Links in posts

[Yankee]

Hi Slava, Torsten and Alan

I've noticed that links in posts to things such as dictionary definitions or relevant online material seem to be deactivated sometimes. That is, the link is deactivated after it's been posted. Apparently this only happens sporadically. So, I was curious whether this might be some kind of bug in the forum software? Or is this just some sort of typical technological hiccup? Are there by any chance certain types of links we should not be posting?
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_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Torsten]

Hi Amy,

I deactivate links for a number reasons. For example, you will find dictionary definitions of a lot of words on our site. Let's say, you want a definition of the word 'beguile'. If you google 'define beguile', our site comes up on the third or fourth place. So instead of linking to external dictionaries, users can get word definitions on our site as well. I usually remove the entire URL of a link so if somebody does want to look up the source, they can do so by pasting the address into their browser.

TOEFL listening discussions: What is the design of the sweatshirt?

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

Thanks for the info.
I would like mention, though, that there are generally a number of reasons why I would post a particular link. Let's take an example from yesterday: the word "dismantle" in this thread.

1. A hot link is the easiest method to use if someone wants to look at what I've recommended looking at. One click and you're there. No cutting and pasting needed.

2. Yesterday, I posted a link to the AHD entry for "dismantle", and it originally looked like this:
Look at the AHD definition here.

The deactivation of that link ended up leaving the link looking like this:
Look at the AHD definition [ url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/64/D0276400.html]here[/url].
(I added a space after the first "[" because otherwise it would have appeared exactly the same way as the hot link I posted above.)

As you can see, with the link deactivated, any cut and paste usage of the link was thus made more confusing and difficult, and also more prone to error.

When I noticed yesterday that the original link I'd posted was no longer working, I edited it to be this sort of link:
http://www.bartleby.com/61/64/D0276400.html

The reason I started this thread was that I couldn't imagine any reason for an intentional deactivation of the original link. After all, there are probably hundreds (thousands?) of similar links in the forum that are never deactivated. Thus my question as to whether there was some sort of bug in the software, or some sort of new rule I wasn't aware of. :?

3. I posted a link to the American Heritage Dictionary for a specific reason. In addition to various definitions for "dismantle", examples of the word in context are also provided there. Before I posted the link, I had taken the time to look at the entries in a number of different dictionaries and had decided that the AHD entry might be the most useful and relevant one for that particular thread.

4. The definitions given on the english-test.net site for the word dismantle are less detailed and don't include any context. There is also no direct link to the AHD located there -- and, in this case, that was the particular dictionary I'd wanted to direct Cantik's attention to.

Let me know what you think.
.
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Yankee]

Hi again Torsten

Sorry to pester you about this, but I really didn't understand everything in your last post.

Are you saying that you'd prefer NOT to have the following type of link?
dismantle

Are you saying you would prefer to have people post only this sort of link?
http://www.bartleby.com/61/64/D0276400.html

Are you saying that you'd prefer to have live dictionary links only to things on the english-test.net site?

Are you saying you don't want to have links to only one single dictionary?

Something else???

Again, sorry about the questions. I'm just trying to understand this.

Thanks.
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Torsten]

Hi Amy,

Just a quick note to let say many thanks for all your interesting ideas, they are excellent food for thought. I especially like the "search" bit as well as your comments regarding more context for the usage of separate words. Slava and I have been thinking about connecting all our word tests directly to the forum but so far we have not been able put this idea into practice.

You are right, it's probably better for our forum users if we give them active links to online dictionary defintions where they can find sample sentences and additional information.

More on that soon.
Regards,
Torsten

TOEIC listening, photographs: Roofing

[Yankee]

Thanks for the feedback, Torsten.

I've noticed that in at least some of the GRE tests, here for example, there is a link in the window that says "discuss the word (e.g. dismantle)". Clicking that link will take a user to the English Grammar, Vocabulary and Idioms forum, but not to a specific thread. Is it not possible to program this so that the link either automatically takes the user to an existing forum thread OR automatically starts a new thread (i.e. similar to the way the other tests work)? Is that what you're thinking of doing?
.
_________________
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Torsten]

Yes Amy, that's exactly what we would like to do. Every single word should be connected to the forum allowing any user to either ask a question regarding the usage of that particular word or add a sample sentence that shows the usage of the word, etc.

TOEIC listening, photographs: Playing water ball