I had a new user, on his first post, post a link to another website this afternoon which I made the decision to delete.
For the most part, it's harmless but if I allow new users on their first post plug another website, overnight I'd probably have 50,000 new users register and more or less take over my forums with posts about "visit pilotcats.com!" "visit jumpingjunipercessna172's.com", etc.
If an established user that we're all familiar with does it, no problem -- it just means that you're sharing with the group something that you may find interesting.
But for a brand new registrant to the forums doing so? Not in a million years.
Long term, this forum could dissolve into another 'usenet' newsgroup where it's dominated by spam, make money fa$t ads and other junk posts.
For the most part, it's harmless but if I allow new users on their first post plug another website, overnight I'd probably have 50,000 new users register and more or less take over my forums with posts about "visit pilotcats.com!" "visit jumpingjunipercessna172's.com", etc.
If an established user that we're all familiar with does it, no problem -- it just means that you're sharing with the group something that you may find interesting.
But for a brand new registrant to the forums doing so? Not in a million years.
Long term, this forum could dissolve into another 'usenet' newsgroup where it's dominated by spam, make money fa$t ads and other junk posts.