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Related, but not really:

Use of download links in answers

Ok, now that I've got that out of the way, it was recently posted in the chatroom that folks have a tendency to post answers with links to random blog sites/download sites, and there's no way to make sure that is' really what they're downloading, as opposed to a trojan or something.

What is the best way to handle this? I floated the idea of having a launchpad project just for Ask Ubuntu, and doing file uploads that way, but that could get messy. Ideas?

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  • It's inevitable that people will post links to random downloads. Warnings should always be prefixed with a warning prior to use. Nov 8, 2011 at 21:42

1 Answer 1

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This is a step that involves some extra effort from you but it can help to improve the trust a user has when downloading something.

If you write an answer that links to a file then make sure to also post a MD5 hash of that file so people can check if it is the same file or if it is intact.

When posting a link to an external site I generally also mention where the link will take the user to.

Example:

Read this article on Somesite.com.

There is not much more you can do.

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