Links to external sites

[Stu]

Hi,
Just a friendly reminder....

We do state in our Terms of use (http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/faq.php?faq=vb_faq#faq_new_faq_item) that linking to external sites is not allowed. However we do turn a blind eye to a lot of links, I would ask members to please read the following reasons for this and only post links to other sites if absolutely necessary.

We want to try and avoid a blanket ban on external links and would ask members to type the information here if possible rather than just linking.

The main reason that we prefer members not to link to other sites is we are a discussion forum of a specific nature and prefer answers to be given in the form of text, not links.
Typically members are looking for firsthand knowledge from members on their experiences. They don't want to be sent elsewhere for that information. They have already chosen their format for communication by asking a question here on the forums.

Links often go dead or become inactive - not to mention many sites do not update content. We can archive text and it is obtainable for future reference. That doesn't work well when the content contains a link to nowhere or the content at the end of the link has changed.

Also we have no way of moderating off-site links. Therefore we run the risk of our family-friendly site becoming infested with sites that may not fit into our guidelines.

We also have site sponsors that pay to advertise their services. It is not fair to them to have other site links with their own sponsors benefiting from our forum discussions. Happy sponsors make for happy DIBBing. They help pay the bills - which in turn keep these boards up and running.

Thank you for you understanding.

[BCKloon]

Just a quick query Stu about this , I take it is OK to Link to external Image hosting sites such as photobucket ?

[lausan]

Thank you will make sure i do not include links to other sites from now on thanks for the reminder

[Stu]

Just a quick query Stu about this , I take it is OK to Link to external Image hosting sites such as photobucket ?

Yes thats ok,

it's more when someone asks a question like "What is Test Track" then someone links to another website that has information on Test Track.

If the answer were written as a reply rather than just a link then the answer is here and stays here for others to see.

Obviously if we have the information on the DIBB website then a link to that is ok as that will always stay and will be updated.

I have always taken the view that linking to external sites is sometimes necessary and I wouldn't want to stop that. I use another Disney forum site that have a total blanket ban on external links and it's too restrictive.

The reminder above is really just to encourage texual content on this site.

Someone linked to MNSSHP dates on another site a while ago. The other site was displaying 2005 dates not 2006. Plus we already had MNSSHP dates displayed on our own web pages.
If the information had been typed as an answer then someone would have picked up that they were the 2005 dates and if the proper dates had been posted they would be a reference when other people search the DIBB.

Another annoying thing with external linking is popups. There is one Disney site that gets linked to ocassionally and they have these annoying popups that appear behind the main browser, so once you have finished browsing you are left with this advert starring you in the face. I've had a couple of comments as to why we use that type of advertising, I've had to explain that we don't and it came from an external site.

I know it's easier and quicker to link to other sites if you already know that particular site has the information but the more information we contain here the better the DIBB will become.

[BCKloon]

Thanks Stu :)

[Mike]

:blush: Just read this after I posted a link to a site in answer to a Q about TSA locks, as I'd recently bought some from the particular site. Just for future reference would you prefer us (assuming the info isn't on the DIBB already, as stated) to post the web addy without the www. etc so it isn't a hyperlink Stu?

[edie_w]

I often post a link to NHS Direct on the "I have a boil on my bum" and "should I get flight socks" threads as a counterbalance to the myriad and sometimes alarming advice posted.

Is this not OK either?

I can see your point though - how are you to be sure that the link points to a sensible place.... Hmm.....

I'd be interested to know the answer to Mike's question too. I'm after some Brita bottle filter cartridges and presumably the replies will be in the form of websites.

[Stu]

I'll try and make this as plain as I can, however there are always going to be grey areas when it comes to linking unless we have a blanket ban, I don't want to go down that route as it is too restrictive.

This site survives by it's very high ranking in the search engines, we achieve this by having lots of content on our site. When the search engines look at our site they index all the words and phrases that get posted in the forums.

Now when someone types those words and phrases into a search engine, they will find our site. However if the posts here do not contain words and phrases then the search engines will not find us.

As an example

If a question is asked.... What is MNSSHP?

and the answer is .... look at this site.... www.anotherdisneysite.net

then there is no information on our site for the search engines to pick up plus the person asking the question has been sent to a different website.

If the answer was textual information explaining what MNSSHP is and what it is about, the person asking the question gets their answer, the actual answer would encourage a discussion on the topic and the search engines would index the answer.

Anyone searching for MNSSHP in search engines are more likely to find our site due to the textual answer, this brings more new members to this site, encourages discussion and makes this site more enjoyable.

It has the added bonus that anyone searching our forums will find answers readily available.

To answer Mikes question,
A link is a link, it doesn't matter if it's changed so that it's not clickable, it's still pointing to another website.
I don't know what the TSA question was but if an answer was given and a link added for further information or a link was added as to where to buy them from etc then thats ok.

Hopefully you can see from the above example that just adding a link as an answer doesn't encourage discussion.

I know it's easy just to link to another website, and in many cases that is ok, all I'm asking is that members avoid adding external links as an answer if the relevant information can be posted here.

Links to information that aren't really anything to do with the main theme of this site are ok providing the site linked to is suitable for family viewing. We are not looking at bringing people here for anything other than Disney and Orlando trip planning.

[Mike]

Thanks Stu.

Mike:smile:

[Stu]

As an addition to the above post,

I'm not looking at imposing strict no linking rules, I just want to encourage content rather than links on this site.

This will never be black and white as every post will have different circumstances.

If we can cut down on the "look here for the answer" links we can encourage discussions and content here on this site. After all that is what we are about.

This isn't to say we don't have content here, quite the reverse, there is a lot of excellent content posted by you guys every day.

[edie_w]

Makes sense to me. :wavey: