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View Full Version : Placing links in messages and sigs


ann
21-10-2005, 02.16 pm
These forums are visited by the search engines' bots, which means that the people can see the topics and messages and come in here to read them.

It also means that other, nasty bots can come in and harvest links to web pages and e-mail addresses. These are then used for e-mail spam and Trackback spam, both of which are bad news for the internet as a whole.

Please, do your bit to prevent this by not placing the URL of web pages, or the text of e-mail addresses, in either the body of messages or in your sig lines.

Instead, use masking text in the message or your sig, and the link tags to make that masking text a link to the URL or the e-mail address.

How to do this in a message

Type the masking text in your message, which may be something like 'go to this page'.
Select the text 'this page' and then click on the Link icon above the message text. The link icon is the one tha looks like a globe with two links of a chain. Don't include any verbs in the selected text. This is unfriendly to screen readers used by people with sight impairment.
In the dialogue box that opens, type in the URL for a web page, or paste it in if you have it on your clipboard. for an e-mail address, type mailto:name@domain.
Test your link by Previewing your post before submitting it.

The process in sigs is similar.

Phoebe
21-10-2005, 03.04 pm
oh, is that why 'Google spider' was in the Who's Online list the other day?

Jytte
21-10-2005, 03.08 pm
Well I've changed both in the signature...thanks for the heads up Ann!

ann
21-10-2005, 03.35 pm
oh, is that why 'Google spider' was in the Who's Online list the other day?Yep. Google has finally found us. The msn bot almost lives here.

ann
21-10-2005, 03.38 pm
Well I've changed both in the signature...thanks for the heads up Ann!Oh, good - I've been a bit concerned about your links. You might find it more effective if you select the entire text of each for the link - I thought they weren't working until I happened to wave my cursor over the first words.

Phoebe
21-10-2005, 05.00 pm
What can I say, the msn bot obviously has good taste!

hang on... practically lives on this site... spends hours on MSN Messenger... maybe I am the MSN bot!

Jytte
21-10-2005, 06.27 pm
Yeah I tried doing that but it wouldn't work...I'll try again!

Jytte
28-10-2005, 08.00 am
Fixed!! Muchos gracias senorita!!!

ann
28-10-2005, 09.11 am
So I see. Well done!

Jayden
03-01-2006, 07.28 pm
Help

I have tried doing this but I type the 'this page' bit and then select it.......Are we talking the select it by clicking the mouse on it and running it over to the end of the two words to highlight it in blue or is there another type of 'select' that I don't know about.

But then I can't find the link icon you described. I can't find any icons at all.

HELP

ann
03-01-2006, 07.53 pm
I have tried doing this but I type the 'this page' bit and then select it.......Are we talking the select it by clicking the mouse on it and running it over to the end of the two words to highlight it in blue.That's exactly right, Jayden.

But then I can't find the link icon you described. I can't find any icons at all.To see the link icon, you have to use either the Quote button or the Quick Reply button and then click on Advanced. The attachment shows you what the Quote dialogue box looks like. I use this one all the time, because I mostly quote. If I decide not to quote, I just press Command-A (Control-A to those of you using Windows) and then type my reply, which replaces the text already in the reply dialogue box.

You have all sorts of tools to play with when you use the Quote button. :D