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Zoredache
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Does the new-user URL filtering make sense on serverfault?

There is a filter in place to prevent new users from posting more then one link on the body of a question. I believe the intent of this is to prevent spammers from using the system, but does it really help us here?

I seem to see lots of questions from new users where they have obfuscated configuration to try to avoid the filter, or they post their question somewhere else and link to it. I am sure it is really frustrating for users since having URLs in configuration files and log files is quite common.

It seems like we are putting up a road-block that doesn't block spammers, since at least one URL is allowed, and blocks a lot of new users from providing a useful first question with the relevant logs and configurations.

I think a good compromise would be to have the system be modified so that URLs in code blocks are ignored, instead of counted against a person. I think this shouldn't be a problem since URLs in code blocks are not automatically converted into hyper-links.

Zoredache
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