On Mon, 2009-06-08 at 18:17 -0300, Bruno Barberi Gnecco wrote:
We are using vote-links extensively in our new site (likeorhate.com)

And doing so wrongly. VoteLinks are a badly named microformat. They are
*not* for polling. They are for linking to articles about stuff you like
or dislike.

e.g.

        I like <a rev="vote-for" href="/cheese">cheese</a>,
        but not <a rev="vote-against" href="/broccoli">broccoli</a>.

That means that this page counts as a "vote for cheese" and a "vote
against broccoli". Although votelinks is unclear on the semantics - do I
like cheese, or do I like that particular page about cheese?

VoteLinks are quite muddy and their meaning is pretty unclear. With
RDFa, you can state each of those meanings unambiguously.

If you like cheese (the page), then:

        <p about="#me" xmlns:like="http://ontologi.es/like#";>
          I like <a rel="like:likes" href="/cheese">cheese</a>.
        </p>

If you like cheese (the food), then (a little more complicated):

        <p about="#me"
           xmlns:like="http://ontologi.es/like#";
           xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/";>
          I like
          <span rel="like:likes">
            <a rev="foaf:primaryTopic" href="/cheese"
               property="foaf:name">cheese</a>
          </span>
        </p>

        Strangely, no "I don't like" in that ontology? I see Opinion could be 
used for it, but...

However, for a polling site, neither votelinks nor the example above are
appropriate. You're not trying to capture the meaning that "this page is
about something I like" - you're trying to capture the meaning of "this
link is for voting". I don't know of a microformat, or indeed an RDF
vocabulary, that covers that meaning, but I can certainly see value in
creating one.


Thanks for the clarification. Since their meaning is unclear (as you and the FAQ state), why not let them be used for this purpose as well? I suppose with a class or another attribute together one could separate what is a poll link (vote for this) and what is an opinion (I have voted for this).

Otherwise, if vote-links are not used for polling and there is not (it seems) a microformat for it, how to propose a new one?

It would be nice to have a more general microformat for associating a target with a "label", more or less like xfn. Again, the problem of "acting on" vs "having acted on" that confused me shows up. How about something like this rough draft to follow.

        For acting on (polling):

<div about="#something" class="item">
        <a href="..." rel="action:like">I like cheese</a>
        <a href="..." rel="action:blue">I think cheese is always blue</a>
</div>

        For having acted on (similar to vote-links)

<div about="#me" class="item">
        <a href="..." rev="opinion:like">I like cheese</a>
        <p href="..." rev="opinion:blue">I think cheese is always blue</a>
</div>

Although I think this later one should also have information about who likes it (perhaps an hCard), since we could, for example, have a list of expert opinions about cheese. But I don't like the exchanges of roles of "about" (I hope I got it right).
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