oh gosh, but do i so incredibly want to be wholly invested in a expressing a bit of vehement snarkiness, but i shall refrain.

not being a creator of free content, i've always used links i've found here as a way to marry up things from other sites, for example, re-read IceEmpress's example. off site linking is regularly a circular thing, and not a straight line having an end point. it's a huge loop traversing from one place to the next, hunting down the next inspiration, and in its own right, can be exceptionally fun to explore and wander through it all, and then coming back to the origin of source and buying whatever might be required to further the inspiring item so an image can happen.

sadly, i'm not terribly surprised by this rule, or frankly, anything else that feels as if it is imposed by staff rather than desired by 'community'. [insert silent snarky thought here]