Readers will often ask why a specific referral topic has been closed and if we can reopen it so they can share their referral. The reason we allow referrals is to reward regular readers who provide helpful feedback (which is why you should always take the time to find a link from a reader who provides helpful information).
Over time the number of regular readers sharing their links decreases dramatically and people who break the rules increase dramatically. This means we spend more time moderating these threads and fewer regular readers are sharing their links. To combat that, we usually close comments after a 24-48 hour period, as this allows the largest amount of helpful contributors to share their links and the lowest moderation time.
If each reference thread were left open one of two things would happen:
- Threads would be overloaded with rule breakers, meaning useful contributors would get no referrals defeating the purpose of allowing them in the first place
- I would spend every moment of my life moderating referral threads
Hopefully the introduction of user accounts and their request for referral topics will allow us to keep them open longer, but we will close them again after a period of time.
As a reminder, many regular contributors have links in their username that you can click, so if you don’t see a link from someone you think offers value and you’re looking for a referral, you can always click their name and hopefully find it.
