Geoff Burling wrote:
Or, to put it another way, is deleting external links that one doesn't like similar to deleting material in the Talk: pages one doesn't like?
I have no firm position on what external link requirements we should have, nor can I say exactly what deleting external links _is_ like, but I think it's safe to say that external links at the bottom of an article are part of the article, and deleting them is not like deleting material from a Talk: page.
I suspect that we could flesh it out a lot better than I'm about to say it, but isn't a link just a proposition like any other? It can be disclaimed like any other, it can be irrelevant like any other, it can be removed or added like any other.
Some links we should have, but disclaim. Some links we should not have, if for no other reason than sheer irrelevancy to the topic at hand. Some links we should have, and no special disclaiming other than 'link to external site' is necessary.
I'd say that in the example you gave, it's perfectly legitimate to remove the link, and a perfectly legitimate reason is "the site sucks" or "the link is irrelevant to this page".
--Jimbo