What is the proper protocol when authoring a page that has multiple references to the page. For example, if I was writing a page and it said:
The weather in the USA today is warm. The weather in the USA is always warm this time of year. That's just the way it is in the USA.
That uses the acronym USA three times. Is the correct protocol to show all three occurrences as a link to the page on USA, or just the first occurrence of the acronym?
Michael P. Deslippe
"The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances." -- Martha Washington (1731 - 1802)
What was the greatest thing before sliced bread?
2008/10/28 DESLIPPE, MICHAEL CIV DCMA CIV DFAS MICHAEL.DESLIPPE@dfas.mil:
What is the proper protocol when authoring a page that has multiple references to the page. For example, if I was writing a page and it said:
The weather in the USA today is warm. The weather in the USA isalways warm this time of year. That's just the way it is in the USA.
That uses the acronym USA three times. Is the correct protocol to show all three occurrences as a link to the page on USA, or just the first occurrence of the acronym?
Usually, we (on the English Wikipedia, at least) only link the first occurrence of any given term. If there is a section of the page that may be linked to directly, then you may want to link the first occurrence of the term in that section, too.
Thanks, that was what I needed. My concern was that on some lengthy pages, someone may jump to a section of the page not containing the reference and miss the fact that one exists, but I guess everything has a tradeoff.
---Mike
-----Original Message----- From: wikipedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikipedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Dalton Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 12:32 PM To: wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Protocol/Etiquette
2008/10/28 DESLIPPE, MICHAEL CIV DCMA CIV DFAS MICHAEL.DESLIPPE@dfas.mil:
What is the proper protocol when authoring a page that has multiple references to the page. For example, if I was writing a page and it said:
The weather in the USA today is warm. The weather in the USA isalways warm this time of year. That's just the way it is in the USA.
That uses the acronym USA three times. Is the correct protocol to show all three occurrences as a link to the page on USA, or just the first occurrence of the acronym?
Usually, we (on the English Wikipedia, at least) only link the first occurrence of any given term. If there is a section of the page that may be linked to directly, then you may want to link the first occurrence of the term in that section, too.
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2008/10/28 DESLIPPE, MICHAEL CIV DCMA CIV DFAS MICHAEL.DESLIPPE@dfas.mil:
Thanks, that was what I needed. My concern was that on some lengthy pages, someone may jump to a section of the page not containing the reference and miss the fact that one exists, but I guess everything has a tradeoff.
If they're in close proximity, it's pretty easy - only link one. As you say, though, this becomes a bit trickier for several instances.
The first time in each new section is often a good rule, or the first time in a "screen" of text - a very hard to define way, but generally a useful one! Certainly don't feel required to only do once per page if this seems clumsy or unhelpful.
Opinions cary. . In my view. never more than once a section, and then only if they are long sections, or the section about that particular thing. Once per normal screen (40 lines or so) is wildly excessive. Assuming people get beyond the first screen, they know how to scroll.
On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 1:49 PM, Andrew Gray shimgray@gmail.com wrote:
2008/10/28 DESLIPPE, MICHAEL CIV DCMA CIV DFAS MICHAEL.DESLIPPE@dfas.mil:
Thanks, that was what I needed. My concern was that on some lengthy pages, someone may jump to a section of the page not containing the reference and miss the fact that one exists, but I guess everything has a tradeoff.
If they're in close proximity, it's pretty easy - only link one. As you say, though, this becomes a bit trickier for several instances.
The first time in each new section is often a good rule, or the first time in a "screen" of text - a very hard to define way, but generally a useful one! Certainly don't feel required to only do once per page if this seems clumsy or unhelpful.
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk
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David Goodman wrote:
Opinions cary. . In my view. never more than once a section, and then only if they are long sections, or the section about that particular thing. Once per normal screen (40 lines or so) is wildly excessive. Assuming people get beyond the first screen, they know how to scroll.
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On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 5:22 PM, DESLIPPE, MICHAEL CIV DCMA CIV DFAS < MICHAEL.DESLIPPE@dfas.mil> wrote:
What is the proper protocol when authoring a page that has multiple references to the page. For example, if I was writing a page and it said:
The weather in the USA today is warm. The weather in the USA isalways warm this time of year. That's just the way it is in the USA.
That uses the acronym USA three times. Is the correct protocol to show all three occurrences as a link to the page on USA, or just the first occurrence of the acronym?
A rule of thumb may be: if you need to scroll the document to find the
wikilink, then duplicating it is a good solution. If you see the same link 10 times in the same screen, 8 are unnecessary and the 9th as well, probably
Marco
A rule of thumb may be: if you need to scroll the document to find the wikilink, then duplicating it is a good solution. If you see the same link 10 times in the same screen, 8 are unnecessary and the 9th as well, probably
That's not a great rule of thumb, though, since different people have different sized screens...
I was leaning towards once per TOC entry. That way if someone clicks on one part of the TOC, they'll still have a link to the resource.
-----Original Message----- From: wikipedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikipedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Dalton Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:01 PM To: wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Protocol/Etiquette
A rule of thumb may be: if you need to scroll the document to find the wikilink, then duplicating it is a good solution. If you see the same
link
10 times in the same screen, 8 are unnecessary and the 9th as well,
probably
That's not a great rule of thumb, though, since different people have different sized screens...
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