Is Anchor Text regarded differently than URL links?

[dataguy]

Let's say that I have a user generated content site which allows users to put their own links in their content. Would Google be more likely to see the content as SPAM if they were text links instead of URL links?

This seems like a very elementary question, but I can't find anywhere on WW where this has been discussed.

Thanks!

[conor]

Google will see 'spam' on the destination URL no matter how it is linked to. Giving users the ability to add their own keyword rich anchor text probably does make your site more attractive to spammers as an easy place to get links from from but does not inherently mean to Google that the content is spam.