If you take away the links to /excerpts from other sites, what/s left?
I could have written poorly what I was trying to say.
1. Some sites require FR to link to them. That's a legal issue and we're told which sites they are. That doesn't mean, however, that we have to post a mindless excerpt. We can do our fellow freepers a favor by going into those articles and finding the key 1 or 2 paragraphs and posting those as the link, so that the person really gets the gist of the article without having to go to the link. If we just post the first few lines or the first paragraph, we normally aren't helping anyone get a real grasp of the article.
2. Some sites do NOT require a link. There is no reason to publish only an excerpt to those sites. If they wanted that, they'd notify JimRob and he'd require only a link. They probably believe they'll get more traffic becoming popular sources than forcing someone over to their site to finish an article.
3. Sometimes we have representatives of other sites or authors of other articles come on FR and post an article and give only a link and/or an excerpt...EVEN THOUGH the site doesn't demand ONLY a link. That is similar to someone coming into your restaurant and telling folks to go next door to a different restaurant. That's just trying to steal customers.
4. Sometimes folks post articles and never join in the commentary. Their job is to post their link on countless sites every day to generate traffic for their site. It's similar to those who post things like "I made $1000 a day just selling diet pills....check it out at dietpill.org"
I was not trying to say, "Don't post links." I was trying to say, "Don't post unnecessary links without good reason, and be responsible to join in the conversation."
I read right thru typos and lack of formatting!
I wish there were a way sincere folks could post, however improperly, however often, however ungrammatically, without being jumped on, while those who post for spurious reasons could be banned.
Thanks.
The modern brain cannot handle more than 3 sentences in a paragraph.
My brain has gone modern on me.