Some personal news: I’m an unpaid volunteer editor at The Verge (at least until they’re better at linking to things)
The Verge’s inconsistency to include a link to the primary subject in their articles finally drove me to create an account so that I could leave a comment about it. Something I almost never do. I prefer to comment on things via its relevant social media post or here on my own site. But this article about the Flic Duo was the straw that broke my back. (See how easy and helpful it is to link to the primary subject?)
This little gadget looks neat, and I’m always on the lookout for unobtrusive add-on smart home buttons to place strategically around my house. But the article didn’t mention if it would be configurable in the Apple Home app — table stakes here. So I figured I’d check the manufacturer’s webpage to see the rest of the details. Alas, the only link in the entire article was this one to a Matter explainer and product roundup on theverge.com. No link to the Flic Duo button, to the pre-order page the article mentions, or even to Flic’s website so readers could be sure they’ve found the right Flic.
Instead, I put on my Internet Sleuth hat, fired up my search engine and laboriously typed out two words: “flic duo”. Voilá! The link in question was number one on the list.1 Long-press → copied to clipboard. Then, I reluctantly put on my Internet Commenter hat, created an account on theverge.com (nice, easy sign-up flow, btw), and wrote the following:
This sounds cool! But know what’s even cooler? A link to the subject of the article: duo.flic.io 😜
(The Verge brags about not being afraid to send traffic elsewhere. I’m always confused why so many articles fail to include a primary link to the subject.)
My intent wasn’t to be rude. Merely to point out that readers like me want and expect hyperlinks — the backbone of the web — to at least the primary subject of an article. Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel often brags on The Vergecast about how much traffic out to other websites that the The Verge creates. That’s awesome. But based on how often I have to go searching for missing links to the vacuum (missing link), tv (missing link), or game (missing link) an article discusses, there seems to be neglect among their writers to create those hyperlinks to the source material.
And then I put on my Blogger hat and spent several hours writing up this post that could have been a tweet. 😆
I guess searching for and adding relevant links is a free service2 I provide for The Verge now. See you in the comments! 🙃
Alas, I searched in vain for that Apple Home configuration info, as Flic doesn’t provide much besides a spot to sign up for early access to their product. Still, that’s a worthwhile link to include in the article!↩︎
Actually, I’m paying them for the honor to do this. I had to cough up $50 to become a member of their subscription because I hit their paywall’s limit in my research for this article, which also prevented me from scrolling down to the comment box.↩︎