Ask YC: Links in submission text?

[bprater]

What do you guys think about having linkable text when folks ask questions?

When people ask about their start-up, we are stuck with doing a copy-and-paste to view the site.

I don't see a downside to this, if the submission is spam, it won't rank high for long.

http://www.make-me-linkable.com/

[auston]

Why not just make the link rel="nofollow" until it reaches a certain threshold of points and or comments?

[nertzy → auston]

I really like this idea for links in general.

My only hesitation is that someone might see it as a reason to create false accounts to game upvoting. Maybe a certain threshold of upvotes by users with high karma is what it takes to remove nofollow from an auto-link?

[dfranke]

I think the idea is to discourage using self-posts to preface links with your own commentary rather than just posting a direct link.

[pg → dfranke]

Yes. This used to be a big problem.

[psyklic]

Linkification for Firefox works wonders. Get the 1.3.4 Beta at the bottom of the page for FF3:

http://yellow5.us/firefox/linkification

[noelchurchill → psyklic]

I'd rather not have to install a plugin to compensate for the lack of a feature in a website.

[psyklic → noelchurchill]

Why should Firefox support plug-ins at all, if not to compensate for a lack of features? Why should Emacs support scripting, if not to compensate for a lack of features?

The point is that we enjoy FF plug-ins and Emacs scripts because they allow us to customize these "featureless" products to our individual needs. Similarly, I welcome plug-ins like Linkification and Scriptmonkey because they allow me to customize websites to my individual needs.

I would be surprised if this were the only website that you would find the Linkification plug-in useful for!

[noelchurchill → psyklic]

FF plugins are great. So are websites with basic features built into them, such as the "hyperlink."

I don't know if there is anything more fundamental to making the internet a "net" than the links connecting all the pages.

[nertzy → noelchurchill]

How about installing a plugin to compensate for the lack of a feature on several disconnected websites all around the world? You can't really convince every single page out there to auto-link, but I'm sure you will come across a plaintext URL now and again.

I like how Safari handles it. Select the text, right-click, and select "Go to Address". I believe this works on any text in any Cocoa app as well. EDIT: I now see that Safari's behavior was mentioned in another thread before I posted.

[immad]

I think it is a good idea. I am always having to copy-paste and presumable the code is done since comment links are clickable. http://i-am-clickable.com/

[nirmal]

If you're a Safari user, select the text of the link and Ctrl+Click to select "Go To Address".

[boucher → nirmal]

In fact, if you're a mac user, there's a Service that will open a highlighted URL in your default browser. Combine that with they keyboard shortcut tool in System Preferences, and you can make a hotkey to open any highlighted link.

[dcurtis → nirmal]

Wow, that's amazing; never knew of that feature before. Thanks.

Nice to know someone was thinking about this problem at WebKit. Does Firefox do anything similar?

[dkasper → dcurtis]

Wow, control click on something in firefox and it seems to highlight the containing box (div perhaps).

[safetytrick]

No way, try rocking a plugin like "text/link" to open these.

[joshwa]

Just pretend you're in emacs-- C-c C-t C-v enter.