[WikiEN-l] SEO

[William Pietri]

K P wrote:
> Good, the journals now take my being shot down for trying to stop them
> for spamming Wikipedia as an open invitation to add any academic
> journals and books to all articles all over Wikipedia.

I too appreciate anti-spam work and encourage you not to get worn down. 
Thanks for your efforts!

Let me tell you about meeting a Wikipedia spammer in person.

Last year I was doing a little work for a 25-person company. When I went 
to look something up on Wikipedia from one of their computers, I saw the 
new messages box, and clicked through to an IP userpage with a fresh new 
spam warning. When I looked at the contribution log, the warning was 
entirely justified! Somebody in the company had added links to perhaps a 
dozen Wikipedia articles, links that I saw as clearly promotional.

Naturally, I almost blew a gasket. I tried to play it cool, but I was 
visibly angry when I went office to office trying to find the culprit. 
When I eventually collared the guy -- let's call him John -- it was 
clear that he was clueless. John was a low-level marketing employee who 
was looking something up on Wikipedia. He saw some articles where they 
company's published material related. And heck, there were only three 
external links: plenty of room for more. So John just popped his 
company's links in.

You and I know that's the road to hell, of course. Meaning well is no 
excuse. But when dealing with them, it does keep my blood pressure lower 
to imagine that most of Wikipedia's spammers are like that: clueless but 
well-intentioned.

William


-- 
William Pietri <william at scissor.com>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:William_Pietri