Are link-only answers acceptable here?

Question

Should we accept answers which only provide third-party link and the author claims it to contain the answers?

Answer 1

No, they are not acceptable on this site or any SE site. They should be:

• downvoted
• flagged as it is not an answer
• elected for recommend delete or delete, when presented in the review queue
• commented with While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. if one doesn't exists. This template is however provide by the system to be automatically inserted if visit through the review queue.

Why?

• answer which contain link to the answer, if faced with link rot are rendered useless
• visit this link (would y'all make an exception on this ? ^_:P)