I am not very old here but I have read that the forum was once hacked and the data in the base leaked. I suspect that it is the reason some functions were disabled in the forum. Before now there is an option for external links to open in new window.
But if that practice continues, theymos thinks that routing this forum content directing to another url could be detrimental.
There was when I found it difficult to bear. But anything to keep our honorable forum alive and functional is worth it.
Where I see a link I want to click, I'll simply copy the link and paste in a new tab. I think that solves the problem within the short time.
This reminds me of one of the main reasons the air navigation system remains a system designed 50 years ago, with some updates over time.
It may seem strange, but it is by keeping a simple and unusual system that it manages to be a safer system with less chance of being hacked. So they just make the updates that are strictly necessary for everything to work with the new technologies that are emerging in aviation. But the base system is the same, no big extras.
It is better to have an older and more secure system than to have something very modern and more likely to be hacked.