This is not a website that you run, so I think for now it's safe to say that we don't know what the actual common behavior is. There are dozens of saves with links in them, and I know I personally click them (and I don't click ads in web sites - to me these behaviors do not appear to be related), so in my experience, it is useful. Do you have any thoughts about the particle itself?
@mniip: I mentioned this in the original post. LINKs cannot send or receive sparks to or from any other element type -- precisely to avoid that possibility. =)
I wrote: "The reason for the strict spark behavior is to prevent automated, spammy popups. The idea is you have to click the particle manually."