I was reading Stephen Hackett’s post on linked lists and it got me thinking. I have been exploring the possibility of mixing my normal, long(er) form posts with shorter linked list posts.
If you do not use RSS to read this site in a feed reader such as Google Reader then the rest of this post may not make much sense to you, but for power users of such tools, I am interested to know what your usage patterns and preferences are.
Let’s take an example from Shawn Blanc’s feed. The part circled in red is the title for the post as well as a link to the source of information. To reach Shawn’s actual post, you must click the “Permalink” link at the bottom of the post.
The other way of doing this is to have the link circled in red link directly back to Shawn’s post and have the outgoing link to the source inside of that post. I am partial to the latter option but a lot of sites are moving to the style that Shawn (and places like Daring Fireball) use. I agree with Stephen that the latter method, linking back to your own article, is not double-dipping, especially if a link to the source is within the article. Some writers go as far as to mark a link as outgoing.
What do you think? What makes more sense when reading posts? I am thinking I will stay with my current format, but maybe in the near future trying the linked list method.
I read you via Google newsreader and then go to your post if I want to comment.
I like it the way it is now – it works and is familiar to everyone.
Thanks for sharing your opinion Brian. I found this post to be interesting: http://j.mp/zsQEH2
It brings up a good point, that when linking to something, make it the first thing. I am tempted that for links, just to make them a line by themselves in the post and any short thoughts that I have will be put underneath it.