clipped from: I just wanted to briefly mention a concern that I've had lately. I have recently noticed a lot of public clipmarks
that contain entire articles/pages (or most of it). For two important reasons I
am hoping this will change.
First,
in my opinion, the key distinguishing aspect of clipmarks is that instead
of simply posting links to entire web pages, we are clipping and sharing the
best piece or pieces of information from
within those pages (the "sweetspot" if you will). It is my opinion that clipping too much
information substantially reduces the power of
the clip as a way for people to quickly toggle
through bits of information about all sorts of topics in less time. Basically,
when it comes to a clipmark, I think that more information often results in less
quality.
The second
reason pertains to respecting the rights
of content owners. There are many different types of clipmarks that are generated from all sorts of different web
sites, so this concern certainly
does not apply across the board. But, when small nuggets of information are clipped, they can serve as powerful
drivers of traffic to the source of that content. In this way, content creators
benefit from having their content clipped. This is fair and good for
everyone. But clipping an entire page clearly
lessens the likelihood of a click through to the source page because all of the
information can be gathered from the clip. This is not the intention of
clipmarks and, often times, is not fair to the original source of the
content.
I hope the
idea of clipping small pieces of information instead of entire web pages is one
you will all agree creates a better experience for everyone and shows greater
respect for the rights of original content creators.
Clip on!!
eric