is there some automatic hyperlinking feature?

[spoolin01]

I posted a response in a thread (#13 in http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/un...2-downloads-what-other-options-do-i-have.html) that included the phrase "external drive" that posted as a hyperlink to external drives on eBay. I'm pretty sure I didn't insert a link with the phrase. When I got a reply to my post, that author also independently used that phrase, and it appeared as a link to the same or similar eBay items (don't know that he inserted the link, it wouldn't seem so from the context).

Possibly cool, kinda bizarre.

???

 

[Cave Diver]

It's called a skim link. Certain key words or phrases may activate the skim link. It's a feature that's been in place for a while now, but only pops up periodically. You'll notice the word ebay is one of them. If I recall correctly, you can edit your post, retype the word and it will disable the link if it bothers you.

 

[spoolin01]

Hah, didn't even notice that about ebay. I suppose there's no point searching my user CP for a way to turn that off?

 

[Cave Diver]

To my knowledge, there is no way for individual user to disable the feature. You can try editing your post, then saving it to see if that disables the link. You'll notice it worked in my previous post.

 

[craracer]

I'm glad that this is occurring (being that, at any given moment I don't get nearly enough spam/adverts in my life).

 

[spoolin01]

To my knowledge, there is no way for individual user to disable the feature. You can try editing your post, then saving it to see if that disables the link. You'll notice it worked in my previous post.

Sorry for not being attentive enough - but "ebay" is still hyperlinked in your first post, was there another that I missed?

Guess I should try it myself as well...

OK, I was able to kill "ebay" in post #3.

Testing, was it skim link? How about if I type ebay again during edit.

 

[spoolin01]

OK, here's my revised analysis: you can kill it for the purpose of your current editing session with the thread open, it will even stay killed if you refresh the page, but if you close the thread then open it again - boom, IT'S BACK!

 

[BKP]

FYI, skimlinks can be turned on or off in vBulletin (what this board is based on).
However, it's a source of revenue for Scubaboard (and between op costs, and the current law suit, Pete could use the revenue).
It's completely benign, just another marketing op....

 

[under water]

I actually don't think it is benign. I often use hyperlinks to provide additional information on posts that I make. If the board is adding it's own commercial based ones then that dilutes the value of having user based hyperlinks as the readers may not be able to discern the value of one over the other and start ignoring them all.