social media platform users are going to link offsite. the only question is how obnoxious the platform will make it for them and everyone else.

(For context: Instagram prohibits links in post text. This, plus the incentive to inflate comments, has led to the proliferation of tools where creators instruct their followers to comment with a specific word to receive a link in their DMs— in this case, to a pie crust recipe)

@molly0xfff "Pie"

Oh wait, I don't receive Pie? so sad.

@molly0xfff Pie

@molly0xfff Etsy warns people about "following links to other sites" which I get, because people are ignorant and I'm sure there are swindlers and cheats out there but I do custom builds for customer and constantly provide links in messages to my own site for reference on customization, programming options, etc. It's so damn annoying.

Sometimes I really miss the web that only the nerds used.

@molly0xfff They do it to artificially blow engagement. Many creators used to just post links in their bio for the latest thingy, and it worked well, but this guarantees tones of 'engagement' 🤣 It's just a trick to make stats look good.

@molly0xfff Hyperlinks are the defining feature of the web. I'm not saying your app has to *cater* to off-site links, but when you ban them, you neuter your application are empower any competition you might still have.

There is some value in using the right attribute for links in user-content so that PageRank-inspired crawlers don't treat them as endorsements, tho.

@molly0xfff

off topic ish

Consider the impact on the linked-to site, though… the Mastodon Effect (formerly the Slashdot Effect), the Link Preview load increase that can take out sites, doesn´t happen if links are prohibited (nor in general with IG given the re-sharing limitations)

But then, neither does the internet itself…

I am not a fan of Instagram by any means (don´t ignore @pixelfed ), but DDoS is something we should solve again, real soon now.

Cake, please.

@danhugo it's a pretty poor argument for it IMO, and while the issue of Mastodon stampedes certainly needs to be solved, the solution shouldn't be prohibiting links

pathological enshittification achieved

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/113539381334735295