2007/4/23, SJ Klein meta.sj@gmail.com:
and I hate to say it, but my personal view is that adwords would likely be more useful and relevant to many readers than the external links sections on many of enwiki's articles.
I'm awfully sorry you feel this way, Greg. I don't think this is anywhere near the truth, myself. Even in those rare cases where your comment here is appropriate, the nice thing about external links sections is that they improve over time, eventually becoming brilliant; when you see an ad, you can remove it.
Well, I tested it, doing a 'Random page' several times, and checking the first 10 that had external links. They were all checked in intervals of three months
1. [[John Addey]]
October 2005: Three links, two advertizing, one non-advertizing but irrelevant. Apparently added by someone who did not know how to link externally January 2006, April 2006, July 2006, October 2006, January 2007: no change now: Same links, but as proper external links.
Conclusion: Advertisement, not changing over time
2. [[Kay Hammond (American actress)]]
now: One link to IMDB
Conclusion: No advertisement, too young to talk about time difference
3. [[Goldeen]]
October 2006: 7 links. 6 seemed ok, the seventh one doesn't load January 2007, now: no change
Conclusion: No advertisement but probably over-linked. Not changing over time.
4. [[Brewer's Blackbird]]
January 2004: No links upto July 2005: No change October 2005: One link, mildly advertising January 2006: Link removed as 'linkspam' upto October 2006: No change January 2007: 3 non-advertising links Now: No change
Conclusion: Managed without links quite long, but the ones that are there now are fine. Advertising control has been done, although probably only because the advertiser was overdoing it.
5. [[Darrick Martin]]
April 2006: Two links, not advertising (although commercial websites) July 2006: No change October 2006: One added link, not advertising (but overlap with existing links) January 2007, now: No change
Conclusion: Ok
6. [[Wanderer (sailing dinghy)]]
January 2006: Two links, one of them advertisement April, July, October 2006, July 2007: No change Now: One added link, advertisement
Conclusion: Advertisement link stays on for a long time - so long that apparently the only one who noticed that there was one was a competitor who reacted by adding their own link as well.
7. [[Bommenede]] October 2006: One link, non-advertisement January 2007, now: No change
8. [[Dens (anatomy)]] October 2006: 5 links, non-advertisement January 2007, now: No change
9. [[Isihia]] July 2006: 1 link, non-advertisement October 2006, January 2007, now: No change
10. [[Cathedral and John Connon School]] October 2005: 1 link, non-advertisement January 2006: No change April 2006: 2 more links, non-advertisement July 2006: 1 more link, non-advertisement (but not very good link either) October 2006, January 2007, now: No change
On the good side of things, there seem to be not very much advertisement. Out of 31 links on these articles, 5 were advertisements.
On the bad side of things, of the 5 advertisements only 1 got deleted. I doubt whether they were ever actually checked on being non-advertising and relevant. The one that did get deleted was the least blatant advertising, but got deleted because the site was being spammed. Apparently it is allowed to advertize on one or two Wikipedia pages, but not to do it on 100.
Finally, none of these subjects seem to be among subjects likely to get advertisements - only [[Wanderer (sailing dinghy)]] is about something that can be sold.