Hello MNHQ - a question about automatic links please?

I did loads of work really early so can arse about a bit

Or at least I could if I knew any shops

Liver Island
WH Piss
Foundland

I am leaving lists on all my posts, to compile a definitive spreadshit of live links.

Boden. Cbeebies. Abercrombie and Fitch. Katie Price. Asda. Great Plains. Netmums.

So how do you know if a poster has intentionally done a link vs it being a random? I would prefer to know the difference

I want to stay here and spell shops wrong but have to do some bastarding work.

yep, spell em all wrong

defeat the forces of capitalism

down with shopping

Venal ... now there's a little used word, thank you getorf!

I'd love to be on a MN user panel! Oh... how would they choose?

I agree Oaty (only got your name the other night, doh!) Posters are in fact a huge resource for MNHQ. They make money from every post we make, through the books, publicity generating interst/new users etc. I was 'invited' to become a blogger for the MNblogging network as they 'valued my input on the boards' (paraphrasing there). I wonder how many users got that invitation, and have gone on to be good income generators?

I am not complaining btw, and I am a poster who advocates subscription , as I know it costs to keep these type of enterprises going well. I always paid subscription previously even if I had not intention to CAT. (And let's face it, £5 p.a. was an utter bargain to hold on to my sanity...)

oh jock wills did

how utterly utterly odd

what a very weird thing to do.

I DO NOT APPROVE ONE BIT AT ALL

I don't find links hard to do but frequently re-post someone else's link when they've done it wrong or can't work out how. MNers are not stupid therefore I conclude the linking mechanism is unintuitive. More so from a phone of course.

Mataland HAHA annoys the world
Asdals
Top Crap
French Correction
White Guff
Boooots

debenhams

jack wills

why don't mine work?

YEAH.

i want at least £2.76 for all the By Terry recommendations I have made on here.

And fucking Nigella Lawson can give me a cut an' all.

Thing is, we are such a bunch of errant children sometimes MNers will just be contrary and start spelling things wrong like Bod3n, Debbenhams or Houze of Frazer.

OOOH

YY. I want ££ for any roundup/Twatter quotes
I reckon I'm worth pennies to MNHQ

Haha oaty that is a very good point re coal in a mine.

RIGHT MNHQ you can start paying me - my invoice is in the post.

Jack Wills worked for me. And I said it in a disparaging way, too
Is it a money making thing? And I stand by my question in Aibu - will we start linking to people/blogs/sites (BBC, Fail etc) automatically, or just shops?

wot Oaty said.

It is a rich interdependent seam ripe for the mining of.

BTW, I use adblocker software, but it's disabled on mumsnet because the ads are always unobtrusive and I value the use of the forum and support ads as a way of supporting it.

It's not arcane at all, it's extremely simple, explained at the bottom AND there's even a box to tick now to do it automatically.

It's a lot easier than some forums where you have to know the html or bbcode format to add links (although admittedly some forums have a button to press which is arguably easier)

I understand it might be difficult for somebody who is not computer literate, but surely any method would be as difficult in that case.

TBH though on other websites which use the keyword auto link thing, it looks cheap and intrusive, that's my main objection.

Oh now it has...I'm going for a lie down.

It's not doing it now!

This business about the privilege of using MN for free should always be balanced by the reminder that users aren't non-paying customers: they are a resource. MN have created an immensely fertile resource for advertisers, and we are it. You might as well charge coal for being in a mine!

Aaahh now I understand. I mentioned QVC in a post and a link appeared. I couldn't work out why.

I put it down to age and me doing links and forgetting I'd done one

"I think anything which will generate revenue and enable MN to buy a RUDDY GREAT BIG NEW SERVER will be a good thing."

This. +1

I don't go on other websites, so how are links created on other forums?

Why do people think links are hard to create though? It's a couple of brackets.

I think anything which will generate revenue and enable MN to buy a RUDDY GREAT BIG NEW SERVER will be a good thing.

It is not obtrusive, and is a very mild form of advertising. I think MN is rather unique in the fact that they really listen to the users when advertising a particular thing is seen as against the ethos of the board - say they asked about LoveHunny, they asked about Macdonalds, and they have removed links to that daft Doctor Review site. Also, they are not venal, look how quickly they removed advertising from News International in the aftermath of the phone hacking scandal, they removed it within hours.

So, because the owners of this site are generally good eggs I think good on them when they capitalise on a way of making money which is not really contentious to the vast majority of the users.

That said, I think it is a very good idea that it would be a different format to a link which is created by the poster. I also think a sticky thread by MNHQ saying 'this is happening now' would be good.