[WikiEN-l] Links: a philosophical problem

[Matthew Brown]

On 3/19/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
> So: should we link to a retailer's sales page as a reference for
> (trivial?) information?  Does the presence of a "buy now" link in and
> of itself introduce a problem for the project?

Absolutely, if it's the most reliable source readily available, and
IMO it doesn't introduce a problem for the project.  Quite frequently
sources for commercial products will be commercial sites; most
software and many other products can be purchased from their
producer's sites, for instance.

If one is going to cite a commercial website for such trivial but
likely non-controversial information, and it can't be obtained
directly "from the horse's mouth", Amazon is possibly one of the most
reputable commercial sites for that info.

I'd also say that a worse-quality non-commercial source is not
necessarily preferable.  Given equal quality, I'd prefer the
non-commercial source.

-Matt