It is connected. It used to be that it was good advice to avoid linking out because it could very easily affect ranking negatively, or at least give competitor

It is connected. It used to be that it was good advice to avoid linking out because it could very easily affect ranking negatively, or at least give competitors (either real or imaginary) an advantage. ... and the advice was also that if you did link you should add sone attribute to tell Google you didn't endorse the site. This was a good idea for comment fields but I think it became more of a general gospel in SEO circles. Personally I don't care about Google anymore. I link to whatever I want. Wish more people would do the same instead of "building an audience".