I joined a little while ago, posted one OP, and had it deleted because it contained a link. It was a link to my own pages, going into the case for common descent from endogenous retroviruses, a subject that I have studied extensively. Popping back in, I see that others are posting links to all sorts of pages. Please clarify. What is the policy regarding posting hyperlinks?
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From the FAQ/Guidelines page
Please do not put a link to your own blog or website in the first post in a new thread.
Make the OP “stand alone” is how I think of it. After the first post you can provide a link to your own page if needed.
Thank you for that.
Hi Barry, thanks for asking.
The policy is that opening posts, the first post of a thread need to introduce a clear topic intended to generate discussion here and they should not contain a link your personal blog or website. It is not a perfect policy, but the thought behind it is to avoid the situation where people use this forum as free advertising to promote and direct traffic to their own material. Having that rule significantly cuts down on the number of posts by nutty people who just want everyone who know about their singular view that solves all mysteries.
If you are not a nutty person 
and have content on your website that would enhance a discussion here, you are welcome to post a link to it further down in a thread. (As a reply to the OP, that is.) But the idea is that it should supplement the conversation, not steer people away from the conversation. You are also welcome to start a discussion about an article published by someone else, we just ask that the OP be more than just “here is an interesting link.” It should pull out some quotes, summarize the content, or ask a question so that people could hypothetically comment without reading the whole linked article.
Hope this clarifies a little of the motivation behind things.
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OK. Understood. Thank you for the explanation. I shall be posting a new OP in conformance with this rule.
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