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

[George Herbert]

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 6:10 AM, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>> 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

I don't think there's such a consensus, site wide.  I have seen
articles where someone OWNs it and there is a local consensus.

Keep in mind that we risk ending up with our articles web link farms
which is are not maintained in any consistent manner.

I support good links, and add them.  But there's a downside there too.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com