While there are some posts with steemit links that don't just point to steemit articles, there is a bunch of them that only is used for spam, and begging for likes/upvotes.
I agree begging for upvotes should be considered spam and not allowed.
However, just linking to a blog post isn't necessarily spam or in any way bad just because of the platform it happens to be on.
This post was made around the time of the DAO token sale, and was very influential.
https://steemit.com/crypto-news/@dan/is-the-dao-going-to-be-doa
It was widely linked and discussed on many crypto blogs, forums, news sites, widely retweeted, etc. (it even got a bit of mainstream coverage). A rule against posting that link here in a thread about Ethereum or The DAO, where it is clearly relevant, would be a harsh form of censorship. That certainly isn't the only substantive and influential blog post on steemit. Charles Hoskinson made one recently as well, and there certainly are (and will be) others. Those two just happen to come to mind right away.
https://steemit.com/gaming/@acidyo/sgg-steem-game-giveaway-is-here
More info in the thread on steemit!
More info in the thread on steemit!
As you can clearly see, thread contains no valid data, and only serves to leech traffic from forum to steemit, +backlinks
This is bad for the forum, and it would be better to regulate these cases/topic now, rather than later (when it spreads even more throughout, and people start taking it for granted)
I'm not sure about the point about links, backlinks, traffic, etc. There are other threads that are just links to other sites that were reported and allowed. One I happen to know about (I'm sure it isn't the only one) is the Dash Nation progress thread. There is no discussion there (other than some early discussion on the thread about the pointlessness of it) and just links posted every day to Dash and Dash Nation web sites and the Dash forum.
If links to other web sites without significant relevance to discussion here aren't allowed that should be applied consistently.
(LOL. I just checked and Dash Nation is posting steemit links now. But the issue isn't steemit links here; the Dash Nation thread was just as worthless a link farm before, and was allowed.)
The above game giveaway post may be off topic. I didn't notice where it was posted.
Charles Hoskinson is an insider, having worked with Bitshares and whatnot, so I don't think he counts as an example of steemit's credibility. Although I'm sure there is some useful stuff unfortunately 90% of steemit links I find here are:
1) posted by authors themselves; and
2) utter garbage.
As for some other shitcoin having shitty links... I'm fine with it as long as it stays in their own thread and doesn't infect the rest of the forum. There are perfectly valid ways to share one's point of view, e.g. quote the text or post it on neutral platform and link it that way instead of expecting everyone to participate in someone's misguided idea of how to "monetize" garbage.
