Maleficant

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Hello, Maleficant, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! Bearian (talk) 17:59, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

Lethbridge and Medicine Hat external links

Hi Maleficant, thank you for the email, much appreciated. I was planning to message you on this later this evening, when I have more available free time, to elaborate on the reverted edits and to open a dialogue. I'll get in touch with you later. Cheers, --Hwy43 (talk) 19:40, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Hello again, I took my queue to revert your edits from those that reverted your previous edit attempts. Admittedly, I am fairly new to Wikipedia and no expert on links that are considered spam. However, I am aware from Wikipedia:Spam#External link spamming that Adding external links to an article or user page for the purpose of promoting a website or a product is not allowed, and is considered to be spam. Notwithstanding the Lethbridge and Medicine Hat online business directories may not be selling anything directly (other than maybe selling advertising space to businesses that want to advertise), it is my interpretation that they are websites that advertise and promote multiple businesses and their products within the respective cities, which would qualify these links as spam.

As for the CrimeStoppers links on each city's articles, I struggle with this one a bit. I've not seen similar links in my Wiki-travels yet. Such links don't seem encyclopedic in my opinion. Instead they seem more public service in nature. I'm not sure what Wikipedia's stance is on that. Per bullet #2 under Wikipedia:Spam#How not to be a spammer, is there a way you can first contribute some facts that you learned from that source, then cite the source?

Per bullet #5 under Wikipedia:Spam#How not to be a spammer, my suggestion is that you engage in a dialogue on the Talk:Lethbridge and Talk:Medicine Hat pages to see if online business directory and CrimeStoppers external links are indeed relevent and not spam. There are a few Wikipedia users that I've found to be especially helpful to me in the past. I will refer them to this topic to add their two cents for the educational benefit of both of us. Perhaps we'll find out my spam interpretation on the business directory links and my gut feel on CrimeStoppers links are incorrect. Cheers, --Hwy43 (talk) 06:06, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

While not necessary spam, the links to online directories are discouraged, as they don't add any meaningful reference. In the external links section, only official sites should be listed (for a city such as Medhat, the official city website and eventually the chamber of commerce website). Anything else may be included as inline reference to support facts stated in the article. See WP:ELNO for what not to include at external links. Thanks. --Qyd (talk) 15:25, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

External links should be to websites that expand on the content of the article on which they appear. The two links that continue to appear on the Lethbridge and Medicine Hat pages do not expand on the content in those articles. Wikipedia is not ODP. --Kmsiever (talk) 16:16, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

I was asked to provide input, so I am. The "Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge" is probably not an appropriate external link, even though I am a fan of the arts, but if you wish to add prose text and add that link as a citation, then that might be appropriate. The other links on the Lethbridge, Alberta and Medicine Hat, Alberta are government sites and the official chamber of commerce websites, all of which are typically allowed on locality articles. Bearian (talk) 17:57, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

I do wish to confirm that directories are almost never appropriate external links. Bearian (talk) 18:01, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

For the record, according to editing logs, the Allied Arts Council link existed prior to Maleficant’s edits. --Kmsiever (talk)

Would the links provided, as Business Directories and Crimestoppers, be applicable to the pages if there was content on the page that was relevant to the city. For instance, "Lethbridge has a large array of Businesses situated throughout the city, and is the host of such dedicated businesses as <Clearly Lethbridge Link> if you are looking for one in specific."? Maleficant (talk) 23:33, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

My interpretation of the policy at WP:ELNO is that these links shouldn't be included, but I wouldn't go as far as saying they're spam, I've seen worse added. 117Avenue (talk) 00:30, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Thank you everyone for the collaboration and confirming that the links are not spam (as I originally interpreted them to be) but instead links normally to be avoided. Can anyone comment on Maleficant's question above? Cheers, --Hwy43 (talk) 06:04, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

No, that would not be appropriate. We are not in the business of looking for ways to advertise sites. We are trying to build articles with cited, supported content. --Kmsiever (talk) 16:35, 11 March 2010 (UTC)