Clarification of external links policy

[Ralph Barker]

As noted in the revised guidelines for the WTB sub-forum, links to external points of sale (e.g. eBay) in that sub-forum are OK if they are an example of what the member is looking to buy, or are in response to the WTB post. Similarly, such links are now allowed in other sub-forums if the purpose of the post is to discuss or ask questions about a feature or the technology used in the product. To preserve the value of the discussion after the link goes dead, however, please include a sufficient description of the item (e.g. brand name, model number) such that the question or discussion can still be understood. Bare pointers to a currently active sale, or comments about the price of the sales offering, serve only to promote the sale, and are still prohibited. Likewise, links to the poster's own sales, or those of a friend or associate on such sites are also still prohibited as being promotional, and counter to our non-commercial ideal.

[Dan Fromm]

Ralph, the last time I wanted to post a link to an eBay listing I put the it away on archive.org and posted archive.org's link. If archive.org performs as claimed -- I'm not sure the claims are always met for eBay listings -- is this acceptable?

[Oren Grad]

Dan, we discussed that and decided it was OK. The Internet Archive is probably as good a bet as any for relative permanence. But please do add a few descriptive words to links whenever you reasonably can, so that the post isn't entirely dependent on the link for utility. Thanks!

[Ralph Barker]

Please see the revised Guidelines posted 18 Sep 2016 for the updated links policies.

[GlobalMic]

Last time I was trying to do that, simply got banned

[ic-racer]

Links are no good. A screen shot of the e-bay ad is better. For example, for exposing scams, by the time the curious forum reader gets to check the link to see the outlandish claims in the listing, the listing has already been exposed and is taken down. The forum reader is left in the dark.