Marcelo Somers takes the blogging community to task:
The problem is, we can’t all be Daring Fireball – we can’t get away with posting a witty headline and a blockquote 5–10 times a day. We’ve adopted John’s concept of linking, but not the idea that we need to tell a bigger story on our sites.
Marcelo isn’t saying links are in and of themselves bad, but rather that linking should carry more weight than it does.
Here’s Kyle Baxter on the subject:
There’s no reason to link to something unless it’s something readers probably haven’t come across already or you can provide a unique perspective on it.
Those are good criteria. I find myself not linking to something far more than I find myself actually linking.
A link is my way of saying to you, the reader, that I think the article is worth your time and attention, and here on the Internet, those are everyone’s two most important possessions.
The irony, of course, is that this is, itself, a “linked list” post.