I noticed this story on BoingBoing.net about the web magazine Fast Company’s bizarre linking policy. You know the Internet, right? Built on the concept of hyperlinking and sharing (or at least pointing to) new information? Yeah, FastCompany thinks that’s silly.
From their “Linking Policy”:
Due to the large volume of requests we receive, we do not have a reciprocal linking program. However, if you like, you may link to us at no cost. This option requires the execution by you and Fastcompany.com of a one-page Web-linking agreement. Please download and sign the agreement and fax it to 617-738-5055, attn: G+J legal, Fastcompany.com. As soon as you receive back the agreement signed on behalf of Fastcompany.com, you may begin linking to our content.
So if I were to link to them, I’d have to download their legal document, sign it, fax it to their legal department, and (just to be safe) call to get confirmation that they received it. Good thing I’m not linking to them, because that’d be a lot of trouble. As the BoingBoing article says, better to just let the “Web that Fast Company has built its business upon [crumble] into a billion individuated and unlinked pages.”
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