[WikiEN-l] A war on external links? Was: Inside Higher Ed: Does Wikipedia Suck?

[Fred Bauder]

> On 30 March 2010 12:49, Charles Matthews
> <charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>> Carcharoth wrote:
>
>>> That probably misses the flux. How many links are added and then
>>> almost immediately removed? That won't be picked up in something like
>>> that, I don't think.
>
>> Anyway, the point is not that external links are systematically
>> persecuted (they may be patchily persecuted); but that they now have
>> few
>> actual rights.
>
>
> I'm not at all convinced there's an actual problem here.
>
> Prospective useful links and references can (and should) go on the talk
> page.
>
>
> - d.

Yes, that disposes of them. The point is to have external links and
further reading available to users of the reference at the foot of the
article. The consensus to routinely remove such material arose a few
years ago and it diminishes the utility of Wikipedia as a reference work.

Fred Bauder