sugarrae - 1:44 am on Jun 3, 2010 (gmt 0)

>>>The slippery slope is that there would be active pressure on writing an incomplete post, just so you could link out, decreasing the quality of the WebmasterWorld experience while sending traffic to your own site

I can see the point there in that exact instance. However, my main concern is linking within articles as citation... I'm not going to be redundant or regurgitate information for the sake of "not linking out." If I explain something in a webmasterworld post that I actually got/learned from another site/post without referencing it, I'd feel like I'm not giving credit where credit is due. Everyone would think I'm the original source of the information and pat me on the back for it. It's not right for karma.

Additionally, take the article gpilling mentioned on my site... had I posted that at webmasterworld, it would be missing over thirty links to further information. The post is over 2000 words and is useful without them, don't get me wrong... but WITH them, the post is a game plan. One of the first articles I link to within it is to another 2000 word post I did... I'm not going to regurgitate that entire post to give back story to the new one. Given the choice to post an okay post on webmasterworld or a great post on my own site, I'm going to choose the latter every time.

And that's where the danger lies. By a blanket no linking policy, webmasterworld loses good content and webmasterworld members lose good information.