In which the merits of the fake LJ-cut are debated

[kalimyre]

So I've noticed a lot of fake lj-cutting on my flist lately. You know, when you write a post and put a link in it, but through the clever use of coding make the link look like a cut tag. I have to admit, this is something I've never quite understood. So I turn to you, O Wise Flist, to explain it to me. Also to click the happy buttons in my poll

Comments

[kageygirl]

I did not answer the second poll, because my answer is something like "mouse over it, see that it's a fake cut, wonder why the heck they bothered, assume they're a little too impressed with their own cleverness, most likely not click."

But I never ever understood why the fake cut was supposed to be cool, anyway. Why is a link so verboten? It's the interweb, links are everywhere.

(btw, if you REALLY want to know, it's
<.b>( <.a href="link">text of fake cut<./a> )<./b>
and take out the periods.)

[kalimyre]

Dude, fake cut instructions! *g* Now, of course, I will have to try it at least once. But probably in a private post just to see if I can do it, because I'm still reluctant to use that on something I actually want people to read.

I do get the idea of linking back to a single posting--like if you post your story in three or four comms, linking it back to your own journal each time. Makes it easier to keep track of comments and responses. I have nothing against linking, it's just the fake cutting I don't get. (Fake cutting. Sounds kind of drama emo, doesn't it? *g*)

[trobadora]

Hi, I just saw your post on friendsfriends. I hope you don't mind me commenting here, but your post inspired me to think about why I myself sometimes use the fake cut, and I just realised the reason. I use it indicate it's an LJ-internal, not an external link - that the it goes to another LJ and not for example to a website. Huh. Thanks for making me think about this!

[kalimyre]

Hi, and welcome. You make an interesting point there--a cut clearly indicates that the content is still on LJ, while a link could be anything. I suppose for people who mistrust anonymous websites or have limited access to things, LJ would be better. Personally, I rarely use links and stick to basic cuts, but I suppose you could solve this by stating in the text of the link "This goes to my journal" or something else straightforward.

[trobadora]

For me, it's not a question of trust or access - it's that LJ is for communication, and external stuff usually isn't. So I usually read LJ posts first, and then the comments on the post, and then I comment myself if I have something to say. Other websites I tend to save for later reading because they're usually not a conversation, so it doesn't matter if I go in now or a few days later, if that makes any sense.

(The funny thing is, I actually agree with you that fake cuts are a pretty silly thing to do. They don't do anything you can't also achieve with a normal link and appropriate link text. So I'm doing something I know is silly when I use fake cuts (even if I always make sure the text tells people it's fake)... It's fun to think about my own irrational reactions, trying to figure them out!)

[roga]

I agree with what you said about the distinction between reading a fic on LJ and on external website.

I'll also add my slightly irrational reason: if I post a regular link to a story in a community post, it feels like I'm self-pimping - like I'm saying "come, read this, and then read all the rest of my stuff!", while a simple LJ cut says "here's a story I wrote that's relevant to this community - enjoy".

I do want to link to one place, though - both because it concentrates comments in one place (which, let's face it, does encourage others to read the story), and because if I want to make any edits later on I only have to do so once. So fake cutting is a sort of middle ground between LJ-cutting and that psychological self-pimping.

If I see a story with no comments I assume it's either a link, was posted very very recently, or was posted in multiple places and the comments are somewhere else. Very, very rarely have I seen stories with no comments at all.

[tijmetje]

There's a difference between fake-cuts and links? I seem to have missed some major LJ info along the way.

When I link to my icon page in comms I just make it look like a link because it, well, is.
That, and I didn't know fake-cuts were any different from links until now.

[delurker]

Difference b/t fake cuts and links, linking to this post:

A poll about fake cuts.

( A poll about fake cuts. )

[tijmetje]

So it's basically just showing off your tagging skills?
Pretty pointless, really.

[kalimyre]

Well, there are other reasons for it (many of which have been brought up in the other comments to this post) but yeah, I don't really get the point either. Still, I must admit that for some odd psychological reason I'm more likely to click on a cut than a link, so maybe there's something to it.

[boy_ish]

I've only done it because I've been posting multiple places, and would like comments to be at one place (though I recognize that people seeing 'no comments' at the place it's been cross-posted doesn't help), and I like how the 'real' cut looks. I also think that when people see the fake cut, they'd actually be less inclined to click (I kind of am), as it always kinda makes me think it's linking to an outside (non-LJ) site.

Nothing to do with feeling 'elite' or anything (I thought everyone could figure it out--it's just a regular link bolded and with parentheses), but it's certainly got it's faults and positives.

[boy_ish]

*whoops, I didn't mean "fake cut", I meant regular link.

[kalimyre]

See, it's that no comments thing that gets me. Because when I see no comments on a linked story I figure the comments are just over at the actual post. But when I see no comments on what looks like a cut story, I tend to assume the story is not that good. I know it's probably not nice to judge stories just by what other people may have thought of them, but there are a lot of stories out there and I can't read them all. Comment count makes a quick gauge for story quality.

I think a better way to consolidate entries is to limit cross-posting. Chances are if a fan has joined one major fic community in a fandom, they've joined most of them. When I was in CSI, I'd get tired of seeing the same story posted in four different comms, all of which were on my flist.

[clayangel]

I believe we've talked about this before, but I have to put in my two cents anyway. ^_^

I used fake lj-cuts for stories because I post in both my journal and the communtiy, and I want all my comments in one place.

Why not just use a link then? Because you never know where a link is going to lead you, so you tend to be wary of it. An lj-cut is safer and, I think, people are more willing to click on it. It's something about those bold letters. ^_^ They're squishy. Like teddy bears. ^___^

[kalimyre]

I know, me and my eternal confusion about fake cuts must get tiring. *g* I do understand where you're coming from on the appeal of the lj-cut; it's just somehow nicer. I am more likely to click on a cut than a link, although I couldn't give you a quantifiable reason why. I tend to just post in two places, my journal and the appropriate fic community, and use a real cut both times. Comments in just two locations aren't that hard to keep track of, and I put my comm entries in memories to make them easier to find.