe the Thou Shalt Always Share Traffic For a News Find rule; I think most people understand it implicitly.

And I know that I have violated the rule myself. Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue and all that. But I do try to observe it.

I'm not sure if this is an agreed-upon rule or what. It seems to be a sort-of rule, but maybe it's more of a guideline. Maybe I'm wrong.

Just tossing it out there.

* I guess Instapundit is the past-master at leaving everything behind. One tenth of Instapundit's links are just: "Heh." I don't know-- that seems to be taking the rule to extremes. "Heh."

I've dabbled with the idea of publishing no original words whatsoever on this blog whatsoever, except "Heh." No headlines, no comments. I'll just out-Instapundit Instapundit and link everything with a "Heh."

Maybe Friday.

** Ann Coulter did exactly just that to me, but given that this link actually moved me from the three-digits to four-digits of traffic after three weeks of prominent exposure.

Plus, you know, it was Ann Coulter. You don't fuck around with Ann Coulter. Lest she call you a girly-man.

posted by Ace at 12:12 AM

Comments

Trying to come up with standards is good, but I never know where I fit, 'cause when I link somebody they always end up LOSING traffic. Which I think is rude on my part.

Posted by: the UNPOPULIST on October 5, 2004 12:49 AM

Wow - sort of a traffic black hole, eh, UP? Well never mind, thanks for the link the other day.

Since I don't pay attention to my traffic, being more of a reader than a writer, if it went down, I might not notice.

And, back on topic - the standards mentioned seem quite reasonable, Ace, and I'm looking forward to the day you out-Insty the professor. Why not let Hoke do it for you as a "guest"?

Posted by: Patton on October 5, 2004 01:29 AM

Ace--

Good posting; that's sound advice I'm trying to follow, albeit not always perfectly.

However, how do you treat blatant rip-offs? I mean, Garfield Ridge wouldn't exist without the inspiration of Ace of Spades.

In fact, I like to think of my site as the Jennifer Jason Leigh to your Bridget Fonda. I even got my hair cut to look just like you!

Maybe we can be friends? Best of friends? Super-duper best friends? And together we can eat Hagen-Daz, talk about boys, and scratch out the eyes from all the supermodel pictures in Cosmo?

Or would that get weird?

Your number one fan,
Dave
Garfield Ridge

Posted by: Dave at Garfield Ridge on October 5, 2004 01:51 AM

If it's a one line deal, I usually just give a hat tip with a link to the main page, add another link to the one line post - but also link to the article. The "heh" type stuff doesn't do a lot for me. Obviously, it does for some.

When I take something from a site I always leave the meat behind, and usually a suggestion to scope out the original. If it's a quick funny bit, I may even only take a sentence and just tell people to have a look for themselves.

Posted by: Dan on October 5, 2004 02:03 AM

“You don't fuck around with Ann Coulter.”

Help me out here. I’m trying to put the akcent on the right sileyebul.

Posted by: Lastango on October 5, 2004 02:14 AM

When reading blogs, am I the only one who tends to skip over long blockquotes? I think people would rather read the original than a really long quote - so I think Ace's method is reader-friendly as well as blogger-friendly. Half the fun of reading people like Ace or Allah or Reynolds is the creative way with which they set up their links - giving just enough hint to make you want to follow it. But if there's a giant excerpt, I'm more inclined to skip it altogether. That might just be me, though.

Posted by: Johnny Walker Red on October 5, 2004 02:16 AM

I almost know what you mean, Ace. If I had a blog,
I would link the shit out of you. It is unfortunate that
neither you nor I is especially smart.

Posted by: just a man on October 5, 2004 03:17 AM

no offense.

Posted by: just a man on October 5, 2004 03:18 AM

Ace, you're linking etiquette is right on the money, but it went in one ear and out the other because you just had to bring HER into it.
Now I just can't stop thinking about Ann Coulter.
I can see her now, standing over me dressed in black leather, whip in one hand and a cowbell in the other.
"The guys get ****ing shirts, Girly Man" she'd say in that low breathy neocon voice....

Posted by: msl on October 5, 2004 08:03 AM

Can I fuck around with Ann Coulter? I'd pay good money, I'm tellin' you.

Posted by: Preston Taylor Holmes on October 5, 2004 08:08 AM

Ditto on the Coulter comments. No UM law students like her when I was there, daggummit.

New topic: Is Peggy Noonan the conservative M(you'd)LF?

Oh, and as for the linking thing, I've written the site owner to ask if I could copy a whole post before. If they give permission, I will. That's with things that are really good that my friends (who are sadly the only people who visit my blog) shouldn't miss like letters from service people in Iraq who are sharing their experiences. Most people are pretty cool about it, so far. And, I have linked back to those sites multiple times on different topics as a hook-up.

Hope that makes sense.

Posted by: Birkel on October 5, 2004 09:51 AM

To answer Birkel: Yes on Noonan.

To top Ace: I'm just linking everything with the word "Ha".

Posted by: Senator PhilABuster on October 5, 2004 12:08 PM

Hey Birkel, I visited your blog. And I'm not your friend.

Posted by: Phil on October 5, 2004 12:28 PM

Ace, I've been a blogger less than two months and ask only patience. I think there are lots of new bloggers who don't know the etiquette (trackbacks with no link to the source?). I've tried to pick up all the rules quickly thanks to posts like this, and others from DEan and Bill INDC. Hell, I now suffer from trackbacks with no link back to me, but there's plenty of slack to go around.

Now the juicy part...a link from Ann Coulter? I can just imagine the sound of new bloggers like me as we bow before you and chant "we're not worthy".

Posted by: SteveL on October 5, 2004 12:49 PM

Phil, you don't have to be so harsh. I'm honored to have you as my guest. And to be Ace's.

Posted by: Birkel on October 5, 2004 02:05 PM

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