In today’s edition of crazy ideas on the internet, we have two separate proposals for a code of conduct for sharing links or curating content (in blog posts or elsewhere).

One of the proposals involves a standards board of blogging big fish:

Mr. Dumenco compares his effort to the editorial rules promulgated by the American Society of Magazine Editors, which have come to shape how magazines distinguish editorial from advertising. It’s an imperfect system with a fair number of outliers, but over time the magazine group devised guidelines that had significant influence and at least set standards that people could argue about.

Their proposal has already been summarized by Jim Dalrymple at The Loop.

The other proposal is, well, this: a repurposing of two obscure unicode characters to indicate how you found something. ᔥ (which doesn’t show up on my computer but it’s a sideways “s” or more different s) is supposed to mean “via”, or “a link of direct discovery”. Meanwhile, ↬ is for “hat tip”, or “a link of indirect discovery, story lead, or inspiration”.

Right, then.

As Marco Arment points out, I was totally unaware that there was a difference between the two in common usage. Has this been a thing? (Marco goes on to discuss the motives behind aggregation and also what makes a good link blog. Definitely go read that.)

Regardless, if we’re going to standardize things, I think the internet deserves way better than some dinky unicode characters.

I think we should do what white people have been doing successfully for centuries: co-opt black culture! In this case, rap!

For original content, finish your post with “Just my thoughts, man – right or wrong”.

(As you write this, respectfully tip your cap to Jay-Z. Should you wish to properly continue the chain of attribution, also be sure to note that Jay-Z was tipping his cap to – and using the rhyme scheme of – Slick Rick’s 1988 song of the same name. In the spirit of attribution, I learned that from RapGenius because I am very white.)

And for content that someone else shared, it’s polite to acknowledge their discovery by repurposing the extended outro to Kanye West’s “Blame Game”, where Chris Rock (NSFW) reunites with a former lover.

Here’s a sample: “Jason Kottke re-upholstered my blog post”.

I’m sure others will think up much better hip-hop lyrics for this. But I want this to happen. Use it liberally.

— Just my thoughts man – right or wrong.