On better links

I am sensing the need for layers of links in the wiki. Thompson and I wish to include only three links per page to simplify the hypertext and give the structure stronger form. However, an actual text—and your average author—is inclined to define many more links on a page, perhaps linking every word that might be unfamiliar to a reader.

We imagine these dictionary links as being visually less visible. In my first hypertext I built, they would only show themselves if you rolled over a word and chose a "show all links" menu option.

Further, we can imagine layers of links from different authors, from different perspectives or levels of knowledge. Each of these different link sets could be used to generate a new and different semantic graph—and in turn to type links in different perspectives. One link type will not stand the test of time, though it is certainly the best place to start.

We are near the time where adding metadata to an internal wiki link is advised. Ward has suggested adding a page title to the slug-based wiki link as a means to provide greater context and enhance the wiki with the ability to provide UTF-8–based naming of things. I can see this same mechanism being used to type wiki links for advanced usage.

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