SURPRISE: Links forbidden in Plug-in Reviews but Enabled in bbPress

I’m not sure I’d call it a SURPRISE! but to each their own. ??

I discovered just now that links aren’t allowed in users’ reviews

Not just plugins, theme reviews too.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/forum-user-guide/faq/#why-are-links-not-allowed-in-reviews

But I was mildly astonished to find bbPress configured to offer link-making in this context. No links allowed but there’s a button to create links!

The entry form for comments and posts is the same in reviews as well, everywhere. Same code.

There is a check in reviews upon submission and that catches a TON of abuse. That same form lets links in posts for support because links in support topics are often perfectly valid.

I understand why links are allowed in some cases but not in others. Just baffled that this protocol isn’t implemented, therefore, in the bbPress code as a context-sensitive switch.

Or, if there is a switch—my original assumption—what’s the reason for not using it?

The design principle being breached here is that users shouldn’t be offered the option to do what they’re not allowed to do. My surprise was at finding that WordPress seems not to have learnt this over the course of its two decades as a world-leading CMS.

—
Chris

There’s a valid place for links in reviews: linking to support docs, linking to previous support threads, and many more.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to detect at the time of adding a link whether or not it’s self-promotion, so that has to be handled separately as a matter of policy and enforcement.

Thanks, James, for following through with this. I don’t want to prolong the thread but let me try to make amends for not making myself clear.

If links are to be permitted in some discussions but not in others (a reasonable condition) and if bbPress is to be used for all discussions, wouldn’t it be sensible to design bbPress with what I’m calling a “context sensitive switch”?

Allowing it to be evoked in some discussions as bbPress --no-links.

That would be an excellent feature request for https://bbpress.trac.www.ads-software.com

But, again, there is still room for valid links within a review threads. The rule exists to discourage spam, not to quash effective communication. That is why it’s simply a rule that is enforced if necessary, and not something we will ever hard-code against.

For example, a review that includes “This works great on my site [link].” is spam, but a review that includes “I found the documentation, specifically the article at [link] to be lacking in any useful direction.” is good.