# Link in archived thread links directly to goatse
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [September 5, 2014, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558 "2014-09-05T05:37:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/1 "2014-09-05T05:37:30Z")
I was looking at a thread from July 2012 about that whole grease monkey script for avatars thing. It was in ATMB. [Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=660144) is the thread. Post #11. In it the poster says
“_It is not a violation, because it is not a clickable link. I can post links to NSFW images all day long if they are not clickable. Here is a link to goatse:
[…]
Because you have to cut and paste it into your browser, it takes more than two clicks, and cannot be accidentally displayed. No violation_.”
However, you can now click on the link and it takes you directly to goatse. If you hover on the link a little box says “Link added by Viglink”. Interestingly, when I tried doing a link to the single post itself, the goatse link was in fact broken.
I am unsure what to make of this. I was a little startled that an archived thread had a one-click link directly to that picture. Regardless, clearly Viglink has made a direct link to EXNSFW images happen. I wonder what else resides out in the archives that this is happening to/with. Reporting what I found. Also, I have seen that image enough for a few days.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/2 "2014-09-05T06:02:17Z")
Oh well. Goatse happens.
Actually, there was a thread just about 2 weeks ago about Viglink adding links unexpectedly to peoples’ posts. Some of the same sorts of concerns were mentioned there.
> **[What is this Viglink?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=731656)**
>
> In another thread, I came across this post, which is a throwaway line by CurtC, containing a joke URL. However, on my Chrome browser, that link is actually active, and hovering over it reveals the tooltip, “Link added by VigLink.”. A bit of googling...
(ETA: See Post #8 there, for example.)
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/3 "2014-09-05T06:17:03Z")
It doesn’t show up as a link on my system, so it’s probably viglink that’s turning it into a link as **Senegoid** said.
I added a space in the link in post 11 (even though it’s not a link). Let me know if that fixes it, or rather, breaks it for viglink (fixes it by breaking it… you know what I mean).
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/4 "2014-09-05T06:21:42Z")
Also this post by **Giraffe** :
> [@What is this Viglink?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-viglink/696105/20):
>
> Also, for anyone having the link mangling issue I mentioned, apparently you can disable Viglink on a given machine/device at the following link: [http://www.viglink.com/opt-out](http://www.viglink.com/opt-out)
I can verify that it works and disables the Vigilink links.
And it also looks like **engineer\_comp\_geek** has just now broken the link mentioned in the OP.
ETA - ninja’d
---
### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/5 "2014-09-05T06:42:09Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> Also this post by **Giraffe** :
>
> I can verify that it works and disables the Vigilink links.
Does this depend on Viglink setting a cookie in my browser?
Regardless of the answer to that, is there any good reason why I should _want_ Viglink to work? Does it add any real functionality, or is it m ore like the sort of malware that cause some of the text on the web to turn into links to commercial sites?
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/6 "2014-09-05T08:14:37Z")
> [@njtt](#):
>
> Does this depend on Viglink setting a cookie in my browser?
>
> Regardless of the answer to that, is there any good reason why I should _want_ Viglink to work? Does it add any real functionality, or is it m ore like the sort of malware that cause some of the text on the web to turn into links to commercial sites?
Yeah, I think it sets a cookie on your browser. No, it doesn’t add any functionality, but I’m willing to accept their cookie in return for not having links be active that aren’t intended to be. It’s your choice, I suppose.
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### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/7 "2014-09-05T11:55:14Z")
The link still works for me. Maybe stick a space in the middle of the URL?
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/8 "2014-09-05T13:57:27Z")
Wow. An oldie but a goodie still works. (The trick, not the asinine point.)
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/9 "2014-09-05T17:43:33Z")
> [@Munch](#):
>
> The link still works for me. Maybe stick a space in the middle of the URL?
**engineer\_comp\_geek** edited it again after your post, so it shouldn’t link to anywhere now.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/10 "2014-09-05T22:04:35Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> Yeah, I think it sets a cookie on your browser. No, it doesn’t add any functionality, but I’m willing to accept their cookie in return for not having links be active that aren’t intended to be. It’s your choice, I suppose.
I think it was mentioned in the earlier thread that SDMB gets a few pennies every time someone clicks on one of those.
Hey, if we want to help support SDMB, maybe we should all start clicking madly on those. The original problem with _that,_ as already discussed, is that Viglink isn’t very discriminating, and its links sometimes lead to malware or NSFW stuff.
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/11 "2014-09-06T17:49:43Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> Yeah, I think it sets a cookie on your browser. No, it doesn’t add any functionality, but I’m willing to accept their cookie in return for not having links be active that aren’t intended to be. It’s your choice, I suppose.
Um, don’t you have that backwards? Vigilink is turning links that aren’t supposed to be active into active links.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/12 "2014-09-06T18:12:43Z")
> [@Irishman](#):
>
> Um, don’t you have that backwards? Vigilink is turning links that aren’t supposed to be active into active links.
No, I think we both said the same thing. I said, “…having links be active that aren’t intended to be…” is what Vigilink does, and I prefer not having it be that way.
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### Author:  [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2014, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/13 "2014-09-07T08:10:39Z")
> [@jimbuff314](#):
>
> I was looking at a thread from July 2012 about that whole grease monkey script for avatars thing. It was in ATMB. [Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=660144) is the thread. Post #11. In it the poster says
>
> “_It is not a violation, because it is not a clickable link. I can post links to NSFW images all day long if they are not clickable. Here is a link to goatse:
> […]
> Because you have to cut and paste it into your browser, it takes more than two clicks, and cannot be accidentally displayed. No violation_.”
>
> However, you can now click on the link and it takes you directly to goatse. If you hover on the link a little box says “Link added by Viglink”. Interestingly, when I tried doing a link to the single post itself, the goatse link was in fact broken.
… and can any mods or admins explain why that thread is suddenly missing? I posted to it in the last couple of days, and there was nothing wrong with the thread itself, save for the offending link, which was fixed by a mod. I’m confused. I thought only spam/troll threads got deleted around here.
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### Author:  [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2014, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/14 "2014-09-07T08:40:44Z")
Yeah! I’m the poster who found and reported it and now it’s gone. This is nutty, don’cha think **spinky**?
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### Author:  [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2014, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/15 "2014-09-08T19:07:43Z")
This is definitely nutty.
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/16 "2014-09-08T19:10:33Z")
Two year old thread, questions already settled in it, bumped by a spammer.
When the spam was removed, the old thread remained. People didn’t catch that it was an old thread, including a moderator who thought there was a genuine issue going on when there really wasn’t.
Complaints about “goatse” being active in the thread regardless of how we tried to break it, so I just moved the entire thread to the cornfield. Now goatse is not an issue.
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### Author:  [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/17 "2014-09-08T19:19:20Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#):
>
> TComplaints about “goatse” being active in the thread regardless of how we tried to break it
You couldn’t figure out how to edit a post and make it stop linking to goatse? That seems really strange.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/18 "2014-09-08T19:27:42Z")
> [@spinky](#):
>
> You couldn’t figure out how to edit a post and make it stop linking to goatse? That seems really strange.
**Dex** had the same problem in another thread. It seems the only sure way, other than the nuclear option, is to surround it with spoiler tags.
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/19 "2014-09-08T19:54:33Z")
I’m the one who reported the link kept getting created by viglink. I didn’t intend for the thread to go away, but I’m not crying over it.
My point is that viglink is evil. It started this offensive practice of creating links out of anything that looks like a link, even if the intent was to break the link. This is counter to the policy of this board, and this is just one example where the new behavior is causing issues.
I personally disabled viglink from loading in my browser after this. I hadn’t cared before as much, but this was a good enough reason.
I think the only way to break a link where viglink won’t fix it is to add spaces to break it into pieces. Sticking it in a spoiler box will at least put it behind a second click.
Or I suppose you could use old antispammer techniques, wwwdotthisismylinkdotcom. Spaces would be cleaner. www. thisismylink. com.
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/link-in-archived-thread-links-directly-to-goatse/697558/20 "2014-09-08T19:57:34Z")
I too am very annoyed at this new behavior of viglink and the board’s tacit approval of it by continuing to use viglink. I have disabled it for myself but I am not excited about the prospect of links having to be broken with spaces rather than the far cleaner and easier to reconstitute method of using the noparse tags.
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