Ironworks Gaming Forum - View Single Post - Be Kind When Linking

LennonCook · 11-24-2004, 03:40 AM

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
<a href="url to site">title</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 ]

11-24-2004, 03:40 AM	#1
LennonCook Jack Burton Join Date: November 10, 2001 Location: Bathurst & Orange, in constant flux Age: 38 Posts: 5,452	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 <a href="url to site">title</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 ]