bad wiki timeline link

[John Ralls]

> On Aug 10, 2015, at 4:41 PM, Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:
> 
> John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> writes:
> 
>> My preference in most cases to to make the first ref to a webpage a
>> link with [http://foo.bar/baz name] and then just use name everywhere
>> else. I can envision exceptions but have never actually encountered
>> any when writing.
> 
> I'm not sure I like that for a web page or wiki, especially if it's a
> long page (c.f. the FAQ).
> 
> Certainly multiple references in a single paragraph can limit the link
> to the first reference.  But if the reference is in multiple paragraphs
> or, more importantly, multiple sections, then I think the link should be
> repeated.
> 
> When I'm reading a page I want to easily click the link -- I don't want
> to have to search the page to find it.

In the case of the FAQ and similar pages I absolutely agree: Each question should stand on its own if for no other reason than someone might come along and remove the link from another question.

The downside of course is that when a link is found to be stale one must search the page and correct all instances.

Regards,
John Ralls