On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Dan Miller wrote:
It's another thing to have a link or entry that does nothing more than promote the business. I removed an external link to a listing of a local chain of restaurants for that reason. From your description, Nunh-huh is doing nothing more than providing free advertising.
Geoff
I disagree. Imagine [[Las Vegas]] without mentioning the MGM Grand, or [[Chicago]] without mentioning Wrigley Field. Private enterprises compose an essential part of the character of many places, and avoiding them emasculates the articles.
Well, those fall into the first category: they have cultural or social value. I cited as an example of such a case Powell's Books in Portland.
What I'm against is (for example) listing all of local coffee shops for Eugene, Oregon, with nothing more than addresses and business hours. Not only does something like that erode our non-profit status, it leads into a tangle that can only end in frustration -- e.g., someone sees her/his favorite coffee shop is left out for reasons she/he refuses to accept, & ends up suing Wikipedia because by listing said business Wikipedia is implicitly not recommending this vendor.
It's a fine line, but a clear line. And it's another issue I'll probably lose, as I did concerning schools.
Geoff