Within a month after I started Nature ID, I discovered I could embed links into my text. Cool! Whenever I can, I try to include links to external websites in the common names (usually photos or generic info) and scientific names (more reliable information sources). If I reference my own previous observations, I'll also try to link back to my previous posts. You can tell where the links are by looking for blue highlighted words.
Considering I link so frequently, I've asked permission to link to various sites and blogs which I rely on heavily to look up IDs, such as
Cornell's All About Birds and
Calflora. They have kindly granted me permission, not that I'm sure it's legally necessary. However, asking for permissions is a nice way to say "Thanks!" and offer my unending gratitude for all the work that was done to create such incredibly, informative resources.
I'm starting to get more selective regarding the links I encode in my posts. Say for example, if I link to a favorite book, I try to find the original publisher and not lazily link to Amazon.com. Silly really, but it's consistent with my philosophy of giving credit (and $) to where credit is due. I'm also getting a better handle on which sites are reputable and reliable. See in the tab above for recommended online ID resources.
For those that know of my insect inclinations, you may wonder why I never reference BugGuide.net. I initially found their information not reliably accurate and even though they've improved tenfold from a couple years ago, I still hold a teeny bit of distrust in the site. Perhaps, if I knew more about plants and other animals, many of my recommended ID links would not pass the same stringent test.
However, I am a huge supporter of
Wikipedia, despite vehement protests from a scientist friend who's against "the free encyclopedia." I love the concept and fully support this kind of shared, collaborative, and continually changing informative website.
So, there you have it.
ps 05/15/10 - I started editing the above entry and feel another entry would be better. For a bit of naval gazing, click
here. And, finally, if you've missed it, I've given in - I'm starting to link to
BugGuide.net, because it has become one of the best insect sites out there.
