Archived E2 FAQ: Links
This document is not current, and is kept only for archival purposes. Please refer to Everything2 Help for all up-do-date help documents.
E2 Links:
Please read up on these four 'link' types. They are vital to adding content on E2, and neglecting to add links will almost guarantee a slew of downvotes. Note that you should never add links just to have links. Make them relevant to what your writeup is all about. Use the links to give interested readers some additional background or more advanced information, or to add humor and sarcasm/irony.
- hard link The hard link is one of the two fundamental links in the Everything 2 writeup/nodes system. A hard link is created when you put square brackets around a word or phrase in your
writeup. The square brackets can probably be found on your keyboard just above and to the left of your 'enter' key. They look like this: [ ]
By placing these brackets around words or phrases they become a hypertext link that will take you to the node of the same name. If a node does not yet exist with the title of your hard link then E2 will automatically run a search on the word or words in your link. A 'results' page will be displayed with 100 possible links to E2 nodes that do exist. Use this results page to double-check that your hard link is spelled correctly or as possible inspiration for the ever-so-clever pipe link.
The idea behind a hard link is to give the reader an easy-access link to other ideas or concepts that relate to your writeup. It's usually a good idea to hard link people's names, song/book/film titles, esoteric words and any phrases that you may have pipe linked to different E2 nodes or possibly to new ones.
- soft link The other fundamental method of linking on Everything2. As you travel from node to node, you leave behind footprints for others to follow. These footprints are soft links that appear on the bottom of each node. The soft links help to bind together related ideas or suggestions for others users to read. Sometimes one can use softlinks as commentary, such as softlinking Link and Link to a writeup that has no hard links incorporated into it.
After you add a new writeup to Everything2, you should also create some softlinks as suggestions for further reading. By using the Search function at the top of each page, you can create softlinks between writeups. A soft link creates a hyperlink back to the writeup you've just written. More to the point, it creates this new link on a completely different node. An advertisement, if that's what you're interested in, for the next E2 soft link surfer. Fundamentally, it doubles the chances of your node being noticed, read and accessed in the long run.
Example: for the node Madonna some basic soft links would be:
Any given node has a limit of 100 different soft links below it. Those links change based on use, however, so a link more often traversed will move higher on the list and stay longer.
By creating soft links you're acting as a 'librarian' for E2...helping to sub-categorize and connect all of the different ideas and data the web site is accumulating. The search engine acts as a poor man's card catalog but a lot of stuff can fall through the cracks. The soft links go a long way towards making E2 searchable and infinitely more useful.
- pipe link The pipe link on Everything2 is one of the most interesting ways to express yourself by saying one thing and pointing to another. Sort of a furigana for linked words and phrases in your writeups, the pipe link gives your text a depth and irony. This type of link is advanced and optional.
To create a pipe link you need to insert a pipe symbol in between the square brackets for your hard link. The pipe symbol is probably located on your keyboard just to the left of your backspace key. You'll need to hold shift down. For example, your hard link will look like this in your text box:
[Node to send the reader to|Text that appears in your writeup]
Example:[Crazy like a fox|I think you are insane]
It will read in your writeup as "I think you are insane" but you'll notice when you click on that hard link it takes you to the crazy like a fox node instead. Get it? It helps you lie!
For a few examples of the pipe link check out some of the following nodes:
- firm link A set of permanent hard links displayed at the top of a node. These links can be put in place by any member of the editorial staff and will serve to connect nodes that are often confused with each other.
Examples of when to firm link:
- NFN (nodeshell) - firm linked to Noding for Numbers
- Writeup Deletion Request (nodeshell) - firm linked to E2 Nuke Request
- Napoleon - firm linked to Napoleon Bonaparte (firm links like this are not common as the E2 search will obviously turn up the 'Napoleon Bonaparte' node by searching for just 'Napoleon' ... a bit redundant)
- firmlink (nodeshell) - firm linked to firm link
Unfortunately, a lot of people go firm link crazy and generally try to firm link stuff like "potato" to "potato skins." - and back. The reader ends up following firm links to nodeshells and back again, a web of links with no clear direction to follow - bad idea. What we want to do with firm links is to guide the researcher to the right place - the node with the glut of the information on the subject. From the writeups in this node one would find, hopefully, an abundance of hard and soft links to follow ever onward.
Examples of when not to firm link:
Two well written nodes about fundamentally the same subjects, with plenty of obvious hard and soft links to inform the reader of the similarities. Firm links in cases like this are redundant and using the links to go back and forth somewhat defeats their purpose. Firm links should go one way only - they take the reader from the contentless to the content. From nodeshells of similar spellings to the (sometimes arbitrarily chosen) 'correct' node.
Used properly, the firm link will clear up confusion and generally help the E2 search get the job done. If you feel there's a need for a firm link somewhere msg an editor and request one or simply add a writeup to Edit these E2 Titles. You may get a msg back explaining why it's a bad idea - you may get a firm link.
Links from Outside:
To make a link to an E2 node from outside this website your link will need to look like this:
<a href=http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=NODE+NAME>My Node</a>
Where NODE+NAME is the name of the node you want to link to. If your node has spaces in it (such as E2 FAQ: Links), replace the spaces with a + (E2+FAQ:+Links)
Links to Outside:
No dice. Sorry, the whole point of E2 is to bring you in. We're a black hole. We assimilate.
Psst. C'mere. Yeah, you: Guest User. Hey, I saw you looking for a way to the Outside. Well, I can't get you there directly, but ... here's the thing: if you hardlink a URL like this http://www.google.com, the E2 search engine will provide the user with a usable link to the Outside. Go ahead, try it. See how it says, "this appears to be an external link"? Yeah, no foolin'. But don't do it like this: www.google.com or the search engine won't recognize the URL. (Places finger on nose and disappears into the shadows).
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