Link directly to quotes in Web pages or POI Factory Forum.

While the citebite.com method is easy to use, I don't recommend it. It works by loading the URL on its own server, then pointing to that cached copy rather than to the POI Factory page itself. This has several potential problems.

First, if something on that page gets changed, citebite will use its own copy of the old page if it is still on its server and the changes will not show. Of course, citebite will eventually have to refresh its cache with the new page, but even this is problematic if the search text itself has changed. In this case the link will now fail. I have tested both of these scenarios on citebite and this is indeed how it works.

Secondly, the cached page displayed by citebite is a "guest" or non-logged in version of the page. So the items in the right navigation pane do not include your links you normally have as a logged in user. I think this could be quite confusing.

In my opinion, if you want to make an internal link to a post or some other content at POI Factory, the link should use a POI Factory URL and not the reconstructed URL pointing to a cached copy on another site.

This FAQ shows how to construct a URL that will link directly to a specific post at POI Factory: http://www.poi-factory.com/node/44758. Using this method we know the link will continue to work and show current content even if the content changes.

This is just my opinion of course ... maybe JM or Globe Turtle will comment on the link methods they prefer us to use.

I agree that this is the gold standard method for quotes but I also know that since I read the faq last June when it came out, I still have never used it because of the effort on my part required even though it'd be useful in my replies at least once a week. Instead, I reference a whole thread and make the reader figure out which reply I was referring to (adequate when quoting a 1-2 page thread, not so good for the 10-page Windows 10 or map update threads).

I think it's a limitation of the software used for the web site and therefore hard to fix from the JM end of things.

with using reconstructed URL's like citebite or tinyurl is that you cannot see the original URL and there is no way to know ahead of time where the link will really take you. It could be taking you to some nefarious site that will attempt to infect your computer. For this reason, I almost never click on a tinyurl link. Of course if it was in a post by you or Charlie or any of the POI Factory regulars, I wouldn't hesitate.

A little more info. http://pages.citebite.com/u5a0h0j1f2jvp

Thanks Charlie. That's interesting. According to the writeup, once a page is cached at citebite, it is saved forever, so it never gets refreshed if the content changes.

When I was testing, I created and tested a link to one of my FAQ pages. I then changed the content of the section I had quoted and tried the old link a few minutes later and the link failed. I must have done something else wrong that caused the old link to fail. I didn't keep it, so can't go back to see what I did wrong.

In any case, I still think it is preferable to point internal links directly to POI Factory itself rather than going to a redirect site like citebite ... again, just my opinion.

I see this as a alternate method members can use if they would like to. See nothing wrong with internal links directly to POI if that is what a member prefers . This method also covers web pages.Many times using a link Garmin as a example you find later link is no longer available. Many times I would like to retain that info that was posted. Citebite would do that. I have not found anything yet to say it is not safe but still looking and testing.So far I like what it does. Firm believer in the Keep It Simple .