A very good point Smileyman. It is easy to accidentally open a link. They are not essential. Have none then no problem.

Unfortunately, that has it's own problems.

People can't post up links to cars for sale that they're considering, which could then be reviewed and examined.

We can't direct people to HJ reviews section, for example - quite often new people will come onto the site with questions, and we can direct them to the 'What's good/bad' part of the reviews section.

We can't post up links to the DVLA MOT history site, for people to become better-informed.

This is a forum where we try to help people - or at least that's my take on it. Remove links, and you remove a large part of that capability, or at least make it more awkward to work around.

There was a classic example of this a couple of months ago with a Honda CR-V. Having the autotrader advert meant that the person asking found out that it had done no mileage for 18 months, and tax had run out and never been renewed about 16 months ago. So it had sat on a forecourt for all that time.

Information which they would have never known how to find out beforehand - and they were very thankful, and now knew how to do some of their own research in the future - because we posted up the links to MOT and car tax sites.

We are knowledgeable and 'petrolheads', for wont of a better word - but we are the exception, not the rule. We disseminate information - or try to, at least, and attempt to help those without the information and knowledge, and provide them with the means to help themselves in the future.

That's what this site is about, basically. Providing knowledge that the average punter doesn't know, and making them better equipped.

I think the vast majority of us are wise enough to know if a link here is likely to be safe, or not.

The current spammer is a spanner of the most obvious sort, but usually it isn't hard to spot the ramblings of a poster you wouldn't trust.

The internet is full of dangers and we all have to take our chances up to a point, i got caught last year when i clicked on an innocent looking PDF file of watch instructions, that click unleashed a torrent of infections, microsoft security essentials proved utterly useless and i had to cut the mains power immediately to stop total ruination.

Afterwards the PC was full of unwanted stuff, i downloaded every free security suite i could find, nothing could shift the things properly until i dropped on YAC, that shifted the things but once in a while something still cropped up, usually an unwanted sale type pop up.

Since then i signed up to Malwarebytes premium which is keeping things under control and i am back to normal service, haven't seen a single hiccup or anything unwanted since i got that software, though for a time before i installed MWB i thought i would have to buy another PC, it's the first time i've paid for protection but seeing how its working and how quick it was today to block the current half wit spammer's rubbish just by holding the mouse over his post is enough proof for me to keep the premium service.

Edited by gordonbennet on 17/04/2017 at 23:57