Comes to the same thing; adding links to no producers of something is
admittedly not useful; adding links to a few pushy one is certainly
not much more useful and arguably less because it makes us look like
an advertising medium; adding links to all is usually not practical;
adding links to all those over a certain threshold--that is what is
most useful. And that's what I mean by fair. The problems are where to
set the bar & how to gather the information. ~~~~
On 6/11/07, Mark Gallagher <m.g.gallagher(a)student.canberra.edu.au> wrote:
G'day David,
One problem with commercial links is fairness: do
we list those of the
producers who have articles on WP, those who we think major in some
other manner, all the ones we can find, or all the ones who insert
themselves? I don't have the answer to this--I'm asking in the hope of
some rational basis for deciding. (I've been trying to maintain the
e-book pages and related pages, and there is a continual barrage of
links to both companies who are new to the field and not yet notable,
and to those who are not really in the same ballpark at all.)
Fairness is not an issue. Everything on Wikipedia is (or should be)
intended to increase the quality of our articles, including the external
links. The only metric --- the *only* metric --- to worry about is, "Is
this article better now that it has this link in it?"
If the answer is yes, then no worries. If the answer is no, get rid of
it. If the site owner then says, "That's not fair", then turn the air
blue with cussing.
It's that simple.
Cheers,
--
Mark Gallagher
"'Yes, sir,' said Jeeves in a low, cold voice, as if he had been bitten
in the leg by a personal friend."
- P G Wodehouse, /Carry On, Jeeves/
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