# When linking to an article, suggest the OP tell us what they think is worth noting about it **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 3, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300 "2021-05-03T16:16:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/101 "2021-05-05T15:30:02Z")
**Modnote** : The above is a great example of an almost random bare link we don’t encourage or want to see on the Straight Dope. Please, everyone, don’t do this in other threads. _If you do it often, it will be noticed and reported I’m sure which will most likely lead to warnings._ ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/102 "2021-05-05T15:30:53Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > The above is a great example of a almost random bare link we don’t encourage or want to see on the Straight Dope. Please, everyone, don’t do this in other threads. I thought I was being obvious. Sorry. (and thank you) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/103 "2021-05-05T15:32:19Z")
I think you were demonstrating what not to do. I hope so at least. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/104 "2021-05-05T16:32:53Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > That’s interesting, but despite having read dozens, maybe hundreds, of academic papers this year, i didn’t know that, and also wondered what “DOI” meant. A parenthetical explaining it would have been nice. I posted the [brief explanation above](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/77) because I think it’s a cool concept—a unique identifier that always takes you to the source and never changes. You see DOIs everywhere in scholarly and professional literature these days, and I thought it would be interesting for folks here to know about them. Imagine my surprise when I learn that the guy complaining about it doesn’t care what it means, and the guy who originally used it doesn’t care either. What a world! 😁 ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2021, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/105 "2021-05-06T07:48:08Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What I’m seeing in your post is a link in the form of a single line of text. This is not what I posted: thanks to Discourse’s Onebox feature, my link showed up in a preview box that made it clear that what I was linking to was a Straight Dope column. Did it not show up that way for some people (i.e. you)? I don’t want to press this too much especially because I’m just dumb enough that I could be missing something obvious here but I do want to respond to your post. I was having some formatting issues and I couldn’t get your post to appear just as it originally looked so I just went with the header in my previous post. Sorry. I still can’t get it to look just right, but here, more or less, is what I intended in my previous post: the GQ question title followed by your response: * * * [Why did all the McDonaldland characters disappear](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-all-the-mcdonaldland-characters-disappear/941369) > [@Why did all the McDonaldland characters disappear](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-all-the-mcdonaldland-characters-disappear/941369/6): > > ### [Was McDonaldland plagiarized from the old “H. R. Pufnstuf” kids’ TV show?](https://www.straightdope.com/21342489/was-mcdonaldland-plagiarized-from-the-old-h-r-pufnstuf-kids-tv-show) > > Dear Cecil: A few years ago you wrote about the murky origins of the characters in McDonald’s advertising — Mayor McCheese, Hamburglar, Grimace, and so on. Mostly you regurgitated a lot of… * * * So there’s a question in the General Questions forum: _“Why did all the McDonaldland characters disappear?”_ You responded with only a link. That’s already bad form, IMO, but in this case it was even less helpful than usual because neither the link _nor the infobox capsule_ had anything approaching an answer for the OP. What does plagiarizing Pufnstuf or murky origins of McD-Land characters have to do with the question? And if there was an answer somewhere in your link, why in the world didn’t you quote it and share it with that thread? Especially as this was just the sixth post in a GQ thread. I believe that links should almost always be used only for support, further elucidation, or illustration of your thesis. They should not be your entire contribution to a thread. them. I’m never impressed by a bare link as a post. It doesn’t matter whether that link is to Cecil or God or my dead uncle. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2021, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/106 "2021-05-06T08:07:19Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > Imagine my surprise when I learn that the guy complaining about it doesn’t care what it means, and the guy who originally used it doesn’t care either. What a world! 😁 OK, really I _do_ care what it means because I’m naturally curious. 😀 Perhaps I should have said: "Its actual definition is not the point here–after all I could just Google it–I was only pointing out that poster’s faux pas. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/107 "2021-05-07T16:46:23Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > It is already a rule for Ops. A rule that was not enforced in the thread in question. Perhaps it wasn’t reported. > [@Kansas lawmaker goes full-on wacko](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmaker-goes-full-on-wacko/941141): > > Here’s hoping he was having some sort of treatable medical event and isn’t stuck this crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/108 "2021-05-07T17:06:39Z")
No, the thread in question had description in both the subject line and the post. When I made the post, I was doing it from my phone, like I do 99% of the time lately. On the phone there is no live preview panel like on the desktop. I posted assuming that it would give the normal summary/opening passage box. After I posted I saw that it didn’t, concidered trying to give a meaningful edit during the edit window or make a second post with supplemental information, then decided to let it go. (Until asked for that info by a poster.) If it had gone “normally” with the thread title, the introductory sentence, and a box with the opening part of the article? I absolutely 100% would have been happy with and have considered it a perfectly cromulent post to introduce the topic. I don’t think people should _need_ to be spoon-fed prompts on exactly how and if they should find the topic worthy of discussion, and I find the people who go out of their way to stifle posts that don’t fit their personal posting style or have a topic that interests them is one of the most obstinate, hostile, counterproductive, Okay Boomerish things this site does to itself. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/109 "2021-05-07T17:15:42Z")
Not only not flagged but the OP came back and expanded on his Op pretty quickly. 2 posts later. So even if it was flagged, it would have been fine in this case. > [@Kansas lawmaker goes full-on wacko](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kansas-lawmaker-goes-full-on-wacko/941141/3): > > Doesn’t have a paywall for me (and I don’t know why Discourse sometimes puts a preview box and sometimes doesn’t.) Kansas state Rep. Mark Samsel was arrested on charges of misdemeanor battery on Thursday after getting into a physical altercation with a student while substitute teaching in Wellsville. Samsel, 36, was booked into the Franklin County Adult Detention Center after 3:30 p.m. Thursday. He has since been released on $1,000 bond, Sheriff Jeff Richards said. Superintendent Ryan Bradbu… Did you miss that only 2 posts later? If I sound a little grumpy, its because I feel like you were just playing some stupid gotcha game and wasting my time. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/110 "2021-05-07T17:32:27Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If the purpose is to reach as many people as possible Who says that the goal has to be to reach as many people as possible? Can’t the goal be “I think some people here are interested in this topic–they will know who they are and who they aren’t.” For instance if a news item comes up that a non-avian dinosaur fossil has been discovered well into the tertiary, the topic line tells that a non-avian dinosaur fossil has been discovered well into the tertiary, and the preview box has a few sentences from the article that describe the finding of the tertiary dinosaur fossil, shouldn’t that be enough for you to know if that is a topic that interests you enough to discuss? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/111 "2021-05-07T17:33:35Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > If it had gone “normally” with the thread title, the introductory sentence, and a box with the opening part of the article? I absolutely 100% would have been happy with and have considered it a perfectly cromulent post to introduce the topic. I don’t think people should _need_ to be spoon-fed prompts on exactly how and if they should find the topic worthy of discussion, and I find the people who go out of their way to stifle posts that don’t fit their personal posting style or have a topic that interests them is one of the most obstinate, hostile, counterproductive, Okay Boomerish things this site does to itself. Speaking as a baby boomer, i agree with all of this excerpt the categorization “boomerish” 😉. Personally, i think the onebox often gives exactly as much information as i want, and sometimes a bit more than that. Yes, it’s worth checking. (I am also a frequent phone-poster.) And yes, the edit window is long enough to clean it up if the onebox is not adequate. (If the edit window is not adequate, please complain. We can adjust that.) But i haven’t noticed an epidemic of bare links, either. Maybe tend to see those as null posts and just skip over them. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/112 "2021-05-07T18:18:05Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > And yes, the edit window is long enough to clean it up if the onebox is not adequate. Going back to the article, searching for the best passages, pasting them over, formatting them as quotes, typing some sort of comment, and checking the comment for typos and autocorrect errors in a 5-minute window is a race against time. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/113 "2021-05-07T19:19:51Z")
If you need to do all that, do it up front, of course. But often adding one or two sentences that say more or less what the onebox would have said is adequate. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/114 "2021-05-07T19:43:02Z")
I’ll be honest: my posting habits were formed on sites that are a lot less respectful of copyrights than this one. And in my personal posting, i am far more worried about violating copyrights than i am about not posting enough. I LOVE the onebox feature, because it’s often good enough, and I’m always certain i am not violating copyright by using it. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2021, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/115 "2021-05-08T00:16:27Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > When I made the post, I was doing it from my phone, like I do 99% of the time lately. On the phone there is no live preview panel like on the desktop. FYI, at least on my phone, there _is_ a live preview, but you have to hit the little monitor icon at the bottom right of the dialog box to call it up. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2021, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/116 "2021-05-08T02:31:47Z")
Testing, testing. Hmm, that mostly worked, but i couldn’t figure out how to exit preview mode. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2021, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/117 "2021-05-08T02:34:52Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Hmm, that mostly worked, but i couldn’t figure out how to exit preview mode. To exit preview mode, click on the little pencil in the lower right corner. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2021, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/118 "2021-05-08T12:30:03Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Sums it up well. I doubt it will ever be a rule, just discouraged. > [@What\_Exit](#): > > Please, everyone, don’t do this in other threads. > > _If you do it often, it will be noticed and reported I’m sure which will most likely lead to warnings._ So which is it? Not a rule, but don’t do it or it will lead to warnings. That link is clearly relevant to the thread and was interesting to me. The incurious lose immeasurably few milliseconds as they scroll past. I want someone with a link to an article they read years ago that they recall answers my question to feel comfortable sharing it even if they don’t have time to expound on it. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2021, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/119 "2021-05-08T12:33:21Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Your metaphor is only relevant if the librarian walked up to people in the library who were studying, dropped a handful of books in the middle of them, and walked away without explanation. In which case you’d call that librarian an asshole. We’re talking about a GQ thread. Where OPs ask the entire world to be their librarians. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2021, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-linking-to-an-article-suggest-the-op-tell-us-what-they-think-is-worth-noting-about-it/941300/120 "2021-05-08T19:59:00Z")
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