[WikiEN-l] SEO

[David Goodman]

And there's another group that I find the most difficult--a well
meaning but unsophisticated student who will stat adding links to all
the journals in his subject, or all the  textbooks, or everything
mentioned in his pharmacology book. They can do a great deal of damage
very fast, they get offended if accused of spamming because they see
it as adding good information, and they are after all in good faith
and could become very valuable contributors. I have no tricks to offer
here, except pointing out workgroups to join and articles to work on.

For organizations there is now a very powerful tool we did not have a
few months ago: the amount of publicity that can ensue. They are very
well aware of the wide readership of slashdot. Further, if there is a
public controversy that reaches Reliable Sources about what a
organization is doing, a paragraph can be added to that article. I'd
never threaten that--editing has to be kept free of such feelings, but
i wouldn't hesitate to write such a paragraph if it were a notable
instance but  where I had not been involved.

On 9/3/07, William Pietri <william at scissor.com> wrote:
> 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
>
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-- 
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.