My Linking Rant For Today
October 17, 2005 | In: General
As you know, links are a valuable comodity on the internet. Whether a link comes to your web site from a blog, directory, web page, a search engine, a forum, a bookmark, directly typed into a browser, an email or newsletter, etc., it’s still a link and it’s the only way to reach a site. No links means no visitors to your site. Period.
With that being said, there’s a certain courtesy or (what should be) unspoken rule in regards to linking, especially between bloggers and like minded sites… so when someone is ‘inspired’ by an article on a site or a blog post, they normally provide a link back to the inspirational post.
Not doing so is frowned upon, heavily.
About an hour ago, I discovered a post on another site that was obviously inspired by one I made myself within the past few days. Certain words were used in that post, and certain terms were used that only I have used here. The product being featured is ‘odd’ so it’s not like everyone online has been talking about it… hence, the only place those terms could have come from is right here.
To the author: Would it have killed you to provide a link back in your post? Would it be so hard to at least reveal the origional source for your story idea?
You, sir, will never be linked to again from this, or any, of my sites, your RSS feed has been removed from my feed reader and your link has been removed from my links page, permanently and I expect you to do the same for me – not that a relatively unpopular site like Gadgetizer will make a difference to your traffic levels in the grand scheme of things or anything, but that’s not the point now is it.
The point? It ain’t cool, and we only link to cool sites and people here.
/rant
4 Responses to My Linking Rant For Today
Cary
October 17th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
Wow, intriguing rant Paul…makes me wish I knew who the offender was
Paul Short
October 17th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
Hi Cary,
There’s a telltale clue right near the end of the post
Darren
October 18th, 2005 at 1:39 am
it’s a frustrating thing – but unfortunately whatever we do it will continue to happen. I’m sure I’ve inadvertantly done it myself – especially since finding content via newsaggregators. One can end up with so many windows open that it’s hard to keep track of where it all comes from.
I used to get really worked up about it but these days have decided that life’s too short. Don’t get too stressed about it Paul. Sometimes people are just not worth the effort.
Paul Short
October 18th, 2005 at 5:28 am
Hi Darren. It is frustrating. I’ve walked that gray line before too but did what I could to correct it when I realized how others (and I) feel when it happens.
You’re right about the stress it causes. Just because a big site steps on you sometimes is not the end of the world.
I guess if I looked on the bright side – it means they’re reading my stuff