okay, i'm a dork for answering my own questions. but hey, maybe it can help someone else.
to access your Documents folder using http:
1. forget the Documents linking thing
2. but do everything else above
3. in /etc/httpd/users/<username>.conf, make it like this (substitute your username, obviously):
Alias /~zim/ "/Users/zim/Documents"
<Directory "/Users/zim/Documents/">
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to access your Documents folder using http:
1. forget the Documents linking thing
2. but do everything else above
3. in /etc/httpd/users/<username>.conf, make it like this (substitute your username, obviously):
Alias /~zim/ "/Users/zim/Documents"
<Directory "/Users/zim/Documents/">