On 9/3/07, Durova nadezhda.durova@gmail.com wrote:
Where were you shot down for trying to stop journals from spamming? Although actual referencing is welcome, spam is still spam. I favor a softer approach with this sort of poster because there's a better possibility that the individual will become a useful contributor, but I also recall a deliberate and rather baldfaced campaign by one university library to boost its site traffic by adding low quality links to Wikipedia articles.
-Durova
Citation? I'm curious about the campaign you mention... Adding links to relevant online library collections in appropriate articles is something I've advocated for in the past; certainly having links to good resources (which libraries often provide) is good for Wikipedia. And while I do appreciate KP's de-spamming efforts, the "further reading" section has a place.... providing a list of academic journals on a topic as broad as "food safety" doesn't seem unreasonable. The contributor's actions seemed confused, but not necessarily like true spam. A new contributor wouldn't really know about the discussions that happen elsewhere, would they?
-- phoebe