Rules for posting

I'm going to make a few suggestions for the format of the links that are posted in this group. I think that the benefit would be greater if the links were language independent, and if they went straight to the post.

1. Use relative links, not absolute links, so that the links take people to their local language version of the page. This means that you don't just post the URI, but you put <a href=/catalog.php?view=Noisy>Noisy’s catalogue</a> and miss out the http://www.librarything.com.

2. Go directly to the post by adding "#messagehead99" (where 99 is the post), rather than just give the post number. <a href=/talktopic.php?topic=16986#messagehead53>post 53</a> takes you to the correct post in the ‘Marking Threads Unread’ thread.

I've been doing relative links (I think; I hope) since being told how. But I have enough trouble getting that right, without worrying about adding in the post number minus one. :-)

Also, sometimes there are multiple posts, in response to comments. If people are interested in the subject. . . .

bump

And what is a URI? Isn't it Universal Resource Locator?

The quick and easy way to get a link into a post or message is just to paste in the link with a space before and after, which is great also for people who can't remember the html syntax. Thus, to tell you how to get to my profile, http://www.librarything.com/profile/jimroberts . It would therefore be nice if /profile/jimroberts would work instead. (And if it ever does, this post will contain two links.) But perhaps there are good reasons why this is a bad idea?

URI = Uniform Resource Identifier, see: http://www.w3.org/Addressing/

>5 jimroberts:

Yes, there are good reasons why it is a bad idea. LT has many versions in loads of different languages, and missing off the http://www.librarything.com allows non-English speakers to view pages in their own language.

#7
Sorry, I must have expressed myself badly. My point is that "http://www.librarything.com/profile/jimroberts" with preceding and following space works as a link without putting an a-tag round it, so following your advice, it would be nice if "/profile/jimroberts" did the same.

BTW, I like the hints you give in your profile, and when I found them, I added a reference to you from mine.

Noisy has continued the discussion of relative links over at Activate relative links by using a defined string in Recommend Site Improvements.