Question on Forum Usage

So I have been relaxin in the Software/Hardware support forums offering advice/troubleshooting issues...
Good way to pass the time, plus a good place to pickup more tips and tricks to use myself.

Just started looking back at some of the posts I made, and noticed a few have been edited to remove links from them.

Curious if this is against the rules to link to outside of MJ sites for utilities to use?

Or are they simply removed *after* the fact to prevent against... something?

Simply asking so as not to step on anyones toes and end up not being able to help people here

Thanks!

 

MG's hosts a download site, that's how they can afford to host the site/forum - it needs money to run. So, if any suggestions are made for software, they should link to the MG download page if it's available, if it isn't listed here at MG's, you need to exercise caution - there may be good reason for this.

If you see that links were removed, it's frequently simply because they were from a low-count poster and less-trusted - spammers often make a number of 'useful' posts before slipping in their spam/SEO links.

 

Understandable and I fully agree!

I guess I should familiarize myself with the multitude of programs that is offered for download here...
In my field here, we have a somewhat small collection of programs that we transfer to the client on an as-needed basis. Anything else we need, we simply head on over somewhere, download and use it. Need to get into the mindset of only offering software available here at MG

The one that I remember was linking to Win To Bootic for someone to create a bootable iso onto a thumb drive, he simply copy and pasted the iso contents. That program is really the only one I am familiar with so it came as first instinct to link to there!

Thanks for the replies, I do enjoy my stay here to pass the time at work. I love troubleshooting issues and the more I read here, the more I learn!

 

DavidGP, thanks for this last note because I was wondering how 'other' useful tools might be intro'd and the proferred email (poor Tim!!) will be the useful link for anyone with less than 50 msgs since that's the PM limitation.

Gee... should I ask? "What's Tim's limitation for junk suggestions before he pulls all his hair out and goes completely crazy?"

 

PITA=Deleted Account, aye! Yes, I too always trust this is the ultimate 'certification' for such an, cough cough, award!

(Of course, running a forum and "going completely crazy" are probably about the same thing, yes?)

 

Nah, don't bother. I never have.

Any time you want to give someone a link to a program that you think will help them, open the main MG download page in a new browser tab, and do a search for the program. If it comes up, link to it. if not, link to a site you know for a fact is reputable, and then put into your post that you are linking to another site only because the program you want them to use is not available from MGs, and since the link is external, they need to be careful to click the right thing, and if they don't then it's their own fault.

I've been doing this for years and it's worked just fine. And I think I've needed to link to outside sources all of two times.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I will probably do as the Superior Imperial Queen has suggested. Sounds the easiest for everyone involved Haha.