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Consecutive Links

Tuesday 13 April, 2004 (11:09AM GMT)

Consecutive links bug the nipples off me.

By consecutive links I mean a whole load of content that has one link after another in it. I see why it's done - because there's more than one link that applies to a certain statement, but there's got to be a better way.

I was brought up to believe (that's right, it coincided with potty training) that the text that makes up a link should be the actual description of what's going on at the destination of that link. But in the above example, for example, neither 'one', 'link', 'after' or 'another' describe anything on their own. 'one link after another' does but not 'one', 'link', 'after' or 'another'.

But how else would you link to more than one place when referring to just one thing?

Comments

Comment 1

I totally agree with you. I suggest this:

Websites that talk about web design (link1 , link2 , link3) are many.

So said JasonC on Tuesday 13 April, 2004 at 11:50AM GMT.

Comment 2

I like your idea JasonC, but there is still the problem of having a description of "link1".

I haven't put much thought into this, but...

Instead of changing the description text between the tags change the url to an anchor tag that brings you to a box (hopefully displayed alongside the same paragraph) where the links are given with the appropriate description text.

http://peteresch.mystarband.net/onelink.html

So said Peter Eschenbrenner on Tuesday 13 April, 2004 at 2:32PM GMT.

Comment 3

By consecutive links I mean a [link]whole load of content[/link] ([link]more[/link]--[link]yet more[/link]) that has one link after another in it.

It still breaks the flow by editorializing, but is somewhat more explicit for users who don't/can't see that the version you presented contains multiple links. It also implies a hierarchy in the ordering. Well-crafted title attributeswould help readers decide how many of the multiples to follow by distinguishing whether they are multiple examples of the same thing or increasingly detailed development of the same topic, for example.

So said salt on Tuesday 13 April, 2004 at 7:08PM GMT.

Comment 4

Bug the nipples off you? lol

So said Chris on Tuesday 13 April, 2004 at 8:35PM GMT.

Comment 5

Use the title attribute like so:
When I think of Standards (link1 with title, link2 with title etc) I think of no creativity.

So said Dante Evans on Tuesday 13 April, 2004 at 10:19PM GMT.

Comment 6

I've started linking to a Wiki-like page in situations like this, so that the link goes to an intermediate page with all of those entries on it and I can later edit my list of "lame web design firms" ('though for that topic I'm thinking some custom database work is in order...)

Since there's no pop-up menu construct in HTML, and since even if there were the information that at the deepest level you're trying to convey is pretty busy for a pop-up, I think a secondary page is the right way to go.

So said Dan Lyke on Monday 19 April, 2004 at 11:45PM GMT.

Comment 7

I discussed various options at http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3805

So said Bob DuCharme on Thursday 29 April, 2004 at 2:34PM GMT.

Comment 8

Why does the prospect of your being nipple-less bother me? That bugs the stew out of me!

So said None on Friday 30 April, 2004 at 12:12AM GMT.

Comment 9

maybe some sort of inline-spawn-of-suckerfish dropdown?

...hover over the link and it shows a list to each seperate page.

So said arthur spook. on Friday 21 May, 2004 at 2:14AM GMT.

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