Archie Arcane

John Reynolds Gardiner

Hi Archie Arcane. I noticed your recent addition to this article and have removed the external links you added. Please read this guidance, which says that such links are not to be placed in the body text, although some could be used as citations. In particular we don't use links to IMDb, for reasons explained at WT:WikiProject Film/Archive 79#Masking imdb links as wikilinks. Regards. Mike Turnbull (talk) 14:42, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

As an aside, can you tell me exactly where you learned that the use of links like Stone Fox would work? Those of us who tidy up such links or convert them to templates would like to know if there is some Help page or similar that's giving misleading advice when better methods exist. Thanks. Mike Turnbull (talk) 14:39, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

I did not learn or know that the way I linked the article about the TV movie Stone Fox would mark it as an internal link rather than an external one as it should be. I have mostly been referencing this page since beginning some contributions: Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia. I am still not entirely familiar witht the ins-and-outs of standard protocol and generally accepted formatting beyond standard conventions. I will subsequently refrain from linking in articles and stick to minor edits regarding formatting such as italicization, capitalization, and the like. That will be my MO until I am better acquainted with proper principles of practice. Archie Arcane (talk) 15:16, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

I apologize for misunderstanding, as while an infrequent user of Wikipedia for the past few years, I have only recently become a user and begun to contribute. I understood that IMDb is not generally a trusted source of information or citation due to its nature as an aggregate user community as well, but have noted it often being used under external links at the bottom of pages for most films. I am unclear on how to create the template or section for that to place it as it should be, so I will search for the Help pages or articles about that to rectify and keep in mind for future reference. Archie Arcane (talk) 15:08, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

It is perfectly valid to use IMDb external links and although it is not a completely reliable source it is (externally) linked in thousands of movie/actor articles. My question is more to do with the technicalities. Did you just guess that the wikitext [[imdbtitle:0094043|Stone Fox]] would render as Stone Fox? That would be a remarkable guess without knowing the intricacies of how wikis work. Maybe you had experience from other wikis? Please give me the details! Mike Turnbull (talk) 15:45, 14 June 2023 (UTC)