Is it OK to write a dev.to article that just links to another blog such as medium.com ?

#discuss

Top comments (12)

I think that instead of doing that, you should post it on both your other blog and dev.to. In fact, such posts aren’t uncommon. You can of course write something like “This post was originally posted on <other blog name>.” at the top and link to the original one.

Matt Moran • Nov 13 '18

That's a good idea. I used to use Tumblr as my main spouting-off blog & I'd just link it wherever but TBH people don't usually bother clicking links, so it doesn't drive traffic up that much, and with Tumblr being taken over by Oath & having that whole privacy thing I didn't feel I could trust Oath with my political or professional views so shut it down. Then a few months later a drama flares up concerning an organisation I have loose ties to & I'm like "Yeah! I said as much when this first came up - see my blog... post... Oh crap."

Anna • Nov 13 '18

I hate this Oath dialog I get on every other site. Most regular sites just pop up a cookie "accept / reject" popup and that's it. With Oath you get the entire site blocked until you either click accept or spend 10 minutes to disable some of tbe tracking. I don't get how that is GDPR compliant.

Ross Henderson • Nov 13 '18

You could potentially argue that that popup is the most GDPR compliant popup out there...

Except for when you go to manage who gets to see your data and you have to uncheck the hundreds of companies that you don't want to see it, because they've assumed your consent which is against GDPR compliance.

Anna • Nov 15 '18

Yes, that is exactly what I mean! From what I understand, GDPR does not allow for companies to make it so difficult and time consuming for the users to decline tracking that they are practically forced to "agree" because they are pressed for time or don't understand the complicated options (or by making it look as if "accept" is the only option when it not).

Ben Halpern • Nov 13 '18

It’s okay in that it won’t be taken down for spam if it’s still about programming.

But it’s generally not the ideal thing for users and probably won’t get much reach. Those posts t nd to get a one or two ❤️ max.

As others have mentioned, crossposting the whole article and linking back is cool. You can even use the RSS tool in your settings to help manage this.

Casey Brooks • Nov 13 '18

Agreed. I usually won't follow a link to another post if the whole post hasn't been copied here. But if I read an article here that has a link to the original source, I will quite often follow the link to see their site and the other articles they've posted there.

Glenn Stovall • Nov 13 '18

Cross post, tweak, and link back is what I would recommend. I publish in multiple places, and customize the content for each. For example, Dev.to is more of a community than my blog, so I add discussion questions at the end. I also change titles based on the audience.

Tailoring your message to the medium will enable you to help the greatest amount of people. Which is what it's about, not hits or clicks.

Ben Sinclair • Nov 13 '18

If it's just a link, maybe it would be better to include some description of why you think it's interesting, or to include it in a post called something like "5 articles I found helpful when learning technology X".

If you're just posting a link to your own article from elsewhere, then it feels a little spammy.

You could cross-post with the same content in both places but then mention on one or the other which one you consider the canonical resource.