Forum Thread

Hi there, I have a new suggestion, this time involving feeds, forums and profile bio's; specifically, feeds with external links in them.

The suggestion simply is this: when someone writes a feed and uses the "url=" BBCode prompt to embed a link into a word or phrase, the server does a check on the link, and if the link is from an external site that does not have the Pokéheroes domain, it's highlighted in red, instead of the usual blue.

This is just to give people a warning that when they click a red link, they'll be going to an external site, since some people may not want to be directed to anything outside of PH.

An example of a link directing to somewhere outside of PH being annoying or unwanted is when it's a YouTube link. Besides the obvious and harmless trolling that can come from it (like Rick-Rolling), it causes a problem for mobile users, because it opens the YouTube app. A lot of times I click a link, I get redirected to the YouTube app, and I lose a video that I was watching/listening to in the background. This suggestion is to prevent such things from happening, as well as the potential for someone to write a link to a malicious or malware-ridden website.

Now, I know an obvious solution is just to not click any links from feeds at all, but that's just ignoring the issue, not providing a solution. This allows people to click on links without worrying about getting redirected outside of Pokéheroes, while also not taking up much processing to implement.

So in short, just make links that appear in feeds and forum threads blue if the link has the Pokéheroes domain, or red if it redirects to any other site. That's all.

Let me know if you support or if you have anything to add to this! Thanks for reading~

I'm 50/50 on this one, to be honest.

A lot of times links do have context and [for me at least] it can be pretty easy to tell if the link is going to be on site or not. So while I do understand where you're coming from, this might not be necessary.

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A lot of things that have been implemented on this site are not "necessary" and yet here they are ^^ this is just to make things a little more, well, kid friendly, on a kids site. That's what this is, the site is technically targeted at kids. There should at least be an identifiable way to know if a link is external or not, or at least a filter for those links.

support 100% 101

i really love this aaa

will help me alot, since i hate clicking youtube links :I

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As long as it's an option for users, then that's the only way that something like this gets my support.

You could also just make an option that prompts you with a pop up message when you click on a link that leads to an external site. This pop up would display the link that you clicked on and will ask if you are sure that you want to open the link.

We can just call this "safe mode" to make it easy. Personally, I'd never have a use for this as I'm someone who likes to live on the edge, but it would definitely be a nice thing to have for users who want to browse PH more safetly and sound.

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Bump.

To add to this, I'm thinking that maybe there could be an option in settings to show the url, like there's a pop up saying "This person does not allow the URL BBCode!" or something like that when someone uses .
For forum threads, maybe there could be a "Show URL" button?

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Also for certain meme links Ex. A rickroll should it stay blue because we know it is a safe site or should that still be red?

@LukeSky I'm not sure, honestly. An idea I have is actually to allow for customization of the setting, and it would allow you to register certain known domains as "blue links", like YouTube, Twitter, etc., whereas links that come from domains that are not registered would show up as red. Something like that 😅

bumf

Why not just add a pop saying
"Are you sure you want to be redirected to this link?
It's a link outside Ph and can take you to the following address."

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@Taavi I agree, that would be nice

support! this would very much help with being more aware of what links you're going to! especially on mobile, if it opens a new app for whatever i clicked on, it's definitely more tedious to be like "oh. i didn't want to open a new app." then you have to click or swipe multiple times to remove it. when it simply could have been prevented by easily seeing if it's a pokeheroes link or not! it is simply too tedious to hover over every link to check where it links to

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I would prefer the option for the popup rather than link color, but I like both ideas.