Do not just open any old link

[Messenger]

Be smart about what links you open

Old favourites such as

http://www.harness.org.au/racing/fields/race-fields/?mc=BA160519#BAC16051908

http://www.harnesslink.com/Australia/Alford-s-extra-special-birthday

http://classicfamilies.net/horsedetails.aspx?HorseID=10004249

are safe but links such as

Photos of my girlfriend

are way too risky to open

:cool:

[Messenger]

Our latest new members have been using URL (web address) shorteners
such as Bitly
Here is an explanation of Bitly

https://techforluddites.com/bitly-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it/

One of the attractions on top of shortening is

you can track the bitlinks you create to see how often they’re shared and clicked on as well as some demographic information about the people doing the sharing and clicking. You can also create bitlinks with custom URLs that are easier to remember than the random letters and numbers created by Bitly

Among others the likes/hits generation love them

They no doubt have their use for really long web addresses that you might want to link (esp on Twitter etc) but being a tech dummie I always like to be careful about what I open

Posters cannot be sure where a link

Photos of my girlfriend

is taking them. As a moderator I can see the actual address without opening it

[Messenger]

A signature that you can click on is a link so be careful of these too

ps I'm actually banning anybody that has a non-English signature link. Not racist, simply protecting posters, as people must know what they are clicking on - accidently or otherwise