I know you’ve probably asked yourself multiple times before. Go ahead and admit it. Why does Brigada spell out those long annoying links instead of simply hiding them behind shorter words that wouldn’t break up the flow of text? Here are the reasons:
a) Some people print our items on paper. They hand the article to a friend face to face. (I know. It might seem old-fashioned. But it still happens, believe it or not. Some people still talk face to face. :-) ) When a reader prints an article that says, “click here” to go to a particular place on the web, the link behind the “here” becomes a lot more “there” than “here.” The truth is, it’s lost. For good. So we don’t do that.
b) We’re kind of old-fashioned ourselves. We like the idea of being so forthright about our links that you see, at a glance (without trying to hover or fear) where you’re going to be sent if you click “here.”
c) Finally, we believe the human eye is an amazing tool. We think it can glance past a long row of letters, if trained to do so. That’s why we’re big advocates of — show me where you want to send me on the web.
Besides. We think you’re smarter than you realize. If you glance at enough URL’s, we think you’ll begin getting used to it — and you’ll become faster at understanding where they send you. We believe anything less than that amounts to patting you on the head, as if to say, “This looks too complicated to show you the real location.” So there’s our hobby horse. That’s our story — and we’re sticking to it. :-)
Thanks for the explanation. I, for one, like to see the full URL, so I agree.