[wp-hackers] Re: Blogroll, Bookmarks, Links?

Otto otto at ottodestruct.com
Thu Jun 21 19:53:52 GMT 2007


On 6/21/07, Marci O'Daffer <marci at odaffer.net> wrote:
> It can be? Tell me where! That is all I was asking for initially.....so I
> don't have to edit the core code to make it applicable to the end user. But
> I've never seen anywhere that you could change that. A plugin was
> recommended to me earlier in this thread, but it didn't work for me, and I
> haven't had time to mess with it.

Bookmarks, when displayed on the page (using the wp_list_bookmarks()
function) generally get a title above them that corresponds to what
category the bookmarks are in. Rename the category, using
Manage->Categories, and that title changes as well.

The reason I like Bookmarks as a generic term is that the change has
already taken place internally. wp_list_bookmarks() is how you display
them. It gets them with get_bookmarks() The functions for all this is
located in bookmark.php and bookmark_template.php. All the old "links"
functions are still there, but most of them are deprecated.

We moved away from "links" for a reason: User Confusion.

Users are confused by the term "links". Read the support forums, look
for the questions of "How do I add links to my site?" The invariable
answer was "what do you mean, how do you add links to a post or how do
you add links to a sidebar or how do you add links to the theme, or
what?" and the user either never comes back or explains. Even worse,
somebody would read the question, explains how to add links to the
sidebar (using the "Links" menu) and then there would be much
confusion as the question asker tried to figure out why he had to go
to all that trouble to add a link to a post.

The name "Links" is simply wholly unacceptable. We've already learned
this, read the older threads in the support forums...

So the real choice is between "Bookmarks" or "Blogroll". Why it was
named "Blogroll" in 2.1, I'll never understand, but the choice seems
pretty clear to me. A Bookmark is a saved URL that you can have
displayed in a number of places. Perhaps on the sidebar (most likely),
perhaps in a page template (not as likely), or anywhere else you can
call wp_list_bookmarks() from.


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