Do you Hyperlink?

I'm feeling a tad frustrated here. I just read a blog post that interested me enormously because it contained mentions of a number of sites and resources that interested me. Not one of these mentions/references contained a hyperlink that I could easily follow so I had to copy and paste the names/phrases into Google searches to find and read further about them.

One of the advantages of blogging/online publishing is the ability to add hyperlinks that will take readers seamlessly to places where they can find further information. If one of the aims of your blogging is to share information then, PLEASE, consider adding some hyperlinks to your content.

Reposted below is my post from March 2014.

Where are your links?

It's funny the things that suddenly strike you when you are doing something else.

Today I was giving a talk to a non-genealogy group entitled "Share your stories in small bites - Write a blog" when a question about hyperlinks from an audience member made me think about one of the advantages of the blogging medium that many bloggers do not appear to use effectively.

I love the blogging medium because it allows me to add external links to other sites or blogs where readers can go for further information or clarification, to check on a source or find out more about a person mentioned in a post. When writing an article for printed media I miss being able to add hyperlinks to my text.

When I started blogging I tried to develop a habit of embedding a few pertinent links in each of my posts. Sometimes I fail dismally (especially when I am in a hurry) but I endeavour to add meaningful links to most of my posts.

Tonight, as I was catching up on blog reading in Inoreader, I took particular note of the use of links in the posts I read and was surprised at the opportunities missed by many bloggers to add value to their posts with hyperlinks.

There were several place names mentioned in the posts I read, if these had been linked to articles with further information about the places then readers who didn't have a clue about the place, its location or history could have followed the links to find that information. I came across instances of  meaningless (to me and maybe others) acronyms being used; hyperlinks to information on what the random letters meant would have helped ignorant people like me. Many people were named in the posts, most of these were strangers to me, links to their blogs, profiles on social media or entries in a genealogy databases would perhaps have told me if they were dead or alive and where in the world they were situated. And then there was the jargon, I and many blog readers are not a walking dictionaries. If you use subject specific terminology please consider adding a link to a definition or explanation to help us understand.
Adding value to your posts with hyperlinks slows down the blogging process; it takes time to seek and find appropriate links but it is worth the effort.

A slide from today's presentation 

Today I told the group of potential bloggers to think of their audiences and then put themselves in those readers' shoes. Our blogs reach audiences in all corners of the globe and our readers have cultural differences and a range of life experiences.

Do you make it easy for your readers to get full value from your writing by adding pertinent hyperlinks to your posts?

A Cheeky Problem???

Before we took off on our last overseas trip in late May I sent Mum's DNA test off to FTDNA hoping that the results would be in by the time we got back on July 22.

The first time I checked at the site I was given a date of early August then the next time I checked it had changed to 18 August. I just logged in to check her results and got this message.

14th September!!! I'm now worried that there's something wrong with the sample I got from Mum. 

Green Leaves

Decrapifying is my present household activity. I am trying to clean up and clear out some of the stuff we have accululated in over 40 years of marriage so that, in the not too distant future, we can relocate to a more modest residence.

Of course I can't do this all the time so I am doing some decrapifying in my genealogy space. I have been a member of Ancestry since the olden days and I can't remember when they introduced those shaky green leaves but I know that I have never taken any notice of them. So my first decrapyfying geneatask has been to get rid of those leaves - an interesting exercise.

The leaves seem to multiply overnight so that I am making very slow progress.
 So many of the hints are for events that are already in my Ancestry private tree (a pruned down version of http://www.geniaus.net). Dera Ancestry, I'd rather have fewer hints that lead me to new information.

 I can't understand why Ancestry throws up hints from foreign countries for people who were totally BMDed in Australia or England.

 Over the years I have generously shared gedcom files with other people. I get all excited when a green leaf leads me to an ancestor on a shared tree and then get annoyed (with myself for  prior sharing) when I find my info posted on someone's public tree. I keep my info up to date and correct my errors when I find them - these people don't!

 I was pleased when one genie I contacted after being directed to her tree removed the misinformation there but she told me she had copied it from another tree........Deep breath.

  In spite of my frustrations I have found some good leads to check out. Probably 1/25 of the leaves bear fruit for me. So I will attack my next 35 pages of hints tonight.  I wonder how many I'll have in the morning.