5 ms·
Also: - Don't litter your piece with links. Readers often don't know where they lead, whether the linked information is important for understanding the article
by cubefox 2y ago
Also:
- Don't litter your piece with links. Readers often don't know where they lead, whether the linked information is important for understanding the article, and which links may be skipped safely. So each link will slow the reader down, and make it more likely that they stop reading the whole thing. Similar to an overly long piece.
Better:
- skip links that are not strictly necessary
- replace links with short explanations of the core idea of the linked article, if possible (i.e. don't link to Wikipedia if you can quickly explain the concept in a sentence)
- only include links in a way that makes it is clear what is explained in the link target, so readers know whether they even have to click on it or not
- skydhash 2y agoUse foot notes or margin note. I don’t mind links, but I open them in the backgroumd for further exploration, not while I’m reading the article. But foot notes work great for contextualization.
- cubefox 2y agoI find footnotes slow me down as well because I'm compelled to read every single one of them. Though they are better than links.
- paulpauper 2y agoThe links help convey credibility and trust to the reader ; it's not expected that the reader will actually click them
- cubefox 2y agoI think many will click them nonetheless, especially when it is hard to judge how relevant the linked article is.