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Linking is not a bad thing as long as you actually provide some context to your answer. If all you are going to do is post a link in your answer, you aren't really answering, you are just providing a detour for the user. At the very least you could explain where the link goes and what it is going to show the user (maybe even quote some of important stuff in the answer so that the OP doesn't have to click the link to possibly answer their question).

To answer your revised question, most people who say that linking is bad on the web have absolutely no clue how the web works. The only thing bad about linking is the fact that you have no guarantee that the thing you are linking to will be open tomorrow or the next day or 7 years down the road. That's the only problem. There is a reason this is called a web and it is because everything is supposed to be interconnected. If it wasn't you would never make it past your browser's home page half the time.

A related (yet not really) "bad thing" was the use of "hotlinking" images, meaning you would put the image tag in your own code and the link source was pointing back to the other domain. This would cause the browser to download it from that source, meaning it was taxing the resources on the originator's website when people were visiting your page.

Linking is not a bad thing as long as you actually provide some context to your answer. If all you are going to do is post a link in your answer, you aren't really answering, you are just providing a detour for the user. At the very least you could explain where the link goes and what it is going to show the user (maybe even quote some of important stuff in the answer so that the OP doesn't have to click the link to possibly answer their question).

To answer your revised question, most people who say that linking is bad on the web have absolutely no clue how the web works. The only thing bad about linking is the fact that you have no guarantee that the thing you are linking to will be open tomorrow or the next day or 7 years down the road. That's the only problem. There is a reason this is called a web and it is because everything is supposed to be interconnected. If it wasn't you would never make it past your browser's home page half the time.

A related (yet not really) "bad thing" was the use of "hotlinking" images, meaning you would put the image tag in your own code and the link source was pointing back to the other domain. This would cause the browser to download it from that source, meaning it was taxing the resources on the originator's website when people were visiting your page.

Linking is not a bad thing as long as you actually provide some context to your answer. If all you are going to do is post a link in your answer, you aren't really answering, you are just providing a detour for the user. At the very least you could explain where the link goes and what it is going to show the user (maybe even quote some of important stuff in the answer so that the OP doesn't have to click the link to possibly answer their question).

To answer your revised question, most people who say that linking is bad on the web have absolutely no clue how the web works. The only thing bad about linking is the fact that you have no guarantee that the thing you are linking to will be open tomorrow or the next day or 7 years down the road. That's the only problem. There is a reason this is called a web and it is because everything is supposed to be interconnected. If it wasn't you would never make it past your browser's home page half the time.

A related (yet not really) "bad thing" was the use of "hotlinking" images, meaning you would put the image tag in your own code and the link source was pointing back to the other domain. This would cause the browser to download it from that source, meaning it was taxing the resources on the originator's website when people were visiting your page.

Linking is not a bad thing as long as you actually provide some context to your answer. If all you are going to do is post a link in your answer, you aren't really answering, you are just providing a detour for the user. At the very least you could explain where the link goes and what it is going to show the user (maybe even quote some of important stuff in the answer so that the OP doesn't have to click the link to possibly answer their question).

To answer your revised question, most people who say that linking is bad on the web have absolutely no clue how the web works. The only thing bad about linking is the fact that you have no guarantee that the thing you are linking to will be open tomorrow or the next day or 7 years down the road. That's the only problem. There is a reason this is called a web and it is because everything is supposed to be interconnected. If it wasn't you would never make it past your browser's home page half the time.

A related (yet not really) "bad thing" was the use of "hotlinking" images, meaning you would put the image tag in your own code and the link source was pointing back to the other domain. This would cause the browser to download it from that source, meaning it was taxing the resources on the originator's website when people were visiting your page.

Linking is not a bad thing as long as you actually provide some context to your answer. If all you are going to do is post a link in your answer, you aren't really answering, you are just providing a detour for the user. At the very least you could explain where the link goes and what it is going to show the user (maybe even quote some of important stuff in the answer so that the OP doesn't have to click the link to possibly answer their question.

To answer your revised question, most people who say that linking is bad on the web have absolutely no clue how the web works. The only thing bad about linking is the fact that you have no guarantee that the thing you are linking too will be open tomorrow or the next day or 7 years down the road. That's the only problem. There is a reason this is called a web and it is because everything is SUPPOSED to be interconnected. If it wasn't you would never make it past your browser's home page half the time.

A related (yet not really) "bad thing" was the use of "hotlinking" images, meaning you would put the image tag in your own code and the link source was pointing back to the other domain. This would cause the browser to download it from THAT source, meaning it was taxing the resources on the originator's website when people were visiting YOUR page.

Linking is not a bad thing as long as you actually provide some context to your answer. If all you are going to do is post a link in your answer, you aren't really answering, you are just providing a detour for the user. At the very least you could explain where the link goes and what it is going to show the user (maybe even quote some of important stuff in the answer so that the OP doesn't have to click the link to possibly answer their question).

To answer your revised question, most people who say that linking is bad on the web have absolutely no clue how the web works. The only thing bad about linking is the fact that you have no guarantee that the thing you are linking to will be open tomorrow or the next day or 7 years down the road. That's the only problem. There is a reason this is called a web and it is because everything is supposed to be interconnected. If it wasn't you would never make it past your browser's home page half the time.

A related (yet not really) "bad thing" was the use of "hotlinking" images, meaning you would put the image tag in your own code and the link source was pointing back to the other domain. This would cause the browser to download it from that source, meaning it was taxing the resources on the originator's website when people were visiting your page.