Do external links affect your interest in resources?

[Tsukihime]

All of my plugins that I release are posted to my website, which I re-post here by putting the intro description, followed by a link to "more info and downloads".


This is so that I don't need to maintain multiple copies of it if I decide to update it.


There are other creators that re-post the entire thing.


I am interested in whether having external links has an affect on your interest in the resources.

 

[bgillisp]

I'd say it depends on who is posting the resource with the extra links. If it is a well known person on the forums, then sure I'll check it out. But if it is someone I have no clue who they are and where that link might go, then I'll stay away for fear of it being malware or spam.

 

[Zalerinian]

I honestly don't find it a big deal. If you're too lazy to follow a link to something that interests you, then its your loss.

 

[Silent Darkness]

Personally, I find external links to be somewhat of a chore, but if I want it badly enough, i'll put up with it.

 

[Tsukihime]

I honestly don't find it a big deal. If you're too lazy to follow a link to something that interests you, then its your loss.

On the other hand, if you could get more people looking at your stuff because it was more convenient, that may be something to take into consideration for creators.

 

[Milennin]

It doesn't matter too much to me. If I need or want something, I'll be willing to give it a few extra clicks.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

While having the download here is certainly more convenient, ultimately it doesn't really nuisance me to go to an external site. If I need something I will get it. When it comes to downloading resources my number one priority is and always will be that the credits and terms are made very, very clear. 

 

[Zalerinian]

On the other hand, if you could get more people looking at your stuff because it was more convenient, that may be something to take into consideration for creators.

I suppose it might be, but you also have to take yourself into consideration. Like you said, you like keeping everything in one place so that you can easily manage everything. While I agree that more exposure can be good, there has to be a line between making others happy, and making yourself happy. And let's be real here, how hard is it to follow a link? If the user reads the description and thinks "Huh, I could use this in my game", then they'll want to follow the link for more information. If they don't find it too useful to them, then you didn't lose anything.

 

[Kes]

It does depend on what the resource is.  If it is a script/plug in, then I would expect to be directed somewhere else quite often, as keeping all versions up to date is a chore.  Other resources e.g. graphics, I expect to see what it is there in the post.

 

[Badhabits]

It really depends on the presentation of the post. If you give a description a picture and some good formatting it lets people know you take pride in what you do. If your asking for yourself personally I wouldn't be worried Tsukihime about you posts. I was new to this forum and your posts had enough information and presentation that merited clicking on your links. With the rich content and information about that plugin on your website its understandable why you would link to it.

 

[Nebuerys]

I refuse to click extra links and will find an alternative that will make it easy to download

Clicking a few more times is actually less of a hassle than trying to find an alternative. Also, I accidentally voted for this, so -1 on that.

Anyway, it's understandable that updating resources can be troublesome so I don't mind clicking links that lead to the creator's official website, or here for example, so long as it's a site that I trust and it links me directly to the page without any shady detours. Ultimately, it's not about the hassle but the security.

 

[Demimura]

Doesn't matter to me on the receiving end, but if im giving out resources, even if i have a site, i'd still make i convenient and post the resource and the link to the site, so if people like it they can goto the site for more. Win-Win