Since all links begin in the same place but end in different places there’s an annoying micro-suspense before I reach the end of the link and figure out whether it’s LW or not.
Curious how you feel about the LW compared to the “little circle option”
(Seems like there’s a direct tradeoff in “how obvious it is”, where being obvious is good if you want to immediately see LW links, and bad if you’re just trying to read the text like normal)
The “micro-suspense” thing is an interesting aspect of the experience. I think it’s pretty rare for formatting to include meta-data at the beginning like that (whereas there’s an established convention for footnote-like-things), which I think makes it look more professional. So I’d lean towards keeping it to the end, but it’s an interesting argument to keep in mind.
I liked the little “LW”.
Though why does it appear at the end of the link?
Since all links begin in the same place but end in different places there’s an annoying micro-suspense before I reach the end of the link and figure out whether it’s LW or not.
Curious how you feel about the LW compared to the “little circle option”
(Seems like there’s a direct tradeoff in “how obvious it is”, where being obvious is good if you want to immediately see LW links, and bad if you’re just trying to read the text like normal)
The “micro-suspense” thing is an interesting aspect of the experience. I think it’s pretty rare for formatting to include meta-data at the beginning like that (whereas there’s an established convention for footnote-like-things), which I think makes it look more professional. So I’d lean towards keeping it to the end, but it’s an interesting argument to keep in mind.
I definitely appreciate the idea of a “safe link” marker to other pages on LW.
The LW is (fairly) obvious as to what it means (especially to new users), and I don’t find it obtrusive ( I am on a biggish screen).
Full disclosure - I like seeing the LW on my links!