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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