Why does everyone who posts links insert spaces in them?

Just curious. I am willing to comply if I need to, but I'd like to understand why. Is it, like, forbidden by the forum rules to post a working link?

There is no rule against it, but its mostly done for Youtube links because they can see what sites their videos are linked to and when they see sites like this, they remove the videos. Spaces are put in to break up the link so Youtube can't trace it and the videos stay up.

TiCKleMaN87 said:

There is no rule against it, but its mostly done for Youtube links because they can see what sites their videos are linked to and when they see sites like this, they remove the videos. Spaces are put in to break up the link so Youtube can't trace it and the videos stay up.

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Whaaaat? So in other words Google remove the links when they see them on the TMF, is that right? What for?

Tenebrae said:

Whaaaat? So in other words Google remove the links when they see them on the TMF, is that right? What for?

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Google sometimes removes the video, not just the link. Videos have disappeared after a link from the TMF to that video is posted.
Why? One would guess because they believe that we are perverts and they don't want to have videos with links from a site for perverts.

More often than google removing it, it's the person who owns the link - when you have a youtube page you can view data about where your traffic comes from. If you find that your content is being fetishized against your intentions, you might want to remove it.

But putting spaces in is the wrong way to indirectly link to something. It's much easier for the end-user if you just edit out the "http://" part, so sites like the TMF don't auto convert it into a link.

Like instead of http://www.ticklingforum.com which the forum is going to automatically make into a hotlink, you'd put ticklingforum.com which someone can cut and paste right into their browser.

The reason why I do it aside from the above answers is this: for 2% of privacy so that the youtube source user, at least, won't trace it coming from me and the perverted site I am linking to (or so I thought! Because Google analytics killed the little privilege for me). At the end of the day, who am I to be bothered at all? Even my cat is online!

Thank you guys (and gals, Bohy ) for your replies!

TMF Jeff said:

More often than google removing it, it's the person who owns the link - when you have a youtube page you can view data about where your traffic comes from. If you find that your content is being fetishized against your intentions, you might want to remove it.

But putting spaces in is the wrong way to indirectly link to something. It's much easier for the end-user if you just edit out the "http://" part, so sites like the TMF don't auto convert it into a link.

Like instead of http://www.ticklingforum.com which the forum is going to automatically make into a hotlink, you'd put ticklingforum.com which someone can cut and paste right into their browser.

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I see. Thanks, it helps me tremendously. I think this advice should be stickied or something for the benefit of the community, it's really good!

milagros317 said:

Google sometimes removes the video, not just the link. Videos have disappeared after a link from the TMF to that video is posted.

Why? One would guess because they believe that we are perverts and they don't want to have videos with links from a site for perverts.

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I hate that word. Seriously, one has to be particularly perverted to call a fellow man a pervert. If that's really how those people think, I despise them. That self-righteous bullshit turns my stomach.

Bohemianne said:

The reason why I do it aside from the above answers is this: for 2% of privacy so that the youtube source user, at least, won't trace it coming from me and the perverted site I am linking to (or so I thought! Because Google analytics killed the little privilege for me). At the end of the day, who am I to be bothered at all? Even my cat is online!

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Oh yeah I remember privacy! That wonderful time when my boss wasn't pinging me while I am sitting on the toilet, when my favorite online shop did not send me emails with the subject:"last thing you searched", and the government did not locate my phone every time I post here. Good old times. I was watching the excellent period drama Taboo yesterday with my wife, and I think my taste for historical fiction comes in part for the possibility of uncertainty and chance, which is slowly disappearing from our lives. Just to see one of the characters running across town to warn the hero of an impending danger in person had a sort of vintage, passé flavor to it. Same for dialogue like "Where is he?" "I don't know!". And that alone is scary.

You may be familiar with the excellent songs by Sonata Arctica, Blank File and Weballergy. They are precisely about that, and Tony Kakko's strangely high-pitched voice resonates really well with the irony of our present situation.

Then again, I am borderline computer-illiterate. I use them to play games and watch porn - I am particularly proud of my porn folder: started in 2001, it is now a great collection of tickling art, video and stories! - or post here. I don't do social networking that much, and mainly for professional reasons, and I did not own a smartphone until 2015. I even read books, can you believe it? Books! Made of paper! That one can touch, smell, write upon! You should see the way people look at me in the subway. When they lift their noses from their phones, that is, or when they stop taking pictures of themselves