Overthinking Link Etiquette

How much credit should the re-poster of a link (the "linker") get? Not the original writer of the story, but the person in your RSS/twitter/Facebook feed who said "hey lookit this". If you what they've linked and also want to link it, do you link to the post of your immediate friend? Or do you cut them out, and link directly to the source?

I make the decision based on whether or not they added enough value. If they did, and it's worth the intermediate read and click to a 3rd party reader, then I'll link-the-linker. I'm careful not to create a whole linked-list of referrals though (one intermediate step is about all I, as a reader, would be willing to put up with).

If the "linker" isn't adding value (omglolbbq *CLICK*), I've decided that cutting them out of the loop isn't going to keep me up at night. There's no "finders fee", short of a possible uptick in my opinion of you. :)

I still think the best way to add value to someone else's work is to write a thoughtful comment on the original post. It centralizes the debate, encourages further discussion, and is a really nice thing to do for the original author. But, people will share content in whatever way they please, and the method they use is not nearly as important as keeping them doing it.