MetaTalk

We're gonna try allowing friend-linking on the front page of MetaFilter—that is, linking to stuff on the web made by someone you are friends with or have a personal connection to. Come on inside and I'll talk about why, and lay out some expectations and guidelines. [more inside]
posted by cortex on May 10, 2019 - 104 comments

So, somebody off the street (or your friend, or your significant other or whoever) comes up to you and asks what's a metafilter. What threads do you use to illustrate what sort of place this is?
posted by dinty_moore on Sep 13, 2015 - 61 comments

... But how is a reddit thread worthy of an FPP? [more inside]
posted by emptythought on Aug 20, 2013 - 87 comments

A request: When possible, please consider using descriptive text in your links, especially when linking to Amazon or any other website that doesn't show useful information in the URL. [more inside]
posted by insectosaurus on Jul 8, 2013 - 34 comments

Is linking to a site endorsement of a site? [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns on Dec 4, 2012 - 94 comments

Do you think it's okay to make a post about a band that I'll be playing with? [more inside]
posted by lumpenprole on Oct 28, 2011 - 41 comments

Is it just me or has the number of single-link entries increased drastically of late? And if that's the case, how can we get it back to the old way of links-rich entries?
posted by TNLNYC on Oct 20, 2011 - 135 comments

is it OK to link to a friend on a "(via)" link? [more inside]
posted by luvcraft on Aug 18, 2010 - 24 comments

A quick thanks to people linking to "print versions" of articles online instead of paginated versions. [more inside]
posted by Shepherd on Mar 3, 2010 - 25 comments

Is this style of post really worthy of the site? [more inside]
posted by SeizeTheDay on Dec 28, 2009 - 52 comments

Just curious... why are the "Meta" and "Filter," "Meta" and "Talk," and etc. identifiers at the top left of each page discrete clickable elements instead of one clickable element comprising the entire compound word?
posted by Shepherd on Sep 3, 2009 - 32 comments

Revising this FAQ to address linking in posts like this. [more inside]
posted by Clyde Mnestra on May 11, 2009 - 41 comments

Is it considered acceptable to link to users so I may see their activity? [more inside]
posted by cranberrymonger on Apr 15, 2009 - 87 comments

*clears throat* What is the exact reason why self-linking is metafilter's #1 sin? Help out this sorta-newbie. [more inside]
posted by sixcolors on Dec 5, 2008 - 71 comments

Hmm.. nope. Can the mods, uh, modify the intro to this question? [more inside]
posted by yonation on Nov 22, 2008 - 79 comments

I think I found a link url bug on recent activity. [more inside]
posted by middleclasstool on Oct 30, 2008 - 10 comments

Error: your link is improperly coded, please check it, and try previewing again.

I was trying to make a new post with a link to this page, but MeFi won't let me :( Are https links verboten in the blue?
posted by clevershark on Dec 2, 2006 - 13 comments

I find the posting interface *completely* baffling despite trying for quite a while on a few occasions. I can only figure out how to post one link, whereas most posts are multi-link. How do I learn how to do a complete post with more than one link?
posted by ClaudiaCenter on Aug 22, 2006 - 29 comments

For the big pile of stuff: How about a wikipedia-style "Mefi posts that link to this post" box on the side of each thread (that has been linked back to)? So when someone links back to a post, that old post now links forward to the new thread. Especially useful if you search and find an older thread, and would like also to read the subsequent threads which say "previously discussed on MetaFilter..." Ideally, it would pick up on comments as well as posts that link to a specific thread (not to a specific comment in the thread, though).
posted by Eideteker on Jul 3, 2006 - 16 comments

This is about linking style.

Many folk on MeFi and other, somewhat geek-identified sites like kuro5hin have a linking style as follows:

1. Placing multiple links such that several consecutive words in a sentence each link to a different page
2. (somewhat following from #1) Links that bear no relation to the text they mark.

Here is a (made-up) example: "Best Buy stocks several brands of electronics."

What is wrong here? The first link is well placed, but all the others are terrible. Firstly, logically, there is no reason why the word "several" should link to anything other than a page about the word "several". But what is worse than this is that the casual reader has no way to parse this sentence for information without clicking on each link. In this case the URLs are obvious, when hovering over the link in question, but many times the URLs are not so obvious.

Why not just use the much plainer, better style: "Best Buy stocks several brands of electronics such as Sony, Samsung, Mouser, and LG."

Or if it's not intended to give the linked websites so much importance, you could simply say: "Best Buy stocks several brands of electronics (examples 1, 2, 3, 4)."

Either of these would be a vast improvement. Discuss.
posted by splitpeasoup on Mar 13, 2006 - 91 comments

Preview on the main page keeps wrecking my FPP.
posted by penguin pie on Nov 17, 2005 - 23 comments

I am trying to post within a thread, with a link to an earlier comment within the same thread. I'm not sure how to do it. I can link to the thread but it then starts at the top of the thread, not at the part of the thread I want.
posted by MiHail on Nov 13, 2005 - 12 comments

I've noticed that some people have a way to link not just to another MeFi page, but to call up a specific comment within the page, which will then appear at the top of the window. I've been unable to discover how this is done. Can anyone help?
posted by Miko on Oct 31, 2005 - 21 comments

What's the best way to approach linking to a site with limited bandwidth?
posted by handee on Jul 4, 2005 - 17 comments

Is it considered self-linking when a tech professional makes an announcement on MeFi? I suppose Anil Dash is the best example (only an example; I'm not accusing him of this).

Dash seems to be the highest-profile MeFi commenter. Have there been others in the past?
posted by NickDouglas on Mar 9, 2005 - 67 comments

Hotlinking... In the Ryan thread, I listed the direct links to the movie files in response to a request. Afterwards, I wasn't sure if this was proper. I flagged my own post, and searched Metatalk, and didn't find anything for hotlinking.
posted by adzm on Feb 28, 2005 - 11 comments

Is Deep Linking Good Linking? Jakob Nielsen says websites should encourage deep links as they enhance usability. He suggests three general guidelines. Nutcote(please scroll down)raises the question of etiquette: "Maintaining a links-based weblog, this is an important issue. I can see good points on both sides; to some extent it depends on the kind of site being linked to. When linking to a personal site, deep linking might not be good manners (depending on the site); but this is not the case when linking to an article on a major news site. It is a worldwide _web_ after all.".

Since this is an issue which affects a lot of us, I'd like to know what other bloggers think. Specially as I suspect the decision whether or not to deep-link(as opposed to just linking to an irrelevant main page as well as to the intended page) is not as simple as Nielsen makes it sound. Any thoughts? Thanks!
posted by MiguelCardoso on Mar 7, 2002 - 25 comments

This just in: The Economist allows subscribers to view subscriber-only articles. But I can't link to them. Anyway.
posted by sylloge on Oct 18, 2001 - 5 comments

Hey- I've been scouring the site and I've had no luck. Is there a link button thing for MeFi? And is there any special linking policy for those of us who want all our visitors to come here too? :)
posted by swank6 on Apr 19, 2001 - 4 comments