I think people (inc. AMs) should be gently informed that linking should be done when it makes sense, not with total abandon. I don't think it should be made a rule, because it's more than a little subjective to term a link random, useless, or ineffective.

Add the guidelines to a FAQ or to the info page for newbies...you probably only need two guidelines - 1) make sure your link returns some information, and 2) useful, perl-related information is preferable to unrelated information.

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