First, the FYOS rule is constantly morphing. It doesn't morph enough to be confusing most of the time, but occasionally it does. Guess where we are right now!

I think the best explanation has to do with the different natures of the comment system and the ads. Ads provide a link, and that's it. Although someone may comment on a new risque ad, it's unlikely there'll be much uptake on the comment thread since the ads are constantly rotating. Persistence of subject matter and all that.

A link in the comment system, however, does provide persistence and we've seen links to sites akin to FHM slide rapidly into nasty chaos. The current policy exists to prevent this; for some reason, intelligent people have a tendency to revert to adolescence when given some impetus, myself included.

This issue certainly isn't over. The FHM campaign will be over sooner rather than later, but even when it's gone we (the mods and myself) are going to have to discuss whether or not to keep the policy the same. With input from the audience, as always.