I see pretty frequently here, (and on no other forums btw), people make a link by including only the central portion of a phrase instead of the entire phrase, as seen in this example.
Why is this done?
Because we can.
Cause GILD is a trendsetter.
because it looks better and is funny and idk 
It’s a rather hapless method of linking. You don’t have to be careful if you are willing to do it that way.
I don’t buy it: if using the feature provided by this forum’s software you can push this button to post a link , and after you paste the URL you can simply type in the text you want people to click on for the link. You actually have to work harder to make it like my example above, not hapless at all.
So far ħǻřрέŗ has given the most useful answer, (and every time I see this version of Harper’s name it makes me think of this guy)
Every time I see a post by ħǻřрέŗ I think of him like regular Harper, but with an evil goatee, like Spock from the mirror universe.
I always write first my text and than mark what i want to have be linked, it´s easier that way i think 
I suspect there are at least three, (and likely more), versions of Harper in these forums. How do we know which is the “regular” one?
Thats news to me Fun
ffs.
like seriously, stop asking questions about pointless stuff on the forums.
A. the link thing because we can, and it obviously shows the link.
B. the harper thing. His real account is harper, deal with it. they’re all real.
Wait! What does ffs mean?
I know I could google it, but how would I know which of the about 9,070,000 results for ffs you intended?
{EDIT: forgot to add…I’m still looking to see if there are other answers to my original question besides the “we can” variety and the “it looks cool” variety}
it means - for f**ks sake.
Oh. Thanks for the definition. Are you the guy that got banned?
I’m going to have to agree with evil Harper.
Haha.
i do believe so.
but how i was banned is unrelated (in my opinion) to swearing.
plus, all i did was us the acronym FFS, kinda like OMFG, or WTF. i mean come on, and then he asked for a definiton and i defined it.
Thats all there is to it. I saw Gild just using parts of a word or phrase, and I liked it, so when I want to link something I just highlight part of the phrase, usually without paying attention. But thats all there is to it, just for fun, cause we can, and cause GILD is a trendsetter.
People being sloppy. Whether typing in the URL tags by hand in your reply, or using the handy buttons, if you “miss” the spot you would normally start, the link still works so why bother?
Same reason works for people who don’t bother to spell or ever touch the Shift key while writing here…
I wouldnt call it sloppy. The people doing it, as far as I know, are meaning to do it. Specially seeing how almost all browsers, when you are highlighting a word, will automatically highlight the full word for you. So there is some focus put into to make sure you are only highlighting 4 out of 6 letters in the words and linking to that.
Okay, you get a break since you’re a forum n00b.
Rather than getting a harsh razzing, I’ll fill you in on the details.
It was started by the venerable GILD as a way to make links more interesting and fun.
It’s has nothing to do with sloppiness.