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Unless you're asking someone to transcribe a URL from somewhere it cannot simply be clicked on or copy-and-pasted, these URL redirection services do nothing worthwhile. A BBS is not such an environment. They only serve to deny people the ability to see where a link is going before clicking on it, which makes them nothing more than a security hazard.

LMGTFY is even more useless. It only exists to let people be passive-aggressive jerks, and does nothing worthwhile that cannot be done better with a direct link to the website you are saying is so easy to find - or at worst, a link to the google search in question.

There is plenty of link checking services avalable of you don't trust the link, for example http://checkshorturl.com . Short links do keep things tidy when the link is long, and some places, for example YouTube, provide short links direct to content.

Yes, it makes much more sense for the poster to go through the hassle of shortening the URL using a third party website, and then for every reader to go through the hassle of checking it on another third party website before clicking it, than for the poster simply using the in-built forum tags to shorten the link text.

Why can't people learn how to use the [url thing?