Iain Broome on the problems with linked posts:

“The flip side of link posts is that they can quickly become an easy way to publish regularly, but with little thought. If you don’t have time to consider a subject properly, you can simply post a link to someone else’s work, add a quick sentence or a couple of words of your own, and feel like you’ve gotten away with it.”

I don’t agree at all. First, they aren’t mutually exclusive. Just because you use linked posts doesn’t mean you can’t write a longer article to prove a point. Just as important, always linking and never writing more long-form doesn’t mean you can’t make your own insightful point, either.

There are so many trusted bloggers/writers/whatever who use linked posts and still provide valuable insight and commentary without a drawn out argument. This is a quality vs quantity discussion and we’ve seen it over and over that quick quips, short replies, and less lengthy discussions does not mean the quality is less.

Ignore the ethics of pointing people to the content which drives a lot of people to choose that method of posting; its really irrelevant to me. It’s the content that matters and whether it’s 140 characters or five to eight paragraphs (or more), good ideas are what’s important.

In other words: Regardless of its size, it’s the content that matters.