[uf-discuss] hFoaF - Hypertext Friend of a Friend

[Toby A Inkster]

Martin McEvoy wrote:

> <a rev="made"  href="http://someapp.com/">I made this app</a>
>
> would translate as  <http://referencingpage.com/> made
> <http://someapp.com/> much better!

No, it really is the other way around!

Take a look at the HTML 3.2 recommendation — it's the closest thing  
there is to a spec defining what is meant by 'made'. The section on  
anchors <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32#anchor> states that  
"REV=made is sometimes used to identify the document author, either  
the author's email address with a mailto URL, or a link to the  
author's home page." That is, rev=made is used to link from a page to  
its author, thus rel=made is used to link from an author to a page  
they made.

rel=author/rev=made links from page to author.
rev=author/rel=made links from author to page.

The way you're interpreting it is as "made by" which is a perfectly  
natural and sensible interpretation, but wrong according to the  
specification of the term, and how it's used in the wild. This is a  
good illustration of why verbs are a bad idea as link types - nouns  
or adjectives work better.

-- 
Toby A Inkster
<mailto:mail at tobyinkster.co.uk>
<http://tobyinkster.co.uk>