Blocks

Pieces of content on Are.na

What is a block?

Blocks are the individual pieces of content on Are.na.

A view of blocks in a grid

A block can be:

• a file (like an image, a PDF, a text file, etc)

• a URL (link to a webpage, a YouTube video, a SoundCloud link, etc)

• a piece of raw text

Why are blocks special?

When a block is saved to Are.na, we try to extract as much metadata as we can from it.

For example:

• If the block is an image, we will save the original source, extract any text, get the dimensions, etc.

• For webpages and links, we extract the text of the page, take a screenshot, etc.

Blocks can also be connected to an infinite number of channels, which means that a public block on Are.na accumulates context over time (see Connections).