Masking Referrer URL

[Lawnsvcguy]

Hey @TG tech question for you (and others in the know): shouldn’t we be masking the referrer URL when linking out to 3rd party sites?

For instance, if there’s a story of a steroid bust on a news website, we normally drop a link like: https://www.google.com (example). The website admin at the target website can now see where the traffic is coming from.

Shouldn’t we be linking like this instead: https://www.google.com

Just curious your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[TG1]

Really it doesn’t matter. Posting links is not illegal and we aren’t held accountable for what users post in that regard. If that were the case Reddit and Facebook and every other social network or community would be accountable.

Then you have to consider jurisdiction of site and our site and such. For example their are some countries where websites that sell steroids are not illegal and they don’t give a shit what you do. Local laws take precedence in many cases and with hosting companies. Other countries it violates laws against internet pharmacies so simple reports will take down their sites.

The only thing links matter for is SEO. Now new users can’t post links anyway so their posts will show like that or will not show at all. Level 3 regulars are allowed to post links. But the site doesn’t benefit from a level 3 post. Level 4 users actually do pass link juice along with the link so those links do count.