A short note from the h2g2 Editors: We have to point out that the only rules which count in the end are the official House Rules and Terms and Conditions - so while it could be useful in some cases to put these into context as done here, h2g2 Researchers should ultimately refer only to the official rules, backed up with guidance from the h2g2 Editors, and not to anything anyone else writes, which necessarily represents that individual's own particular view, and may be inaccurate, incomplete or not up to date. We are, however, always ready to listen to proposals (preferably constructive ones!) re. the official rules, but can't get into debate about what is essentially an individual's particular opinion about these rules, even when as well-expressed as here.

Contents | Naughty Words | Links and URLs | Flames, Trolls, Abuse | The Law | Misc

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There is now no huge difference¹ between posting URLs in forums and in entries. Which is good. On the other hand, all URLs in user names are automatically 'inappropriate'², and will be failed (reset to 'Researcher 123456').

What is a website?

There are a number of things which are similar to websites in some respects, but are not websites. IRC channels and newsgroups³ do not count as URLs or links, and should not be removed, no matter how racy their contents may be. The situation for mailing lists is currently unknown. However archives on the web of newsgroups or mailing lists definately count as websites. Email addresses do not count as URLs, but can form part of 'directions'.

Directions

URLs include 'directions' to URLs⁴, which is a fairly loosely defined idea, unfortunately. This means that if you provide sufficient information to allow the average reader to easily find the URL then it is treated the same as if you provided the URL directly.

Direction Examples

• spelling out URLs - "www dot bbc dot co dot uk"
• starring out URLs - "www.bbc.c*.*k"
• Auto-response emails containing URLs, for example subscription emails to mailing lists. In this case, posting the email address is equivalent to posting all the URLs in the auto-response.
• Name of a specific search engine, with a phrase to search for, and the number of the result ("5th from top"). Just saying "do a websearch for 'chastity belt pictures'" is acceptable.
• domain names (IE, just the bbc.co.uk bit)
• email addresses, with "the URL can be obtained from my email"
• "There's a link to X at Y", where Y is replaced by the URL some external website. This counts as a link to both X and Y, and both must be acceptable.
• auto-forwarding webpages count as a link to the place they forward to.

Company names are something of a special case⁵. For example, amazon.com is the brand name of a company which sells books online, and dictionary.com is the brand name of a company which gives dictionary definitions. It is acceptable to mention these company names, and this could be the same for online companies with more dodgy business interests, but there've been no examples of this yet.

Unacceptable websites

Certain websites are unacceptable, and may not be linked to. The house rules give a long list of what material may make a website unacceptable. Many of these are self-explanatory, and have similar meanings as used in the rest of the house rules. They could accurately be summarised by "don't link to anything illegal under UK law".

The rules on purely commercial sites have recently changed⁶ and I've not yet seen any examples of sites that fail the new rules.

As now (finally!) specified in the House Rules, links to websites "that are entirely in non-English Languages" are also forbidden at h2g2⁷. If a site has an English version, of its pages, that is OK. Other sites, such as government or company sites, may be allowed at the moderators discretion.