About those links…

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You’re asking or answering a question and you want to mention a great site as a reference. How do you make sure your link doesn’t violate the Answers Community Guidelines? We’ve been getting a lot of questions about including links in questions and answers. Here is a reminder on what is considered acceptable and what is an infraction of the Community Guidelines.

What is considered spam?

Spam is unsolicited email. The spam answer usually has little or no relevance to the question and contains either a link to a spam page or an email address. If you notice someone answering questions compulsively with a link to an unrelated site (usually a site offering money or selling products), report it! You’ve found a spammer.

What about links to a question I posted?
Some people end their answer with “Please answer my question: http://au.answers.yahoo.com/…” But the question they link to often has nothing to do with what you were asking . This kind of linking also violates the Community Guidelines as it is the same as spam-unsolicited links.

What kind of link is acceptable?
Know a website or book that might help the asker? You can! That’s why we included the ‘Sources’ box on the answer page. Just paste the URL into the ‘Sources’ box. You’ll be making your answer much more complete.

By posting the useful links in the ‘sources’ box and by reporting spam, you’re helping make Answers a better site.

Have more questions? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Comments (2)

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  1. Hi

    When I include a link to a picture or a url in a question (e.g. fashion & accessories, to provide a picture I’m seeking advice on, thereby making the question easier to understand) I get ’999′ errors and can’t submit. Then when it finally submits my question doesn’t appear in the general fray, but only in my question list so I get no answers :(

    Is it because of the link? That seems a shame, because it’s only to help and certainly isn’t spam.

    Clare.

    Comment posted on May 26th, 2009 at 1:39 am by Clare
  2. You forgot to mention that compulsively posting the same links in every answer even if they are relevant to the questions is still considered spamming.

    Comment posted on May 30th, 2009 at 12:10 pm by Oh Really!

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