July 19, 2004

Paul Goyette of locussolus  

Mark Liberman of Language Log brings up a confusion that's always irked me a little bit, this question of bloggers' names, pseudonyms, and site names. He takes note of the fact that some blogs have names that double as personal identifiers (apostropher, Archpundit) while others are something else entirely (Half the Sins of Mankind, Beautiful Horizons), and suggests that in the latter cases, the format "PG at Half the Sins of Mankind" be accepted as standard and furthermore referred to as blognomen. This fits with my own occasional practice (minus the blognomen part), and it would solve the problem of people referring to me (as opposed to this site) as "locussolus", which is clearly (?) a location rather than a pseudonym.

(By the way, I don't think I know anyone who more frequently (and with more authority!) suggests usage standards and new words than Mark Liberman of Language Log. I'm not sure what conclusion is to be drawn from this, but it does have some interesting consequences -- eg proposing blognomen as the name for a certain format of reference while taking blognomenclature as the name for the study of said format and alternatives would seem to predispose the "student"...)

MORE: One bit of practical disorder Mark didn't clear up: should it be "Mark Liberman of Language Log" or "Mark Liberman of Language Log"? The latter makes more sense to me in this case, but maybe others feel differently?

Comments
Mithras  {July 20, 2004}

On where to put the link, I agree with you that the link goes with the text that it refers to. The alternative is to link it to his name and the blog name. The thing I try to keep in mind is that the search engines will index his site according to whatever text is associated with the link.

paul  {July 20, 2004}

"the link goes with the text that it refers to"

But doesn't the link refer (depending on how you take it) to either Mark Liberman or Language Log? Both are legitimate referents, I would think. The obvious difference is that there is a corporeal Mark Liberman to which I can't link, but that doesn't mean the materials on his Language Log represent him any less.

Mithras  {July 20, 2004}

Yes. If I searched for either "Mark Liberman" or "Language Log", I would like to get Language Log as a top search result. Associating the url with both his name and the blog name would accomplish. Having said that, my general preference is for links to be as narrowly drawn as possible so I know what I am linking to. (Also, it speeds things up - I have to read fewer words to figure out what I am supposed to be clicking.)

Frolic  {July 21, 2004}

Knowing what part of a sentence to link to always gives me fits. At first I treated the link like a footnote, but soon I had to contend with aesthetic and usability issues.

paul  {July 21, 2004}

Design makes a difference too... in my case if I link a large amount ot text, it really comes out of the page since my linkes are bold and red. On other sites the links are harder to see, so I try to link a lot of text.


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