<span style="color: lightblue">I've noticed that more and more people lately are linking to sites and articles just by posting the URL. The problem with this is that for a long link, the forum doesn't break of shorten it, and it causes a horizontal scrollbar - often even at 1024 x 768!
These are annoying, because it means that we have to scroll across and back to be able to read the full contents of a thread. More than once in the past 20 minutes I have left a thread because of this, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
So, please, contract your links. Use
&lt;a href="url to site">title&lt;/a> to make links appear like so:
Google

You can also use
[URL="url to site"]title[/URL], but this forces the link to open in a new window unless the browser is configured otherwise (which restricts our chioce in the matter: you can get a normal link to open in a new tab/window, but many browsers still can't let you open a targeted link to open in the same place).

On the same note, using "click here" or similar as a link is not a good idea. Use the title of the page, or a relevant keyword already in your post. Many people skip down a page to see what it links to: being greeted by "http://www.somelongurl.com" or "click here" doesn't feel very good. [img]smile.gif[/img]

So, please, take these simple steps to make your posts easier to read. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Edited to be kind to those at 800 by 600...

[ 11-24-2004, 05:27 AM: Message edited by: LennonCook ]

Well said that man [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Thanks for the tips man. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Good work lennon, but I run at 1280x1024, so im guessing your post was supposed to make a horizontal scroll..Well it didnt, but I whole-heartidly agree with you, they can be annoying.

<span style="color: lightblue">Actually, it wasn't. Infact, with any luck it won't cause one at 640 x 480 either... but then, at that resolution most of the avatars would cause it.
EDIT: Ok, it was causing a horizontal scroll at 800 by 600. Fixed, now.

[ 11-24-2004, 05:28 AM: Message edited by: LennonCook ]

Hey, good post. I know it doesn't happen often, but it is frustrating and I don't bother to read it.

Unfortuanately, I find the problem crops up more with large pictures... but it is much more trouble to resize them and then upload them and etc...

Still... admirable sentiments!