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

[Matt Jacobs]

> Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:49:26 +0100
> From: Charles Matthews <charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] A war on external links? Was: Inside Higher
>        Ed: Does Wikipedia Suck?
> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>
>
> 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.
>
> Charles
>

And why should links have any particular "rights"?  External links should be
justified in the same way as any addition to the article.  They may not
require the same verifiability standards, but they should be judged to be a
recommended place for further reading.  In some way or another, they should
add content the editors judge to be useful, and not simply be about the
subject.  Considering that for every good link I've seen inserted, I've also
seen one that was useless or even misleading or libelous, why would they
need any special protection?

I see no reason why we need additional policy and bureaucracy specifically
for links.

Sxeptomaniac