Reverse the external link policy

[sweetpickles]

I'm won't be surprised if I get railed on about this if I receive any feedback at all, but the absolute worst part about this site from my perspective as a user, is the munging of external Mazda community links.

I understand the decision was made in order to try and foster more of a sense of community on these boards, but making it more difficult for your existing userbase to try and find information they deem important, REGARDLESS of location, is not the way to go about it.

IMO, the way to foster a sense of community is not by restricting access to external content, but by putting as much into the existing community as possible and being a "good neighbor" to the other Mazda communities out there. Succeed or fail on your own merits, not by making it more difficult to find and share information.

As such, I'd love to see the existing policy reversed and allow free-linking to external sites/communities, so long as they're legal, etc.

In any case, I love the site and the information it does have. Just been bit in the butt a few times by people trying to help me w/issues and not being able to easily do so because of the URL blocking.

Thanks for listening/reading

 

[sweetpickles]

Any chance this policy will be changed?

 

[StealthWyvern]

I seriously doubt they will even look at this. However I agree with you on the censorship. Its total BS imo.

 

[Tom03es]

I agree. Not all the Mazda information exists solely on this website.

 

[VRMS6]

Sad part is most other Mazda boards are confident enough in their membership base that they do not censor this forums name from being posted...

 

[sweetpickles]

I've personally had instances where people were trying to help me find information about questions I had that were not addressed on this site, but they couldn't successfully point me to the information without resorting to m ask ing the inf orm ation because of the URL restrictions in place...

One way or another, users are going to find their way to the information, and if you restrict them from easily accessing that information, the only people you are hurting are YOUR users.

Again, I understand the reasoning for wanting to put it in place (to encourage members to add content here instead of other sites and encourage the community feel), but at the end of the day it just comes across as sour grapes and is the primary reason I don't contribute information directly to this site or support it via donations.

I really hope you'll reconsider the policy.

 

[dmention7]

I was surprised as hell to find that not only were links to threads in other forums replaced by asterisks, but any reference to the other communities was as well. I have honestly never seen that before, and it would strike me as a desperate measure even on a private company's discussion forum.

That attitude towards other mazda communities strikes me not only as wholly juvenile, but as an insult towards my intelligence as forum member. As someone who frequents a couple of the "sites-that-shall-not-be-mentioned", I find it pretty patronizing to see the site name blocked out, and still know exactly which name is behind the asterisks. More seriously though, I find it sad that the admins feel it's necessary to create the illusion that this site is the only worthwhile mazda community in existence by censoring references to other communities.

 

[MrTea]

as i help moderate a couple other Mazda forums, i've been through this before. different sites have different policies and that's just how it is. in all honesty, it can push people out of the site completely, BUT in most cases, people just learn to deal with it (with the occasional b****).

you have to keep in mind that these forums rely on sponsors, and if you have people linking other sites (with other sponsors) then the sponsors of 247 might be loosing out.

my honest feelings are (and i know they don't matter) that linking other sites, for providing info, should be ok. as long as that's how it's displayed..."i don't know all the details, but you can look at this post to get them over here....".

what i think SHOULD be censored if they so choose, is when people are saying, "come to this site, it's better" or "jump on this GB over on this site"....as those types are trying to pull people FROM 247, not just provide info. things like GB's help keep forums alive, and if a GB from another forums pulls sales from here, then you can see how that would be an issue, no?

again, as some have stated, this might not even be noticed by anyone, but those are my feelings.