"If you're not going to link, you might as well not even be here."
--Saige
"Learn how to link, motherfuckers"
--pi
Everything is designed to be an interwoven web of ideas, creativity, and facts. The details are created and elaborated by adding links. These links bring you to other places on the site where you can absorb more of the site's writing, and in turn, offering you several more directions to go.
Picture the site as a smoothly flowing river, with thousands upon thousands of different branches in which the river flows. The water currents are the noders, swiftly travelling from writeup to writeup. The river is flowing seamlessly, quickly moving the current to thousands of other areas.
Now toss a boulder into one of the currents. That right there is your linkless writeup. Noders will be swiftly moving along through the smooth currents, then coming to a dead stop when they reach your node. It offers no direction, so the noder will have to turn back. This doesn't make for a well-received node.
Why wonder? You're blocking the flow. Your writeup is "in the way."
It's really simple. Visit Everything University, and just read. Then browse some of the writeups in the Cool Archive. Get a feel for what's good, and what's not. Do this before you start writing. When you create good content, you're happier, your fellow noders are happier, and the site as a whole is happier.
And there will be nothing blocking the path of the newer arrivals, either.