Zettelkasten Forum


Adding backlinks to all or only some notes

When writing a new note and linking it to existing notes, are you always editing the linked notes, adding a link back to the new one? Why/why not? And if not, when are a backlink added?

Comments

  • No. You can just search for the ID of a note to see all backlinks.

    I am a Zettler

  • @Sascha Simplicity and efficiency at its best. Good thing I saw this before wasting a lot of time creating backlinks.

    There is no method to my madness. My madness is my method.

  • @glitchform I think that few people manually create backlinks. Backlinks are seen as a feature of some software systems that automatically locate all notes linking to the note you are editing and display those notes in a sidebar or other location.

  • Isn't it "philosophically wrong" to need backlinks?

    I mean, a link is the evidence of a connection among ideas, and it seems to me that this relation must be symmetric. If note A is relevant to note B, I must at least mention note B in note A.

    Am I missing something? Do you guys agree that once I link one note to another, I should link the another note to the one I am working one?

  • I don't think this should be a must. Imagine every Wikipedia link from page A to page B to also require the authors to figure out a way to link back from B to A. Especially when you have whole--part-structures, it makes sense to list all parts of the whole, but it might make less sense to require each part to list in which "whole"ness it is used. It might be interesting from time to time ("Where are tires actually used? Oh, in cars and bikes and ...!") but I doubt it always adds value.

    Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/

  • I see, I understand the pragmatic aspect of the argument.

    Thank you!

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