# Is it ok to link to threads from an external website? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 4, 2024, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-link-to-threads-from-an-external-website/997104 "2024-02-04T21:29:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-link-to-threads-from-an-external-website/997104/1 "2024-02-04T21:29:18Z")
I’ve been running a monthly SDMB photography competition for a year or so, which means we’ve got (an ever expanding) bunch of threads. I’ve got an index of all the threads in a spreadsheet. I figured it would be nice to have a public index as well so Dopers can easily find pst competitions. I’m thinking of setting up a simple single-page website with a list of topics and links to the threads. I think it needs to be a third party page because I want all the links in one place, and I wouldn’t be able to keep updating a single post on the Dope. This feels reasonable, but I just wanted to check I wouldn’t be breaching some rule by linking back to the SDMB from an external site. The only Dope-specific information on the site would be the URL to each thread and the thread title. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-link-to-threads-from-an-external-website/997104/2 "2024-02-04T22:03:34Z")
The rule is that we don’t want anyone starting a war with any other site. Positive links here, or from here to other message boards, are fine. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-link-to-threads-from-an-external-website/997104/3 "2024-02-04T22:16:09Z")
The board includes the tagging feature and Cafe Society especially makes use of that. You might usefully ask a CS mod if you can simply tag all the threads as “monthly photo competition” and let Discourse do all the indexing maintenance for you. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-link-to-threads-from-an-external-website/997104/4 "2024-02-04T22:17:59Z")
Excellent idea and #photo already leads mainly to these threads in fact. If any are missing, I can go back and add the tag. I see _ **Monthly photo competition** _ #1 (Dec 2022) to #15 (Feb 2024) are all tagged, so it looks like everything is in place. Handy thing to link to a group of threads with the same tag, type “#” and then part of the tag name and you’ll be prompted for the tag and it will create the link like I did above. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-link-to-threads-from-an-external-website/997104/5 "2024-02-04T22:26:09Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Excellent idea and #photo already leads mainly to these threads in fact. Yeah, I have the “photo” tag saved under the hamburger menu for easy access. ---
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-ok-to-link-to-threads-from-an-external-website/997104/6 "2024-02-04T23:32:57Z")
Thanks everyone. I’ll have a play with tagging.