I almost always comment about it when I see posts that only provide a screenshot, but I haven't noticed these comments disappearing. They could have disappeared and I just don't know about it, but I fail to understand why posts requesting links rather than screenshots would be censored, if that has happened.
We should all comment against screenshots without links.
You were called a moron by the OP who started the thread using a screenshot instead of a link. And I guess other users who like to start threads using screenshots agreed with that OP and downvoted your perfectly polite and reasonable comment. It's strange that some OPs barely write comments and just start thread after thread.
You should ignore the rude screenshot-loving moron who called you a moron for no reason, and the few others who downvoted you. I can't see any reasonable pede preferring to have a headline screenshot, and have to go look up the article for more details, rather than being provided with a link to a full article, especially in the age of clickbait headlines.
If OP's would rather their post title link to a screenshot instead of to the source article, they can at least provide the article URL in the comment they can post under the thread title.
Sure, we all know how to look up stuff using search engines, but WHY would OPs make thousands of people go to a search engine, type up a headline or a piece of text (sometimes the screenshot is of a specific part of an article and we don't even know where the text is from) to find an article that OP already had the URL of, and could easily have done us the favor of providing?
I can't see a reason for OPs not providing a link, unless for a really petty one. All I can come up with is that, since threads rise to the top page when the post is highly upvoted and has many comments, OPs want to keep users from leaving their threads in hopes that people won't forget to upvote and will comment, while if people go read a full article on another website, they might not come back to the thread to comment and/or upvote.
It sounds pretty stupid, but I can't think of any non-petty/stupid reason for any OP not to provide a link to the source of the screenshot they use when starting a thread.
Even if they found the screenshot somewhere else instead of taking it themselves, OPs could look up the source of the screenshot and headline before starting a thread here, so that, even if their thread title links to the screenshot, they can add the link to the source in the complementary comments of the post they submit.
I can't make anyone do anything, but IMHO, I consider it to be impolite for anyone to start a thread that has an online source by providing only a screenshot that offer no details. Personally, I won't upvote a thread started with only a screenshot, and I usually politely comment about how much better than a screenshot a link is, and I add to my comment the link to the article not offered by the OP.
When you start a thread here, if you choose to submit a "link post," a thumbnail of the top image of the webpage usually appears by the post title, but I noticed that sometimes there is no thumbnail when the post is started with a link, which probably happens when the article has no image files or, maybe, when it uses a hotlink to display an image.
A post linked to an archive.is page should also display at least a thumbnail image here too.
Doesn't appear that I can DM/PM here but some to r/thingsandstuff (on reddit), go to the most recent post and I'll send you the info on why that happens.
That's strange.
I almost always comment about it when I see posts that only provide a screenshot, but I haven't noticed these comments disappearing. They could have disappeared and I just don't know about it, but I fail to understand why posts requesting links rather than screenshots would be censored, if that has happened.
We should all comment against screenshots without links.
I did so earlier tonight, and got called a moron.
You were called a moron by the OP who started the thread using a screenshot instead of a link. And I guess other users who like to start threads using screenshots agreed with that OP and downvoted your perfectly polite and reasonable comment. It's strange that some OPs barely write comments and just start thread after thread.
You should ignore the rude screenshot-loving moron who called you a moron for no reason, and the few others who downvoted you. I can't see any reasonable pede preferring to have a headline screenshot, and have to go look up the article for more details, rather than being provided with a link to a full article, especially in the age of clickbait headlines.
If OP's would rather their post title link to a screenshot instead of to the source article, they can at least provide the article URL in the comment they can post under the thread title.
Sure, we all know how to look up stuff using search engines, but WHY would OPs make thousands of people go to a search engine, type up a headline or a piece of text (sometimes the screenshot is of a specific part of an article and we don't even know where the text is from) to find an article that OP already had the URL of, and could easily have done us the favor of providing?
I can't see a reason for OPs not providing a link, unless for a really petty one. All I can come up with is that, since threads rise to the top page when the post is highly upvoted and has many comments, OPs want to keep users from leaving their threads in hopes that people won't forget to upvote and will comment, while if people go read a full article on another website, they might not come back to the thread to comment and/or upvote.
It sounds pretty stupid, but I can't think of any non-petty/stupid reason for any OP not to provide a link to the source of the screenshot they use when starting a thread. Even if they found the screenshot somewhere else instead of taking it themselves, OPs could look up the source of the screenshot and headline before starting a thread here, so that, even if their thread title links to the screenshot, they can add the link to the source in the complementary comments of the post they submit.
I can't make anyone do anything, but IMHO, I consider it to be impolite for anyone to start a thread that has an online source by providing only a screenshot that offer no details. Personally, I won't upvote a thread started with only a screenshot, and I usually politely comment about how much better than a screenshot a link is, and I add to my comment the link to the article not offered by the OP.
Back on Reddit, with the Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES), you could easily get both.
When you archive an article on archive.is, it captures the article and generates a "screenshot" of the first part of the article.
If you linked to the archive, RES would display the screenshot for you. No need to click through to the article unless you wanted to read all of it.
When you start a thread here, if you choose to submit a "link post," a thumbnail of the top image of the webpage usually appears by the post title, but I noticed that sometimes there is no thumbnail when the post is started with a link, which probably happens when the article has no image files or, maybe, when it uses a hotlink to display an image.
A post linked to an archive.is page should also display at least a thumbnail image here too.
Doesn't appear that I can DM/PM here but some to r/thingsandstuff (on reddit), go to the most recent post and I'll send you the info on why that happens.
I sent you a DM. Just reply.