Website Linking Policy

Springfied-MA.Gov links to website content that provides information and tools to help citizens, businesses and other City of Springfield, Mass. stakeholders.  Our linking policy is modeled after standards set out by the Commonwealth web portal Mass.Gov, and applies to all other web site domains owned and maintained by the City of Springfield, Mass. including SpringfieldCityHall.com, CityofSpringfieldMass.com and others. Links will go directly to the most relevant pages, not necessarily to organizational home pages.

General Policy

At our discretion, we may link to websites that:

• Are official federal, state or local government-owned or supported or provide official government information or services;
•  Are accessible to users with disabilities;
•  Are applicable to a wide audience of local citizens and state agencies;
•  Contain current, accurate, and authoritative content;
•  Are easy to navigate;

We will not link to websites that:

• Handle the privacy of personal information in a way that is inconsistent with the City’s privacy policy.
• Are associated with political or advocacy groups for a political party, organization, or candidate running for office;
• Promote or exhibit hate, bias, discrimination, pornography; libelous or otherwise defamatory content;
• Promote any religion or religious viewpoint;
• Are individual or personal home pages.

Links to Government Websites

Springfield-MA.Gov can add a link to any government website that is publicly available unless directed not to by the agency that owns the site. Acceptable federal government-owned or state government-sponsored website domains include .gov, .mil, .fed.us, and state.xx.us.

Springfield-MA.Gov also links to quasi-government agencies and websites created by public sector/private sector partnerships; state and local government sites; and some government-sponsored websites that end in .com, .org, or .net (like SpringfieldCityHall.com).

Links to Non-Government Websites

In rare instances, Springfield-MA.Gov links to websites that are not government-owned or government-sponsored if these websites provide government information and/or services in a way that is not available on an official government website. Springfield-MA.Gov provides these non-government websites as a public service only. (See Terms of Use for more information on this topic.)