Any rules/conventions on using "dashed" and "dotted" hyperlinks?

Recently I'v开发者_开发技巧e seen a wide usage of dotted and dashed hyperlinks in a variety of Russian Web 2.0 websites. Normally such links (which have a dashed or dotted line underneath them, instead of a normal solid line) don't lead a user to another page, but rather perform an action on the same page without reloading it. As an example, such links can fold/unfold information blocks, or switch between sorting order of page elements.

So I'm wondering: are such links used in the same way in the bigger internet? Also, are there any articles or books which describe standard look&feel for hyperlinks depending on the action they perform?

There was a time, way back in the day, when a few folks tried to stick with the idea that dashed underlines were for contextual help. I think that was a carry over from old Windows help files.

But, since then, no, there is no rule or standards as to what the style of underline means in a hyperlink. For better or worse, the underline, itself, isn't even a standard anymore as lots of sites forgo them (which, IMHO, is more often than not a bad idea).

All that said, I do like the idea and the attempt and differentiating on-page interaction vs. a link that actually takes you somewhere else.

I think it's just a matter of style and taste.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. Traditionally, hyperlinks are blue and underlined (or get underlined on mouseover). It helps the users navigate swiftly through the page without thinking much. If you have your links green and overlined, it works just as well but in my opinion, it's less user-friendly (for a new visitor).
Unless it has a special meaning on your site, of course.

The dotted underline is -as far as i know- traditionally used for the acronym tag.

The normal format for hyperlinks is 'http://web.site.com/path/to/my/content?arg=value&arg2=value2#hashtag'. For relative links, parts of the URL are optional.

Technically, dots and dashes are acceptable in almost every part of a URL. It is unusual to see dots in the path, but dashes are quite normal (see the URL for this page, for instance). Dots and dashes are both uncommon in query parameters (the arg=value part), but should work. It is very common to see both dots and dashes in the hashtag, which is what I believe you were referring to.

The purpose of the hashtag is traditionally to link to a location within a web page, marked by an anchor tag () with a name attribute. In modern webapps, the hashtag is used as a 'bookmark' for a particular view in the app -- in GMail, for instance, the hashtag is used to mark which label and message you are viewing. There is no established norm for what is an appropriate hashtag. You should use whatever makes sense for your app. A human-readable tag is usually preferable, as it gives the user a better understanding of what the URL means, but it is certainly not required.

Find the following in the CSS of the page -

border-bottom: 1px dashed #05C;

It's just a style override for the default underlining.