"Auto links"

[ufkacbln]

IN another thread, I typed the word Amazon

It comes up as a hyperlink unless you edit and retype Amazon.

As I have done here

I have never noticed it before!

 

[ufkacbln]

... and without editing Amazon

 

[Ian H]

I suspect it's designed to help fund the forum. Pay-per-click kind of thing.

 

[Shaun]

I have installed an add-on that looks for popular merchants in posts and adds a link. It should only do this once per page (per 15 posts), and the links should be underlined to differentiate them from regular links.

There was a problem when I first installed it, in that it was adding lots and lots of links per page and overwhelming the content, but should now only add one per page, and only for selected merchants: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/autolinking.186920/#post-4021342

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Dogtrousers]

When I was a kid I had a paper round. The Newsagent was run by Mrs Evans We paper boys would always try to Wiggle out of doing the longest rounds. There was one where, if it rained, the gutters ran like the Amazon.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Keep up @Cunobelin, we have had this feature for ages

 

[ufkacbln]

Keep up @Cunobelin, we have had this feature for ages

First Time I noticed

 

[Rezillo]

Same here - I hadn't noticed it before.

In the black pudding thread today, I put in a reference to Simon Howies black pudding and Howies (capital H) came up as a link to some sportswear company. Not only was it a hyperlink to something completely unrelated to what I was writing about, it changed the case to howies as well.

As unplanned advert hyperlinks appearing on webpages is a classic malware symptom, I've spent over an hour today with malware scanners etc. before finding it is a 'feature' of the forum

 

[Shaun]

Sorry, that wasn't really the intention of the links.

I spent all of last night reworking them from scratch - it obviously wasn't obvious to most members that the links were system-generated, and I can understand your concern if you didn't add the links yourself, so:

• to avoid any further confusion I've set them all to be guest view only. Members won't see them anymore.
  
• since the system doesn't "do" context I've also removed Howies, Evans, and a good number of others that could link out of context and replaced them with full names like Evans Cycles, etc.
• the links are now case sensitive so Wiggle will only link when used in the brand name form (capital W) and won't link to a normal wiggle.
• the case of the link text should remain the same now too

So now it should behave better and add more friendly / useful links, for guests only, that don't fudge up the context.

If you notice any that are odd or out of context, please do let me know.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Dogtrousers]

Btw @Shaun I wasn't having a pop with my paper round story, I was just amusing myself. It was true too - the shop was run by Mrs Evans.

 

[Shaun]

Btw @Shaun I wasn't having a pop with my paper round story, I was just amusing myself. It was true too - the shop was run by Mrs Evans.

I didn't think you were , but it did illustrate how the links could be added out of context.

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[srw]

to avoid any further confusion I've set them all to be guest view only. Members won't see them anymore

Has anything changed deliberately? They now seem to be visible while logged in.

 

[Shaun]

Has anything changed deliberately? They now seem to be visible while logged in.

Yes, I've enabled them again. I'll be posting in more detail about it later in the week and offering an opt-out. I've just got some personal stuff that I'm still dealing with so haven't been able to fully catch up yet. Sorry.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

There could be a Chain Reaction and if it follows similar tredz we could be in need of a cycle surgery.