What should or should not be linked?
--------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now
|From: Bridget [name omitted for privacy reasons] lapollutionestsimauvaise@yahoo.com |Sender: wikipedia-l-admin@wikipedia.org |Reply-To: wikipedia-l@wikipedia.org |Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 22:45:39 -0800 (PST) | |--0-569529178-1038206739=:14419 |Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii | |What should or should not be linked? |
A start.
Should be linked:
-- birth and death dates -- major connections with the subject of the article, that is, if it's an article about, say, B. B. King, there should be links on -- [[blues]], [[guitar]], and [[singer]] -- significant names mentioned in the article, defining significant to mean people who deserve an article. Opening for the [[Rolling Stones]] had a big effect on B.B. King's career, but that doesn't mean B.B.'s bass player should get a link. -- Anything you think there *should* be an article about. Linking gets it on the Most Wanted list.
Should not be linked:
-- dates of marriage, book publication, and other dates between the big two unless they bear some kind of significant connection with the date. That Charles Reich's "Greening of America" was published in [[1970]] is significant because it was a zeitgeist book. -- Every song on a record album. "[[Helter Skelter]]" deserves an article, "Back in the U.S.S.R." doesn't. -- Likewise, every book and short story by an author, unless you're prepared to back it up by writing all the articles, as some Robert Heinlein enthusiast did. Otherwise, leave the various works unlinked until you get around to writing an article.
Tom Parmenter Ortolan88
Tom Parmenter wrote:
A start.
Should be linked:
-- birth and death dates -- major connections with the subject of the article, that is, if it's an article about, say, B. B. King, there should be links on -- [[blues]], [[guitar]], and [[singer]] -- significant names mentioned in the article, defining significant to mean people who deserve an article. Opening for the [[Rolling Stones]] had a big effect on B.B. King's career, but that doesn't mean B.B.'s bass player should get a link. -- Anything you think there *should* be an article about. Linking gets it on the Most Wanted list.
Should not be linked:
-- dates of marriage, book publication, and other dates between the big two unless they bear some kind of significant connection with the date. That Charles Reich's "Greening of America" was published in [[1970]] is significant because it was a zeitgeist book. -- Every song on a record album. "[[Helter Skelter]]" deserves an article, "Back in the U.S.S.R." doesn't. -- Likewise, every book and short story by an author, unless you're prepared to back it up by writing all the articles, as some Robert Heinlein enthusiast did. Otherwise, leave the various works unlinked until you get around to writing an article.
Although I would disagree in a few of the details, I think this list is a good starting rule of thumb. I would add to the should not be linked list:
-- up-links that are not germane to the article. Thus, a link in saying that B. B. King was born in the [[United States]] is not helpful because the reader is not likely to be interested at this time in a general discussion about the United States. Another way of saying this might be "Avoid uplinking to an article where you would not reasonably expect a down link back.
Eclecticology
Ray Saintonge wrote:
-- up-links that are not germane to the article. Thus, a link in saying that B. B. King was born in the [[United States]] is not helpful because the reader is not likely to be interested at this time in a general discussion about the United States. Another way of saying this might be "Avoid uplinking to an article where you would not reasonably expect a down link back.
I disagree -- the reader may think "what and where is the United States?" The same applies for any other country of birth.
wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org