On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 6:10 AM, Fred Bauder fredbaud@fairpoint.net wrote:
Yes, that disposes of them. The point is to have external links and further reading available to users of the reference at the foot of the article. The consensus to routinely remove such material arose a few years ago and it diminishes the utility of Wikipedia as a reference work.
Fred Bauder
I don't think there's such a consensus, site wide. I have seen articles where someone OWNs it and there is a local consensus.
Keep in mind that we risk ending up with our articles web link farms which is are not maintained in any consistent manner.
I support good links, and add them. But there's a downside there too.
-george william herbert george.herbert@gmail.com
External links and further reading are content like any other content. They require maintenance and sound judgment. What I object to is the meataxe approach to editing with respect to external links and further reading as well as article content. We all understand the problem when it's done with article content.
Fred Bauder