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Is there a policy SE again citation or posting related external link one's own blog or research as opposed to a link written by someone else?

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    Following is reference on links and citation given to me by SE staff: blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/06/attribution-required
    – Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
    Dec 1, 2015 at 18:11
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    That reference means that if you want to republish StackExchange content on your web site, you may do that (because StackExchange content is "cc-wiki" licensed), but your web site must link back to StackExchange (including links to the StackExchange topic and to the StackExchange user profiles).
    – ChrisW Mod
    Dec 1, 2015 at 18:16
  • What I asked them was for the other way around, but what said is this is what is there at the moment.
    – Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
    Dec 2, 2015 at 2:25

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Assuming that you're asking about links in answers (rather than asking about questions), I think that the policy is the same for links to your blog as it is for any other link, i.e.:

  • It should be in reply to someone else's question

  • It should be directly relevant to your answer, which must be relevant to the question

  • It should be a specific link to a specific article on your blog. You mustn't just link to the whole blog.

    Linking to the whole blog (i.e. to the top-level page of the blog) would be like linking to http://youtube.com or http://wikipedia.com or http://google.com -- your answer is supposed to tell the OP exactly where to find something (not tell them where to go and search for something).

  • It should include a summary of or perhaps a quote from whatever you linking to. This guideline (quote or summarize as well as link) is as true for audio/video links as it is for links to text articles.

    Anything else is called a "link-only answer" and is discouraged. People should find your answer interesting and readable even if they don't follow the link you posted. The quote or summary should demonstrate why and how the link is relevant to the answer to the OP's question.

  • It should include the title of the linked article in the hyperlink. For example, Sabba Sutta: The All (SN 35.23) is a better-formatted hyperlink than http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.023.than.html

  • Answers must not end with a generic signature or advertising (for example a 'signature' which says something like "Thank you, and be sure to READ MY BLOG for further information!").

In general if what you post is not specific to the OP's question, if it's something you could post in answer to every or any question, then it's not an answer to this question and you shouldn't post it.

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  • I know link only answered are not accepted. Also tag line. Where are the links to the rest though they sound right? Policies cannot be pulled out of thin air. E.g. Where is specific information followed by more general information to like citation to a blog invalid? Can this be grounds to deletion when most of the answer meets that the OP is asking for?
    – Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
    Dec 1, 2015 at 17:33
  • Sorry, I didn't understand, didn't make sense of, this question: "E.g. Where is specific information followed by more general information to like citation to a blog invalid?"
    – ChrisW Mod
    Dec 1, 2015 at 17:36
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    "Where are the links to the rest though they sound right?" If they sound right to you, then you can upvote this answer to show that you agree with it. See "What is "meta"? How does it work?" An answer posted on meta might become the site-specific policy, if and when "the community" agrees with it. In this case I'm posting my own understanding of what the policy is (and/or what the policy ought to be, and/or has been, and/or is on all other StackExchange sites).
    – ChrisW Mod
    Dec 1, 2015 at 17:41
  • This should be defined before hand, if some one cites something as a policy. What is defined before is what needs to be applied. You cannot say XYZ is a policy when it is not defined before hand or defined later than applied or there is not reference to it. This is my take on it. Do you agree? I agree with most of what you say above.
    – Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
    Dec 1, 2015 at 17:49
  • "Defining it before hand" is what we're doing now i.e. while the site is in "Beta". Is there any specific item (bulleted list item) in my answer which you disagree with, or which is unclear, or which you'd like to see more justification for?
    – ChrisW Mod
    Dec 1, 2015 at 17:52
  • Simply if there is not policy defined, can some one say XYZ is a policy out of think air through others may agree to it later? Is this the right way to do it? There should be some precedence in which it was defined at least through Meta discussions. Once defined it is valid, but not before and no body can say this is the policy when there is non defined and non exiting at a particular point of time? Am I right? Can you retro actively apply it? If it s policy there should be some previous discussion?
    – Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
    Dec 1, 2015 at 17:57
  • Also if some one mentions something is a policy if requested the person should be able to give a citation right? Especially if some one has given this as justification for some action on the site?
    – Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
    Dec 1, 2015 at 18:00
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    I posted this answer to try to address your comment? It references a FAQ against appending a promotional "signature" to every answer, which is something I'd previously told the OP repeatedly.
    – ChrisW Mod
    Dec 2, 2015 at 3:54
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My other answer is about how to use any/all links, regardless of they're links to a site that you own.

SE's policy for linking specifically to a site you own is described in the Help: How to not be a spammer.

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This answer defines the Meta SE policy on this topic.

I quote it below:

In my experience, posts with links are not downvoted if all these conditions are met:

  • you paraphrase the content of the linked item (possibly omitting details or examples)
  • you identify the author (yourself, MSDN, etc)
  • someone could benefit from the answer without reading the linked item at all
  • you include information to let the reader decide if clicking the link is worthwhile

For example:

You can use the CircularLabelsStyle custom property for this, for example:

  chart1.Series["Series1"]["CircularLabelsStyle"] = "Circular";

I blogged about this last year, with some sample code.

The other extreme, an answer that says nothing more than "here" or "read this" or "please read" and is a link, I will not just downvote but flag as not an answer, and I don't care whether it's the definitive documentation from the owner of the technology, another question on the same SE site, or just a blog you wrote yourself.

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