Wrapper wrote:Forum and dispatch links are not allowed. Only links that are legal are the nation and region tags, and links to previous GA or SC resolutions, including repealed resolutions.
I'd just like to raise issue with this rules interpretation - not so much an issue so much as a request to reconsider it. Wrapper is completely right, of course, for years links have been found illegal except in cases where [nation], [region] tags or links to proposals. I do feel though this is a case where a narrow ruling has snowballed into a full-fledged, separate rule that lacks a justification. The basis of the GA ruleset reforms was culling rules that were on the books for reasons that had developed over time and the reasons had been forgotten, made irrelevant, deprecated etc.
Sedge ruled against links in resolutions at a time when you couldn't make internal links in NationStates,
people were putting written urls in resolution text which was a blatant violation of Rule IV because having a url written down breaks the fourth wall obviously. Regional and national tags were never deemed a violation of R4; in fact they were encouraged because they assisted a text's readability and accessibility.
We know there are cases where clauses are written in ambiguous language to clear R4,
links to dispatches and forum threads could be helpful in informing readers as to what the author is actually attempting to refer to. I don't believe that the existing link rule has any relevance to Rule I, Rule II, Rule III, or Rule IV, given links are not deemed to break the 4th Wall in other "kinds" of links. We have a case here were the actual rule is as holey as swiss cheese - it doesn't apply to WA links or Nation links or Regional Links, only
other internal links.