NeverHideExternalLinks

Q : I notice you always just show links to external URLs rather than make more meaningful and readable link text. Why?

A : Several advantages

• quicker to bung them in. I don't need to use any special (even wiki) markup

• can be easily copied and pasted into another browser window, email, search boxes, word processor documents etc.

• easier to read in edit mode

• you can see where the link goes to. For example, you can often recognise that a comment is on a particular weblog. That may affect whether you want to read it at the moment.

Q : Actually I now see you do occassionally hide external links

A : Yep, I've mellowed on this principle. Sometimes there are links with long id numbers as parameters, and these can stretch wider than the screen. Maybe a piece of useful design to make the text more readable, or maybe a bad violation of principle. I'll see how my feelings evolve on this.

Part of OnWiki, CategoryWiki, WikiNorms, FaQ