What specifically makes an external URL an "inappropriate link" per TOS

You are referring to Apple Support Communities Use Agreement - Apple Community

Links to non-Apple products are allowed but not endorsed by Apple

A. General

6.Some Submissions may contain information about products not manufactured by Apple or links to independent websites not controlled or tested by Apple. Information about non-Apple Products or links to non-Apple websites are provided without recommendation or endorsement by Apple. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the selection, performance, or use of third-party websites or products. Apple makes no representations regarding third-party website accuracy or reliability. Apple may remove links to third-party websites containing information about products or instructions that could damage a user’s device, create a potential safety risk, or invalidate Apple’s limited warranty.

The section regarding links to external sites (B6) is very clear on what is not allowed in submissions. This would be a posting of a link which is an advertisement or which may result in personal gain:

B. Submissions

4.Do not post polls or petitions or links to the same.

6.No advertising. Do not use the Site to sell or market products or services to others and do not post a URL unless it directly answers a user’s question. For the avoidance of doubt, the following are not permitted on the Site:

1. 1. A Submission created solely to advertise a book, service, software or another item or product for sale.
   2. Any reference, including a link, to a commercial product or service that is not directly related to a relevant technical support question or answer. For example: "This post created by Super Post Creator."
   3. Links to personal or professional websites or any link that results in any accrual of compensation or benefit to you. However, you may sign your Submissions with information about yourself. An example of an acceptable signature: Justine R., Author, "Apple Lisa Communities: Tips and Tricks"

The moderators can remove or amend posts at their discretion

E.Breach of the Agreement

1. Apple reserves the right to delete any Submission, or take action against any account, at any time, for any reason.

You are asking other end users, not the mods. However, links to repair sites may get edited per the last sentence of ToU section A.6:

Apple may remove links to third-party websites containing information about products or instructions that could damage a user’s device, create a potential safety risk, or invalidate Apple’s limited warranty.

Was the link to a non-Apple repair site?

FishingAddict wrote:

hoping that you all had some advice from past experience.

The easy answer is to not link to 3rd party sites at all. The internet is just chock-full of bad ideas and suggestions. When you link to a page, you are linking to an entire site. Who know what someone is going to find there?

I just had a closer look at the site that I linked to and as far as I can tell the site does not seem to be promoting dangerous software or content. The articles actually look simple and informative. The main articles are viewable without subscription, but the site does seem to push several subscription news products. It does not however directly sell any undesirable products. It also appears to be a long-running site and not AI generated. I also have no connections to the site financially or otherwise (found the article through a DuckDuckGo search).

So what was the site? You can type it corruptly so people can't click on it.

I tried to look through your history. My goodness you've replied to a lot of TikTok posts. Bless you.

However, I didn't see any moderation activity. And I did see at least one link that should have been deleted, but wasn't. Tsk, tsk.

I'll just keep on posting in the Community but try to avoid referencing any sites that are not well-known mainstream tech sites.

The world's changing. The internet just isn't a safe place anymore. I even found a link you posted to another discussion here in the forums that you shouldn't have linked to. Once a thread gets to "honey pot" status (3 pages or more), then anything goes and it will fill up with low quality, often harmful suggestions. Due to the recent new site redesign, once a thread hits 2 pages, any new post you make is likely going to show up on page 2 and never been seen.

Ideally, link only to Apple support articles. You already do this most of the time. Make sure to remove the locale so it appears in the correct language in the user's browser. Don't even link to the Developer site if you can avoid it. Some of that content is not appropriate for this site.

For 3rd party sites, you can virtually always link to 1st party sites like Microsoft.com, adobe.com, etc.

There are a handful of always accepted sites. And in my opinion, some of those shouldn't be there.

Beyond that, there's very little good, original content anymore. Why link to it? Create your own original content instead.

Also be aware that some links posted may be behind a paywall that are visible to you, but not to others. Some sites have free access restrictions that limit the number of stories that can be viewed from the site, so if the user had already reached that limit, they would not be able to view the link without subscribing to the service.

FishingAddict wrote:

The site was iphonelife [dot] com and the article was "How to Add Multiple Gmail Accounts to Your iPhone".

I can't say exactly what set off the moderators there. But I'm sure a similar site from Google itself would have been acceptable.

How are respected technical solutions sites like the StackExchange family -- allowable?

Who says they're respectable? Wildly popular, sure. Most StackOverflow sites would be too technical to be dangerous for most people.

And lastly, what about factual news articles like NYT or WaPo? Clearly, these are needed in a battle such as the current TikTok community takeover.

Factual? Let's just say they're paywalled and that's good enough reason not to link to them. We don't need no political junk here in the forums.