A recent post to the MySpace forum claims that MySpace 'bottom links' —or what are more commonly known in webmaster lingo as 'footer links'— as well as the copyright notice are now mandatory and you run the risk of getting your profile deleted if you are using a layout that hides the display of either of these.

This announcement is a little unusual for at least two reasons:

1) As of this writing, there is still absolutely no mention of this in the official MySpace Terms of Use Agreement and most particularly in section 8 (Content/Activity Prohibited) where it would be most appropriate to disclose this. Nor is there any mention of this on the 'Profile Edit' page where, for years, all of us have plainly seen the "Do not use HTML/CSS to cover MySpace advertisements" advisory.

2) People have been hiding the footer links in their MySpace layouts for years with reportedly (up to now) no problems whatsoever. And people have been using my DIV layouts since November 2006 and no one has ever reported back to me that their profile got deleted on account of having the footer links or the MySpace copyright notice hidden. In fact, I never even would have heard of this 'ruling' had I not happened just out sheer curiosity decided to browse through the MySpace 'Customizing' forum last week.

So make of this what you will.

My personal take on the matter is that people who did get their profiles deleted on account of hidden footer links were also engaging in other prohibited activity which then eventually brought their profiles under suspicion. These people also had their footer links hidden to prevent their profiles from being reported to MySpace via the 'Report Abuse' link in order to conceal and prolong their prohibited activity.

Hence, when MySpace finally caught wind of these illegal profiles, they cited the missing 'Report Abuse' links as part of the reason the profiles were being deleted (apparently some of the profiles were issued warnings before being deleted). I find it hard to believe that any upstanding MySpace user who had the footer links on their profile hidden merely for aesthetic reasons got their profiles deleted solely on account of that.

That's my take on it. But admittedly this is entirely speculation. So make of that what you will.

Notwithstanding, I have decided to abide by this unwritten 'mandatory footer links' rule. All Rob Thunder MySpace DIV layouts have now been updated to comply with this. All those using Rob Thunder MySpace DIV layouts are urged to replace their currently installed layout codes with the updated versions, all of which display the footer links and the MySpace copyright notice.

In the plain black and plain white overlays, the footer links have been reproduced (this is reportedly acceptable) in a vertical column of links running under the subheading MySpace Stuff while the copyright notice appears below that. All users are advised NOT to delete these links (or the copyright notice) or you may apparently run the risk of getting your profile deleted.

ALSO...

PLAIN BLACK AND PLAIN WHITE OVERLAY OVERHAUL

The aforementioned plain black and plain white MySpace overlay codes were completely rewritten to make use of all the new CSS class names MySpace.com has been gradually inserting into the default MySpace HTML code over the past year. These layouts are now much more stable and resistant to the minor tweaks and changes MySpace periodically makes to the default code which can sometimes wreak havoc with MySpace layout codes.

Be advised that these layouts now also contain the Rob Thunder MySpace Overlays corner tag. To get rid of it, you can —for a bit a pocket change— purchase an official lifetime Rob Thunder link removal license.

That's it.

Have a good one!

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