Hi IGS,
It is a way of controlling spammers who can utterly kill a good forum before it gets off the ground. We also don't want to turn this into a totally self promotional forum. However I do understand your problem and we will think of other ways around it. We are toying with the idea of a pre-screened premium membership system which allows users to post links.

Another reason for not allowing new members to post URLs is also to stop people posting illicit images. You can post images that are drawn in from other sites; like this product I have got from your gift website;



Can you imagine what kind of rubbish a serious spammer would be showing if this were possible.

Great cufflinks by the way! Can you do me a deal...we are very open minded about freebies here