URL links in posts

HTML links - the reasons against...

[feeder]

Just curious, Brett....what is the reason Webmasterworld does not allow HTML sig files?

I presume it's to stop people blatantly placing advertising or trying to inflate their link pop. Any other good reasons for not permitting sig files on bulletin boards?

[mivox]

I think you hit the nail on 99.9% of the head. :) If there are other reasons, I can't think of them offhand.

Any useful info you might put in a sig file can be posted in your user profile, so it's not that the information is "forbiddden" from the boards entirely, though.

(I've also noticed that forums which allow sig files just tend to look cluttered, and the extra, off-topic text in all the posts will increase page size and loading times, which increase server load, and decrease overall board performance time...)

[feeder]

Thanks Mivox.

<I've also noticed that forums which allow sig files just tend to look cluttered, and the extra, off-topic text in all the posts will increase page size...>

Quite right. I've also noticed boards that allow HTML links suffer high signal to noise ratio. They appear to contain a high number of rubbish posts, probably due to misguided link building attempts.

[NFFC]

I think speed has always been the primary reason, they just add to download times and with such a diverse membership we need as a commuinity to realise that not everybody connects on a 2 meg pipe.

Many other boards allow, even encourage them and that is their choice. Personally I like to control my links, a board gone to the bad is not a place to have a lot of links to your site, stay in control.

[Brett_Tabke]

Yes, D: all of the above.

[Marcia]

>tend to look cluttered

They do, and they get repetitious seeing the same ones over and over. I prefer without, they're a little distracting and could be off topic from discussions. I'm glad we don't have them, the profiles give a little more info about people, which is generally nice to know.

[Michael Weir]

I'm a moderator at another message board (not SEO related) and the signatures there are outta control. They are very abuseable.

[john316]

Please! No sig files...it is just soooo mickey mouse.

whoops ..better watch the TM issues...