The Persistence of Linkery
Warning: Undefined property: linknotes::$are_links in /var/www/vhosts/basil/kbsite/blog/wp-content/plugins/linknotes.php on line 73
In a wonderful display of information permanence, Jakob Nielsen describes why linkrot is bad. On Juliana’s blog, Sockmonk opines that the opposite is true, citing as proof the ability to delete posts provided in blog*spot’s user interface. If you can do it, it must be O.K.
It seems to me that writers who publish their work take up a mantle of responsibility. They enter into an unwritten contract with their readers, the terms of which vary depending upon the media used for publication. In a hypertextual medium, part of the unstated agreement is, “This material will continue to be here; you may link to it.” The implication is that it has been published. Were it not understood that it would continue to be there, it would be useless to link to the information, and it would do a disservice to one’s own readers should the information someday vanish.
The blogging phenomenon skews this model a bit by making it extremely easy for anyone to publish their work in seconds. This ease of publication makes the work apparently more ephemeral for the writers involved. However, the fact that conversation is a cornerstone of blogging argues exactly the opposite, bringing us back to Nielsen’s classic advice: Linkrot is bad.