URLs on projects

August 14, 2012 3:26 PM

Clarification about Projects (not on the FAQ): do projects need an external URL?

This is a bit pointed, but it clarifies something about the goal of Projects itself. I was hoping to write a 10K-ish-word review of the Merzbox, Masami "Merzbow" Akita's 50-CD career compilation. (As far as I know, there's only one exhaustive review of the Merzbox online), and post it on mefi/projects -- I have a blog, but it's in portuguese and not about music.

posted by syntaxfree to Etiquette/Policy at 3:26 PM (9 comments total)

Yeah, projects have to have a permanent link to something on the web where people can view the project. You can start a one-post blog if you must, or just post it on your existing blog, but it has to be somewhere. We don't do any hosting and don't like approving things that are mostly offline.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:29 PM on August 14, 2012

Yes, Projects is for linking to and possibly describing or providing a liiiittle bit of additional context for some external piece of work you've done. It's not for posting lengthy pieces of writing as Projects post text itself.

You can set up a one-shot tumblr blog at merzbowsbigolfitty.tumblr.com and post it there if you don't want to stick it on your existing blog or something.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:30 PM on August 14, 2012 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the swift answer. I'm thinking of a PDF file (hosted on space I "own"), either from Word/Pages or from LaTeX for structure. Tumblr would be a nuisance, as this is highly structured (50 parts and references between parts and possible assorted notes). From your answers and the FAQ, this seems like a suitable solution.
posted by syntaxfree at 3:56 PM on August 14, 2012

Yup, hosting a PDF externally and linking to it would be fine.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:00 PM on August 14, 2012

Please, please register merzbowsbigolfitty.tumblr.com.
posted by en forme de poire at 5:55 PM on August 14, 2012 [2 favorites]

If you need a one off blog:

* Post it to as a public gist using markdown (takes 30 seconds to learn),
* Note the gist ID# #
* Link to gist.io/#the_gist_id

Final product
posted by babbyʼ); Drop table users; -- at 7:55 PM on August 14, 2012 [5 favorites]

Avoid PDF if you want people to read it.
posted by ryanrs at 10:30 PM on August 14, 2012

Why so much PDF hate? I can see it being annoying on the blue, especially for mobile users, but in projects? If clearly labeled as a pdf? I open PDFs all the time in-browser and it only takes a second or two. What's the problem? If you hate Adobe there are other options...
posted by Wretch729 at 9:23 AM on August 15, 2012

I have no problem with PDFs as long as it's clearly marked. Surprise downloads are stupid, however.
posted by two lights above the sea at 7:34 PM on August 15, 2012