I know they aren't because:

> The symlink creates what is effectively a version-controlled gitignore

No, it doesn't—like I already said. The ln(1) invocation you wrote is not going to work. As written, it contains two glaring errors obvious on sight to anyone who actually has enough experience with the particulars of /bin/ln and Git and how repos get populated with a default .git/info/exclude.

> My comment and the other replies show you how to use git

Oh, gee, thanks!