On Apr 11, 2004, at 5:03 AM, Kai Kumpf wrote:
Dear all it is now more than two years that I first started to get involved in Wikipedia. I have followed the explosion of interlinked free information with some incredulity and deep fascination (not to mention heavy active contributing). Still there is something about the appearance which I'm missing sadly: I find that most wikis support backlinks via a hyperlinked heading title. Is Wikipedia trying to appear more distinguished by hiding backlinks in a shyly hidden menu item variously called "what links here", "Links auf diese Seite ", etc. that only the few people familiar with collaborative workspaces will recognize as being of any use at all? From my point of view backlink functionality should be inherent in a conspicuous place in the page, most likely the title. Think of the vastly increased usefulness when people are enabled to comfortably navigate not only forwards but backwards as well. The 1:many relationship from an article to its referring articles is part of the knowledge domain partly covered by the respective article and cannot be underestimated or -rated in any way. Please consider eventually heaving backlinks towards the top!
I realize that for people used to other wikis this functionality might seems misplaced, but to me it it much clearer. When I first arrived here I knew exactly what "What links here" meant. While I had seen other wikis before, Wikipedia was the first I really used. When I tried to use other types of wikis, one of my fist thoughts was "Where are the backlinks?" I saw that the title was a link, but I figured it was a link to the same page, after all, a link that reads "AssumeGoodFaith" ought to go to the page AssumeGoodFaith.
Many Wikipedians do not come from a wiki background. So I don't think it's about appearing distinguished. I think it's about being clear to the most people.
Peter
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