[Dan]

We are testing on a very limited basis a new feature on the forum that auto-links certain words in posts. For example the word 'Crovect' in this topic has been automatically linked:

http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=34896.0

The links will be to other pages on TAS (shop, articles, recipes, etc) or to websites that we can detect like RBST, eBay, etc. Some of these links (like eBay) will be affiliate links, which means we will earn commission on purchases made after clicking.

The aim is to provide links that you might find useful or save you money, and might earn us a wee bit - not to stuff every post with as many links as possible.

We'd welcome feedback on how annoying/useful this might be. There will be a profile option so you will be able to turn off these links across the forum and never see them. If the consensus is they are too annoying we'll only display them to guests.

Thanks,

Dan 

[Possum]

More than happy to give it a try.

[northfifeduckling]

might be the wrong place but at least you'll get this message,Dan...
I've been having problems copying and pasting links into my posts. It's not my computer as it does it fine from browser to email,etc., just not into my TAS posts...
Do you have any idea why? I know I used to be able to do it 

[Bionic]

Dan,
I'm happy to see the auto links and if I do click on something that earns you a wee bit then I don't have a problem with that either.

[SallyintNorth]

I've been thinking about this.

Of course it's great to have you guys get a bit of revenue to help you fund this amazing resource 

Would it be reasonable to assume that these links will enable readers to be directed to these products in the TAS shop once it's up and running? 

However...  would it be possible to make the automatic links look different to a manually-inserted one?  It's probably rather OCD of me, but I am just a little uncomfortable at my name being on a post carrying a link I didn't set myself and which could change over time... and which I may not even be aware is in the post.

[Ina]

might be the wrong place but at least you'll get this message,Dan...
I've been having problems copying and pasting links into my posts. It's not my computer as it does it fine from browser to email,etc., just not into my TAS posts...
Do you have any idea why? I know I used to be able to do it 

Glad to hear it's not just me - I tend to blame my old computer - it doesn't always happen, but often enough to be annoying.

[Dan]

I've been thinking about this.

Of course it's great to have you guys get a bit of revenue to help you fund this amazing resource 

Would it be reasonable to assume that these links will enable readers to be directed to these products in the TAS shop once it's up and running? 

However...  would it be possible to make the automatic links look different to a manually-inserted one?  It's probably rather OCD of me, but I am just a little uncomfortable at my name being on a post carrying a link I didn't set myself and which could change over time... and which I may not even be aware is in the post.

We've decided to abandon the automatic linking in posts for members - it's too intrusive and although we could easily style them differently, I hate it when I visit sites that do it (albeit they tend to be linking to completely unrelated stuff on the most obscure words).

We *may* automatically link certain words if the person reading the post is not signed in, but this will be in the future.

What you will see are some shop items at the bottom of the page, where we detect product words being used in a thread. Hopefully unobtrusive, and useful in context rather than annoying. 

[Dan]

might be the wrong place but at least you'll get this message,Dan...
I've been having problems copying and pasting links into my posts. It's not my computer as it does it fine from browser to email,etc., just not into my TAS posts...
Do you have any idea why? I know I used to be able to do it 

Can you describe the process you follow please? Where do you copy the link from, and where and how do you paste it? And what is the problem? Does it not paste at all, or paste in the wrong format, or something else?

Ta,

D.

[northfifeduckling]

right click copy appears to work fine. when I try to insert this link (that one was from the address bar in a different tab) then insert it into my post right click does never come up with the option paste (just back,forward, reload...). To check if it's me I used the same process with the same link into an email and hey presto, right click and there is the paste command 

[SallyintNorth]

What you will see are some shop items at the bottom of the page, where we detect product words being used in a thread. Hopefully unobtrusive, and useful in context rather than annoying. 

No problem with that - useful even 

[Dan]

right click copy appears to work fine. when I try to insert this link (that one was from the address bar in a different tab) then insert it into my post right click does never come up with the option paste (just back,forward, reload...). To check if it's me I used the same process with the same link into an email and hey presto, right click and there is the paste command 

Which browser and operating system are you using please?

[northfifeduckling]

Mozilla on Win 7

[Ina]

Same symptoms for me - only sometimes it seems to work - I use Mozilla on Windows 2000 (I know, I know, almost medieval...)

[Dan]

Apparently the right-click copy/paste problem is an issue with the editor the forum software uses:

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=504391.0

I'll keep looking for a solution, in the meantime I'm afraid you'll need to grin and bear it. 

[northfifeduckling]

will labouriously type any precious links by hand, what a chore 
thanks, Dan