[Skeezyks]

I frequently provide new members (especially) with links to articles, from PsychCentral's archives, that I think may be of interest to them based on what they write in their first post. Today, when I've clicked on these links myself (while previewing what I've written) I get a very intimidating warning that the site I'm trying to go to is not a part of the PsychCentral forums & if I do not trust the site, or the person who provided the link, I should not go there.

There is a box you can click on, in the warning, to proceed anyway. But personally I doubt many members, especially new members, are going to be willing to take the risk. Providing new members with links to what I hope are informative & useful articles from the archives can be time consuming. So if this is the way it is going to be, I will, in all likelihood stop doing it. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

I frequently provide new members (especially) with links to articles, from PsychCentral's archives, that I think may be of interest to them based on what they write in their first post. Today, when I've clicked on these links myself, I get a very intimidating warning that the site I'm trying to go to is not a part of the PsychCentral forums & if I do not trust the site, or the person who provided the link, I should not go there.

There is a box you can click on, in the warning, to proceed anyway. But personally I doubt many members, especially new members, are going to be willing to take the risk. Providing new members with links to what I hope are informative & useful articles from the archives can be time consuming. So if this is the way it is going to be, I will, in all likelihood stop doing it. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Im not sure if its a new thing or problem here but I have seen this happen on other websites too.

over the years since I have had my computer and web surfing many websites notify a person when they have clicked on a link that does not belong to the site. this is so that the people that click on these links knows the website that the link is on is not responsible for the content and any harm (virus's and such ) that the website in the link may have.

I like it when I get these kinds of pop ups they warn me ahead of time that I am leaving the site I am on and to continue at my own risk.

my point maybe what ever you are clicking on is going to take you off of psych central website. just a general hey in case you dont realize this but the link is going to lead you somewhere else off of psych central do you really want to leave psych central and visit the site the link is going to take you.

[healingme4me]

I tried clicking on some of your more recent posts that had links and didn't have any site safety messages. Those links are very signature of you, I'd certainly miss not seeing that you could continue to do so.

Is this perhaps connected to the other post in Community Feedback about file not found when clicking on blogs, I'm now wondering?

[Skeezyks]

Originally Posted by amandalouise

Im not sure if its a new thing or problem here but I have seen this happen on other websites too.

over the years since I have had my computer and web surfing many websites notify a person when they have clicked on a link that does not belong to the site. this is so that the people that click on these links knows the website that the link is on is not responsible for the content and any harm (virus's and such ) that the website in the link may have.

I like it when I get these kinds of pop ups they warn me ahead of time that I am leaving the site I am on and to continue at my own risk.

my point maybe what ever you are clicking on is going to take you off of psych central website. just a general hey in case you dont realize this but the link is going to lead you somewhere else off of psych central do you really want to leave psych central and visit the site the link is going to take you.

The thing is the articles I'm linking people to are in PsychCentral's own archives. I rarely give someone a link to anything that's not. I presume (perhaps incorrectly, I don't know) if it is an article in PsychCentral's own archives that PC endorses it. I wouldn't have that confidence in any article that came from another website. I have seen this warning pop up previously when I clicked on a link to another website that was posted by another member here on PC. But this is the first time I've gotten it when I've tried to open a link to one of the articles in PsychCentral's own archives. That's where the problem is for me.

[Skeezyks]

Originally Posted by healingme4me

I tried clicking on some of your more recent posts that had links and didn't have any site safety messages. Those links are very signature of you, I'd certainly miss not seeing that you could continue to do so.

Is this perhaps connected to the other post in Community Feedback about file not found when clicking on blogs, I'm now wondering?

Thanks for making this effort! (Hugs) Yes, it did occur to me that perhaps even though I'm suddenly, for the 1st time, getting these warnings when I try to open a link to an article in PsychCentral's archives (while I'm previewing my reply) perhaps the OP can still get to the article without encountering the warning. And given what you experienced when you tried it, it sounds as though this may be the case. So that's encouraging. (Smile)

The problem for me is that I spend a significant amount of time preparing each of these replies. So I need to be as certain as is reasonably possible that people aren't being warned off of the articles I provide them links to. I have to say that when I get one of these warnings, I don't proceed anyway. It's not worth the risk to me. And I would expect that other members, especially new members, would feel likewise.

I know the site is having problems right now with the smilies. So perhaps this is something that is tied into that in some way or another & it will be resolved along with the emoticons problem. (Fingers crossed...) (I don't know anything about the other concern you raised regarding the blogs. But maybe the two concerns are related? It sounds as though there are quite a few technical challenges at the moment.)

[healingme4me]

I hear you there. When I do share links I do want to represent what's best for the site and if there are some glitches going on, at least you are bringing it up.
Hopefully, it's all connected to whatever updates are transpiring? *smile* fingers crossed.

[DocJohn]

Can you give us some examples of posts where clicking on a link results in this kind of behavior for you? Thanks!

[unaluna]

Originally Posted by DocJohn

Can you give us some examples of posts where clicking on a link results in this kind of behavior for you? Thanks!

Even the betterhelp link does it.

And you know the "my mood" shows your thread, not your mood? In the box to the left there?

[DocJohn]

This should be fixed now. Sorry about that.

[Skeezyks]

Originally Posted by DocJohn

Can you give us some examples of posts where clicking on a link results in this kind of behavior for you? Thanks!

I checked this out today while I was replying to a new member's post & the problem appears to be resolved. I'm not having the issue today. Thanks!

[Purple,Violet,Blue]

Skeezyks, it's a good opportunity to thank you for everything you do. Your links are always spot-on, and have helped me many times.

[s4ndm4n2006]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

I frequently provide new members (especially) with links to articles, from PsychCentral's archives, that I think may be of interest to them based on what they write in their first post. Today, when I've clicked on these links myself (while previewing what I've written) I get a very intimidating warning that the site I'm trying to go to is not a part of the PsychCentral forums & if I do not trust the site, or the person who provided the link, I should not go there.

There is a box you can click on, in the warning, to proceed anyway. But personally I doubt many members, especially new members, are going to be willing to take the risk. Providing new members with links to what I hope are informative & useful articles from the archives can be time consuming. So if this is the way it is going to be, I will, in all likelihood stop doing it. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

It's an appropriate warning and needs to be there for the sake of the site itself IMO. when a link goes to an external site, it's best to let people know that the site they are going to is not managed by the site that they are linking from. It saves the trouble of site owners from getting complaints, questions and requests for things that they have no control over.

Mind you it should not be a huge deal anyway as this is common practice for most sites and most people that are familiar with this, have seen it before and will make a decision based on that. To assume most users are not internet savvy is rather simplistic and expecting that most people will be afraid to click on the link then and continue is just assuming too much.

I am pretty sure it's something that will remain in place but based on what I said I hope that you don't stop posting links for this reason alone.

[DocJohn]

As I noted on July 26, this issue was fixed.

No, we don't need to provide warnings about clicking on links (especially ones to other Psych Central pages). People have been clicking on links just fine now for over 24 years, most without any kind of warning when you click on a link that takes you off of one site and connects you to another.

While I understand the good intentions behind such warnings, I don't think they're necessary.