« hVia

citeVia

Since I first wrote about [...]

There are several reasons and ways for citing a reference.

A simple quote would usually be markuped as
<cite>source</cite>
<blockquote>quote</blockquote>

If we want to give a link to the source of the quote use the cite property of the blockquote tag:
<cite>author</cite>
<blockquote cite=�source url�>quote</blockquote>

To just reference a source or person without actually quoting we use the cite tag alone. The more common case for this would be referencing a source (academic paper, journal article, book, etc.) in which case we use the following forms of mark up:

<cite>author</cite>
<a href="source or web page"><cite>author</cite></a> to add a link.
<cite><a href="source">author</a></cite>

In the second case, the nesting means we’re quoting a part of a work by said author and the link should lead to further information about the author or this work. The third case means we’re citing the entire resource found at the link’s HREF attribute and this work was authored by the cited author. Note: this distinction comes directly from Tantek’s comments on the subject.

With citeVia we wish to mark implicitly a specific sub-class of the above third case. Since via links carry specific importance and since there could be quotes of similar class (and hence similar markup) in the same document, we think that creating a specific class for via links is correct.

Following is an example that, I hope, fully illustrates the need for specific via markup.

Blogger A (http://a.com/foo.html)

Foo.

Blogger B (http://b.com/on_foo.html)

<a href="http://a.com/"><cite>a<cite></a><blockquote cite="http://a.com/foo.html">…foo…</blockquote>

Blogger C

<cite><a href="http://a.com/foo.html">A</a></cite> says that foo

is a interesting material
.
.
.
via: <cite class=�via�><a href="http://b.com/on_foo.html">B</a></cite>

<a href="http://www.meyerweb.com"><cite>Eric Meyer</cite></a>

But if citing/quoting something Eric said on meyerweb.com, then I would use the latter:

<cite><a href="http://www.meyerweb.com">Eric Meyer</a></cite>

which also expresses the exact meaning you are seeking to express with viaCite as far as I can tell, that you are quoting something you got from a particular website/blog.

I use this kind of backlinks in two different ways. When there’s a specific post that’s relevant, I’ll link to the post. Otherwise I’ll link back to the root of the site, if a specific link isn’t available or appropriate.

A via marker without a URL link back doesn’t seem all that useful to me, since there’s no way to disambiguate one Ryan King from another.