When submitting a laptime or performance figure, please do not copy-paste a "naked link" as reference, without stating the exact magazine issue date, issue number, feature name or TV show episode number.
There is no guarantee that a link will still point to the same scanned picture, online video or publication after 5, 10 or more years. Websites change link structure, some websites disappear, and all URLs have finite lifespan.
What we want are immortal, permanent references. References that do not rely on any websites, and are valid forever.
Links to scanned magazine pages or YouTube videos are very helpful in content validation. But one should always start with some form of permanent reference and append the link as added bonus.
There is, however, one exception to this rule. Sometimes links contain keywords that can serve as permanent reference. For example:
Just by looking at the link segments, we can conclude that this URL points to an article called "The 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder is the quickest road car in the word". Unique article title can be considered permanent reference, because, no matter how Car & Driver website is restructured in future, one will always be able to find this article, by typing in its title in Google search.
