Dougal’s recent decision to turn off automatic link posting has got me thinking: do readers really read the links I post? My recent links plugin used to be just a link sharing module displayed on my homepage, but recent developments has turned it into something very much similar to Kottke’s remaindered links, which in by no coincidence was the original inspiration for the plugin.
The daily post fixer plugin that Dougal used posted links inline with his normal weblog entries. This is the same as seen on kottke.org and here on rebelpixel productions. However, I don’t think Jason’s readers share the same profile as mine or Dougal’s, and aside from incoming search engine traffic, I think most of my readers belong to the techie, personal blogging demographic, with an interest in web design and photography.
It makes me wonder if inline recent links mixed with my regular blog entries provide a value to my subscriber base, or actually is detrimental to this weblog’s readability and accesibility. What do you think? I’d love to hear from my regular readers, yes, that’s all seven of you. 😉
here’s my take.
there are a lot of social-bookmarking websites nowadays (del.icio.us and digg top my list) which caters to this exact link sharing service. if i really want to know where and what you are reading and you have an account in either of those 2 sites, i’ll just look up your lists and go from there. BUT since (this is my assumption) you want another feature of your site apart from the blog itself, you added up your recent link plugin along side your blog posts. which is absolutley no problem for me.
having said that, i do sometimes click your recent links if it caught my fancy. my rant would be to decrease the number of recent links in one sitting. have them spread out in between your blog posts is a good idea. after all, we still frequent your site primarily because of your posts. it goes without saying, that if you put up one or two links, they are there because they are really worth the clicks.
Thanks AJ. For now, I’ll make sure the links I share are fresh and relevant to the readers, and hopefully something you haven’t heard about from social bookmarking sites. If there is value in the links I post, then I’m providing a service to my readers.
I think I’ll be adding a way to easily toggle the links out of the way. 😉
[I thought i had left a comment yesterday, but i guess it didn’t take.]
I think it’s interesting to see what random stuff people come across and deem as link-worthy. And i don’t think that necessarily overlaps with social bookmarking.
I had been using a variation of the “Asides” format for short posts on my site, but have been looking for something else. I had no idea until i read this post that the popular “links for 2006-04-21” format was from del.icio.us.
This is an interesting topic. I see the need to separate link posts from regular ones such as you have here. But sometimes, there is a “train of thought” to follow when they’re all inline with the rest of the posts. And i also like being able to comment on them as with Asides.
Good point Jeremiah. I guess the most important factor right now is the quality of links shared. It can’t be just anything everyone already knows about, or something not at all relevant nor funny in the eyes of the readers.
I used Matt’s “Asides” several months ago but stopped, and I’m in the process of converting those entries as normally styled entries. The “Asides” format uses the same database as the normal weblog entries, and ultimately clouds the focus of the blog, and this is exactly why I stopped using it.
Comments for recent links has been requested by many of its users, but unfortunately I barely have the time to work on it. But who knows, it just might pop into the release one of these days. 😉
Steve loves links
I just discovered your site. I think it is just beautiful in design, and also recognize how interesting and useful the links are. I’ve added you to my Bloglines and hope you’ll include other links along with the post in your feed. Kudos.
Ron, thanks. I’ll be posting more links in the future, but hopefully provide a way to easily toggle them out of the way. Be sure to subscribe to the recent links feed to get them on your bloglines account.