The Curator’s Code will use a symbol resembling a sideways S to express that a piece of content came directly from another source, and a different figure — a curved arrow-like symbol — to signal what is commonly known as a “hat tip,” or nod to a source that inspired a further thought. The Curator’s Code supplies the appropriate symbol and then the blogger or writer simply puts in a hyperlink behind it as they normally would.
Via NYTimes.com.
Content aggregation gets a bad name these days due to a few overzealous sites like the Huffington Post [1]. But done right, it is the basis of the Internet. Content has always been shared and linked. Most of us do it the right way. I try to always excerpt a short paragraph (less than 50 words) that makes the reader click through to the original source. I think my experience with DesiPundit helps me do it the right way most of the time. So any code for conduct is a good thing. It is important to codify the etiquette for people who don’t have bad intentions.
I’ll take this opportunity to plug my links blog — Favorites – again. Thanks to requests by couple of readers, I managed to figure out a way to point the post titles directly to the original link source, like it is done on Daring Fireball. Unfortunately due to my limited PHP knowledge, this link behavior is feed-only but considering that’s how most of the readers — all half dozen of them — access the feed, I think it is the best solution. The blog thus clearly has no pageviews motivations, like most content aggregators too. Feed subscription is not only preferred but also strongly encouraged. If you have moved away from feed readers then I also mirror all links I post to this Twitter account; that’s the only content on that Twitter account.
Update: Marco’s post made me change my syntax a little. I shall now use ‘source’ instead of ‘via’ to point to the original link source. Also, he makes several excellent points on the etiquette of linking and attribution. I tend to be generally generous in attribution but to each his own. If I have missed attributing someone, it is probably coz I’ve forgotten where I first read it. This happens especially with viral links.
Footnotes:
- I stopped reading HuffPo more than a year ago and thanks to the branded URL shorteners, I don’t even accidentally click on a HuffPo link via Twitter or Facebook
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© patrix, 2012. |
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Post tags: aggregator, blogging, code, Internet
