Curious about my link posts

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1788036]

Comments

[andrewducker]

Okay, after a mere 15 minutes it looks like around 50% of people click on them, and those that don't aren't clamouring for their removal. Point noted!

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I've clicked on them, but only very rarely. Usually when I am thinking, 'what was that thing that Andy linked to a while back?'. And then I fail to find it...

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

I have clicked on them, but about 50% of the time it was smartphone-fat-fingers not deliberate. Would still prefer they stay for the other 50%.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I don't use them very often, but I very much appreciate them when I'm looking for a past posting of yours to pass it on to someone else.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

What she said.

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

I find they provide extra information to the link's title.

[simont]

Yes, that was what I was about to say. Some of the titles are a bit ambiguous or figurative, and the tags generally help resolve the question of what context I should be expecting to interpret the title in.

(That's not really a criticism of the titles, either; figurative and fun titles aren't a bad thing! It's just that if the tags went, the titles might then have a greater need to pass the "yes, but what is it?" test.)

[lizw.livejournal.com]

This.

[ckd]

+1

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

This - I only click through on about 10-20% of your links (due to lack of time) and I base those choices on the tags more often than not.

[fearmeforiampink]

Aye, same. I don't ever click them, though might if I was hunting down a particular post. OTOH, I'd be as likely to go direct to Delicious at that point.

From the point of view of someone reading your posts, they provide more context to the links made, and indeed allow you to make a quick commentary on them.

From the point of view of my own linkposts, I find them useful for those reasons, and also so I can call out certain specifics "NSFW", "semi-NSFW", "trigger warning" "idonotagreewiththepagelinkedto" are especially relevant, but also stuff like "comment" which I tend to use to say "This is someone's opinion; I'm not saying this is how the world is"

[laplor.livejournal.com]

More of this. I love the clever titles, but sometimes I'm not really sure what the link is about so the tags help.

When I really have a lot of time, I will link the tags in search of 'more like this' kind of thing.

[kashandara.livejournal.com]

This. I often use them to figure out if I'm really gonna care enough to read the article behind the link :)

[andrewducker]

Puppies the size of soda cans! What else do you need to know!

:->

[dougs.livejournal.com]

Just so -- I like the tags, but if they weren't links I'd still like them.

[kerrypolka.livejournal.com]

Yes, me too.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

This for me too. Plus they are often amusing.

I usually only click on tags to find my own old posts.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I generally click on about half the links, and I look forward to your link posts.

[andrewducker]

It was the tags I was meaning, not the links themselves. They aint going anywhere.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I haven't. I might do in future. But if putting them in is onerous, I wouldn't miss them enormously. I tend to tag my own posts weeks later rather than as I post them, and the tags are (I imagine) mostly for my own reference.

[andrewducker]

It's not onerous - I was just wondering if people thought they cluttered the place up.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

Might be worth clarifying that you don't mean the links themselves. I read it that way at first, and there's currently one comment which suggests to me the commenter is also reading it that way.

[sageautumn.livejournal.com]

Ah. I did read it that way... but it wouldn't've changed my vote.

I prefer the tags, I think/feel they give me much better info than the link itself probably would.

[sageautumn.livejournal.com]

What my other comment said.

Also note, I tend to not vote in polls, but voted in this one! :)

[lizzie-and-ari.livejournal.com]

I rarely click like them to give context - if the article title is 'why dogs have big ears' I like to have a context as to whether the article will be a scientific one, or whether it's a funny cartoon. I'll click or not on the link, depending on what I'm on the mood for.

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

See, I try to make the description informative enough that one doesn't have to work it out from tags, because I primarily bookmark stuff to share on Twitter. The above results do nothing to remove my request that it be an option on your reposter, though :P

[andrewducker]

I haven't forgotten!

What I'm going to do is give people access to the template code used to produce the code, as laid out here:
http://andrewducker.livejournal.com/2558148.html

If you remove the bit of that that's to do with tags then they won't appear. Magic!

(It's not doing that _yet_, but it will do, once I get some time to make that work.)

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

Oooh, cunning.

[sttatus-quo.livejournal.com]

I love the links. They're an important part of my morning routine to be perfectly honest.