Misuse of linking to HOWTOs; was Re: Your link has been added!

[David Lawyer <dave@lafn.org>]

It seems that linux-directory.com has installed links to out-of-date
Howtos at tucows.com.  Not only that, but their link name is "Howtos
and support" which incorrectly implies that we offer support.

On Fri, Mar 31, 2000 at 07:46:59AM -0600, webmaster@linux-directory.com wrote:
> dave
> Your web site has been added to the Linux Directory. We've added the 
> following link into our directory:
> 

This is not my website.   It's not even a website that I condone since
they have obsolete howtos and have added stuff to the beginning of the
HOWTOs.

> 
>    Title        : Plug-and-Play-HOWTO
>    URL          : http://howto.tucows.com/LDP/HOWTO/Plug-and-Play-HOWTO.html

This is an old and obsolete version.  The latest is v0.11 but they only
have v0.09.  If you are going to link to it please link to the latest
version at www.linuxdoc.org.  Then people can get the latest versions
in various formats.  

>    Category     : Howto
>    Description  : Help with understanding and dealing with the complex 
>   	Plug-and-Play issue. How to get your Linux system to support 
>	Plug-and-Play.
>    Contact Name : dave
>    Contact Email: dave@lafn.org
> 
> 
> You can see your new listing at:
>    http://linux-directory.com
> 

Your link there is entitled "Howtos and support".  Please change it
immediately by removing "support".   Howto authors do NOT offer
support for users.  Readers of HOWTOs are welcome to send comments to
the author after they have read the HOWTO and found errors, etc.  But
if you say "support" it implies that one may send questions to a HOWTO
author without even bothering to read the HOWTO.  Howto authors just
don't have the time (or obligation) to do this.  So please remove it.
If a HOWTO maintainer wanted to offer support, a notice about this
could be placed in the HOWTO but I don't think anyone has done this.

> 
> Our site is heavily promoted with thousands of banner ads a day on
> various sites, and we hope your link will bring you much traffic.
> 
> We need the all the help we can get to be even more popular, so we
> kindly ask you to put up a small button linked to us on your site.
> Simply cut and paste the code below into your document
[snip]
> Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me
> again.
> 
> 
> SINCERELY Webmaster
> 
>    mailto:webmaster@linux-directory.com http://linux-directory.com
> 

-- 
			David Lawyer


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