Moved here from the inalienable thread. - melbo No, I think that's automated forum linking of some kind. @melbo could possibly explain more.
I tapped it and ended up on my Amazon account.... not sure what was going on but think B is right and it is an advertising quick link of some form....
Maybe there should be an Amazon thread and lift this stuff off of RH's thread....to not digress from a great topic... YMMV
@ghrit is correct, we're testing a system that automatically converts links into the SM Amazon (and other) affiliate links which make us a few dollars. The system seems to have been a little too aggressive and was trying to create links from words rather than just from URLs. I used to periodically go through and manually change Amazon links to the SM ones and this system _should_ take care of it automatically.
In this situation, the Fix was simple, just Capitalized the "H" in Righthand, to make it "RightHand" and that cured the issue....
And I thought my browser was infected. I have purged, deleted, anti-malwared,CC cleaned, troubleshot, and defragged. (All because I thought the problem was mine) Gee, thanks for the heads up, I mean I have been spotting and commenting on unintended links for a while now.
Your observations and efforts are appreciated. Small comfort, I know, but the question was taken seriously. (And, you have a clean machine now.)
No, I have a machine on the brink of death, with a lot of effort put into the wrong direction of repair. My next step was to fold, spindle, and mutilate.
Sorry Kell - It's been almost 2 months and I just received the first comment a couple of days ago. What the system was suppose to do is find any links to Amazon, etc. and add the special affiliate code to the url so that if someone clicks the link and makes apurchase, we make 4-5% of the sale as a commission. I'm constantly trying to find ways to support the site without showing ads to our members- just to guests. I found the setting and have disabled the function that would create affiliate links from words. That should solve our problems for now. I suppose I could also just configure this to display these links only to guests, who wouldn't know the difference either way.
If I were more computer literate than I am, this stuff would be much simpler, but we play the hand we are dealt. I am still fighting other issues, but at least I no longer have to worry about possibly infecting the site in some way. I can now ignore them, now that I now know they are not caused by me.