On 3/19/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman(a)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