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Great Links Are the Foundation of Every WisdomCard
OrganizedWisdom is a human powered health search, and that is what we do best. The core of your job as a Guide is to hunt down the very best links available on your WisdomCard topic and share these links with those who are looking for trustworthy health information.
Step 1: Find Great Links
Start by becoming familiar with health sites included on the Useful Resources list. While it is expected that you preferentially utilize these health sites, don't confine yourself to those if you find better sites! Your topic may be one where there are specialized sites or pages available, and it's your job to find the most useful resources for your topic.
Deep linking is good. You want to link directly to the content that matches the topic. Don't simply link to the first page of an article if the desired content is on a sub-page.
Remember that your page title is not the only term you should search. If your topic is "brain cancer," for example, you might also search on "brain tumor" and "cancer of the brain." Use your search skills to uncover the very best web sites and resources.
Pay attention to the dates on your links. We prefer that links be no more than 3 years old, and that scholarly articles be no more than 5 years old. If the only information you can find is older, then use it, but be sure it's the most recent information available. For news and journal articles, please include the date in parentheses after the title in the link text. See below for specific formatting details.
Step 2: Evaluate Your Links
- Does this link come from a credible source? Or is it "spam"? (Read this post for tips on recognizing credible health sites.)
- Does it fit the WisdomCard topic? Or is it too general?
- Last and most important: Will it help the user?
Great Links -- Why We Use Humans!
The whole reason that OrganizedWisdom works with human Guides is that you're not robots (you're BETTER). Your job in seeking out the best links for your hand-crafted WisdomCards is to think like a person, not a machine. Google and other search engines use a complicated algorithm to rank pages -- a system that poor quality websites can manipulate and take advantage of with the help of something called search engine optimization (SEO). As humans you can rank pages based on the quality of the content alone. Just because a site turns up at the top of your Google search results does not mean it's a good site. There might be a site on page 5 of your Google search that is much better, but simply lacks SEO -- it's your job to hunt down that quality resource and share it with our visitors.
This also comes into play when you order the links on your WisdomCards. Do not simply put them up in the order they're found on Google. Again, that was ranked by a machine -- you are not machines. Rank the links on a WisdomCard based on the quality of the content and authority of the site. The highest value links will be those that come from the Useful Resources list, or from another site that is clearly a quality site (if it shows the HON Code badge, for example). Amongst your highest value links, you will want to prioritize those that have the most information or best address the specific topic of your WisdomCard. Always try to use U.S.-based sites over those from other countries, unless of course the topic is specifically about another country, or an international study.
If a site looks like junk, it probably is junk, so don't use it! This includes, but is not limited to: Ezine Articles, Associated Content, Suite 101, and eHow. These sites do sometimes contain well-written, well-researched, and authoritative articles. However, the bulk of their content is written entirely for search engine ranking, which is why you'll so often find them on page 1 of a Google search. As humans, you can look at these articles and say "this one was written by a doctor" so you can include it on your WisdomCard with a via to credit the doctor who wrote it, or "this one lists references" so it might be OK to use with an {{Unknown}} warning if there isn't anything better out there. If you're thinking "it's unclear what qualifications this writer has" or "this is clearly an advertisement" -- you're all smart enough to know not to include those!
Step 3: Format Your Links
Watch the video: How To Add Your First Link
Watch the video: Credit the Source
This is the hardest part for many Guides. A properly formatted link looks like this:
* eMedicine: [http://www.emedicine.com/MED/topic2722.htm Lymphedema]
Here's a step-by-step outline:
1. Start with an asterisk.
2. Then the name of the site, followed by a colon. We do not use the ".com" in the names of most sites, unless it would be difficult to understand without it. ("About.com," for example, is an exception.) If the content comes from a syndicated provider such as A.D.A.M. or Healthwise, credit that source first, then the site where it was published. For example:
* Healthwise (via WebMD): [http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/tc/warts-and-plantar-warts-symptoms Warts and Plantar Warts - Symptoms]
3. After the colon, there's a space.
4. Then you open a set of square brackets, like this [.
5. Add the URL right after the first bracket, then a space.
6. Next, enter the page title. The page title is usually the largest piece of text at the top of the page. It's OK to copy and paste page titles -- in fact, it's recommended, especially in the case of complicated, hard-to-spell health terms. However, please don't use ALL CAPS -- capitalize the first letter of each word, so it is in Title Case. Please do not just use a single word, such as "Symptoms" as your link text, but rather a more descriptive title, like "Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Signs & Symptoms" that fits with the page title and content.
7. Then close the brackets, like this ].
That's all there is to it!
What Is Title Case?
Here are some specific guidelines from the AMA style guide:
- Always capitalize the first and the last word.
- Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs (even "Is", "Am", "Be"), adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions ("As", "Because", "Although").
- Lowercase all articles ("a", "an", "the"), coordinate conjunctions ("and", "or", "nor"), and prepositions less than 3 letters long, unless they are the first or last word.
- Lowercase the "to" in an infinitive ("How to Lose Weight").
Exception to AMA style that we follow:
- We capitalize the second part of the hyphenated compound ("Long-Term Treatment of Diabetes" or "How to Interpret an X-Ray").
Deep Linking
When deep linking to a subsection of a page or sub-page in a multi-page article, please make your link description as accurate as possible. This will often involve using the page title, plus the subsection title, separated by a colon or dash. For instance:
*eMedicine: [http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1017809-treatment Renovascular Hypertension: Surgical Perspective: Treatment & Medication]
*eMedicineHealth: [http://www.emedicinehealth.com/swine_flu/page6_em.htm#diagnosis Swine Flu - Exams and Tests]
*A.D.A.M. (via New York Times): [http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/aortic-dissection/overview.html#Outlook-Prognosis Aortic Dissection: Outlook (Prognosis)]
Which look like this on a WisdomCard:
*eMedicine: Renovascular Hypertension: Surgical Perspective: Treatment & Medication
*eMedicineHealth: Swine Flu - Exams and Tests
*A.D.A.M. (via New York Times): Aortic Dissection: Outlook (Prognosis)
Sometimes, however, you can't link directly to the subsection that applies to your topic. In those cases, you need to use the {{scroll}} icon to tell the reader that they will need to scroll to reach the relevant information. As above, you'll want the link description to be the page title plus the subsection title, separated by a colon or dash. For example:
* A.D.A.M. (via MedlinePlus): [http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000694.htm Epilepsy: Treatment] {{scroll}}
Which will look like this on a WisdomCard:
* A.D.A.M. (via MedlinePlus): Epilepsy: Treatment 
Homepages
In cases where you are linking to a site's homepage, there is a choice of formatting options depending on the site.
For a site that has a good descriptive motto, mission, or subtitle, please use that as your link text:
* Family Enhancement & Play Therapy Center: [http://www.play-therapy.com/ Play Therapy Information for Therapists and Parents]
Often you can find a good phrase in the title bar of the browser, where many sites put their motto or their own site description:
* Know Mycotoxins: [http://www.knowmycotoxins.com Global Mycotoxin Information Resource]
With a foundation or government site, repeating the foundation name (or acronym) plus "Official Site" is preferable:
* American Heart Association: [http://www.americanheart.org AHA Official Site]
For a business or personal site that may not have a motto or mission, it is preferable to repeat the name (or acronym) plus "Homepage":
* Cleveland Clinic: [http://my.clevelandclinic.org/default.aspx Cleveland Clinic Homepage]
For drug topics, the rule is to use "Drug Name Brand Site":
* Abilify: [http://www.abilify.com/ Abilify Brand Site] {{Pharma}}
In most cases, the more descriptive the link text, the better. For a list of examples of sites linked to their homepages, see OrganizedWisdom's TOP 100 Health Resources.
Multiple Links
In cases where you want to link to more than one page on the same site within a single section, you can put multiple links with one lead-in, like this:
* Mayo Clinic: [http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fibrous-dysplasia/DS00991/DSECTION=causes Fibrous Dysplasia: Causes] | [http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fibrous-dysplasia/DS00991/DSECTION=complications Complications]
Which will look like this on the WisdomCard:
* Mayo Clinic: Fibrous Dysplasia: Causes | Complications
Please make sure your spacing is exact. There needs to be one space on each side of the vertical bar separating the two links.
Video
If you find a video that contains really good wisdom about your topic, we have the ability to embed it in a WisdomCard. The basic format is
* Site Name: [http://URL Link Descriptive Text] {{#ev:service|id}}
Where:
- "service" is the name of a video sharing service (generally "youtube").
- "id" is the identification number of the video to include
Be sure to include the "|" divider in between service and id.
Example: {{#ev:youtube|vMBn-hdA3e8}}
This will create a link to the video, just like a regular link, plus it will embed the video on the WisdomCard.
Step 4: Favorites, Warnings, and Dates
Use the code below to include graphical icons next to links that should be highlighted. When people scroll over these images on the WisdomCard, they will be able to read the Warning text you include along with the icon.
What do our icons mean?
Guide Favorite - Guides place this next to their favorite links or to highlight exceptional wisdom or inspirational sites. Please choose at least one Guide Favorite in the top two sections of each WisdomCard. You may pick up to five Guide Favorites anywhere on the WisdomCard.
Warning! - Guides flag links that include information that is controversial, sensitive, or sponsored by a biased source/company.
Unknown - Use this for non-HON code sites if the content is good, but there is no sign of the source or the author's qualifications. Also good for blogs and forums if the WisdomCard topic itself is not about blogs, forums, support groups, or personal stories.
Scroll down to reach relevant content - Use this if the content that applies to the WisdomCard topic is not near the top of the page or at an anchor tag.
PDF - We try to avoid PDFs whenever possible, but sometimes great information is only available as a PDF, so please warn users that they're about to open a PDF.
Free Registration Required - We try to avoid sites that require the user to join to read articles, but sometimes the sites are too good to leave out, like eMedicine or Medscape.
Video - Obviously this is not needed when we embed videos, but it's nice to let the user know if they're about to click on a site that will be showing them a video.
In Memoriam - To honor bloggers or wisdom from patients who have passed away.
To include anyone of the icons, simply paste the appropriate code -- the curly brackets with text inside them -- after each deserving link. There should be a space between the closing bracket of the link and the warning icon. Please only use one Warning Icon next to a link.
- {{toppick}} Guide Favorite
- {{Warning}} Controversial
- {{Commercial}} Commercial Site
- {{Pharma}} Site created or sponsored by pharmaceutical maker
- {{Unknown}} Unknown Source/Author Qualifications
- {{PDF}} PDF
- {{Scroll}} Scroll down to reach relevant content
- {{Mature}} Graphic content suitable for mature audiences
- {{LawFirm}} Page created/sponsored by law firm
- {{Registration}} Free Registration Required
- {{Video}} Video
- {{Inmemoriam}} In Memoriam
For example:
* Mayo Clinic: [http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/leg-pain/MY00080/DSECTION=causes Leg Pain: Causes] {{toppick}}
Which looks like this on a WisdomCard:
* Mayo Clinic: Leg Pain: Causes
Dates
When including news stories (other than in the RSS feed) or individual journal articles, please add the article date. Our formatting for that is {{linkdate|Jan. 10, 2008}} and should follow the link, outside the closing square bracket. Spacing needs to be exact: be sure to leave a space between the closing square bracket and opening bracket of the date link, and make sure there are no spaces between the vertical bar and the date or the date and the closing curly bracket. For example:
* Medical News Today: [http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/60334.php Meningitis and Encephalitis Cases Caused by Different Bacteria] {{linkdate|Jan. 7, 2007}}
* Annals of Clinical Psychiatry (via PubMed Central): [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9339882?dopt=Abstract Clozapine Withdrawal Catatonia and Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome: A Case Report] {{linkdate|Sept. 1997}}
Which look like this on a WisdomCard:
* Medical News Today: Meningitis and Encephalitis Cases Caused by Different Bacteria (Jan. 7, 2007)
* Annals of Clinical Psychiatry (via PubMed Central): Clozapine Withdrawal Catatonia and Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome: A Case Report (Sept. 1997)
We are using AP style for dates, which means you abbreviate the longer month names: Jan., Feb., March, April, May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.
While we do prefer dated articles be no older than three years, it is not a hard rule and there are exceptions if the article is perfect for the topic of the WisdomCard.
Step 5: Proofread
Carefully proofread your own work asking yourself the following questions:
- Are your sites all quality resources?
- Have you eliminated all spam?
- Have you ranked your links by authoritativeness and relativity to the topic?
- Have you deep linked to the exact content that applies to the topic?
- Does your link descriptive text match the title and section on the site you're linking to? Does it let the user know what they will be reading if they click?
- Have you added all appropriate warning icons and picked a Guide favorite?
- Have you added dates to any timely news articles or journal articles?
