User talk:Ephery/External links

External links refers to two concepts: links to outside of Wikipedia and a section of an article with a small number of links to outside sources. Our focus here is the latter.

What to link to

In Wikipedia, it is possible to link to external websites. Such links are referred to as "external links". Many articles have a small section containing a few external links. There are a few things which should be considered when adding an external link.

• Is it accessible?
• Is it proper (useful, tasteful, etc.)?
• Is it entered correctly?
• Is the link, in the context used, likely to have a substantive longevity? For example, it is not useful to link to a homepage that changes often and merely happens to have a relevant picture or article on its front page at the moment. Similarly, be very wary of citing an unstable page as a source.

What should be linked to

1. Sites that have been used as references in the creation of an article should be linked to in a references section, not in external links. See Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Citing sources. Sources available in both web and print editions should have a citation for the print edition as well as a link.
2. Articles about any organization, person, web site, or other entity should link to the official site if there is one. An article about a book, a musical score, or some other media should link to a site hosting a copy if none of the "Links normally to be avoided" criteria apply.
3. On articles with multiple points of view, a link to prominent sites dedicated to each, with a detailed explanation of each link. The number of links dedicated to one point of view should not overwhelm the number dedicated to any other. One should attempt to add comments to these links informing the reader of their point of view. If one point of view dominates informed opinion, that should be represented first. (For more information, see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view – in particular, Wikipedia's guidelines on undue weight.)
4. Sites that contain neutral and accurate material not already in the article. Ideally this content should be integrated into the Wikipedia article, then the link would remain as a reference, but in some cases this is not possible for copyright reasons or because the site has a level of detail which is inappropriate for the Wikipedia article.
5. Sites with other meaningful, relevant content that is not suitable for inclusion in an article, such as professional athlete statistics, screen credits, interviews, or online textbooks.

Links to be used occasionally

1. For albums, movies, books, and other creative works, one or two links to professional reviews.
2. A web directory category when deemed appropriate by those contributing to an article, with preference to open directories.
3. On articles about topics with many fansites, including a link to one major fansite may be appropriate, marking the link as such. Fanlistings are generally not informative and should not ordinarily be included.
4. Very large pages should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Worldwide, many use Wikipedia with a low-speed connection. Unusually large pages should be annotated as such.
5. Linking to copyrighted works is usually not a problem, as long as you have made a reasonable effort to determine that the page is not violating copyright per contributors' rights and obligations. Knowingly and intentionally directing others to a site that violates copyright has been considered a form of contributory infringement in the United States.

Links normally to be avoided

Except where noted, the below do not override the list of what should be linked to; for example, if the subject of an article has an official website, then it should be linked to even if it contains factually inaccurate material.

1. Any site that does not provide a unique resource beyond what the article here would have once it becomes a Wikipedia:Featured article.
2. Any site that contains factually inaccurate material or unverified original research, as detailed in Wikipedia:Reliable sources.
3. A website that you own or maintain, even if the guidelines above imply that it should be linked to. This is because of neutrality and point-of-view concerns; neutrality is an important objective at Wikipedia, and a difficult one. If it is relevant and informative, mention it on the talk page and let other — neutral — Wikipedia editors decide whether to add the link.
4. Links that are added to promote a site, that primarily exist to sell products or services, with objectionable amounts of advertising, or that require payment to view the relevant content, colloquially known as external link spamming.
5. Sites that are inaccessible to a significant proportion of the community, such as sites that only work with a specific browser.
6. Direct links to documents that require external applications (such as Flash or Java) to view the relevant content, unless the article is about such rich media. If you do link to such material make a note of what application is required.
7. Foreign-language sites, unless they contain visual aids such as maps, diagrams, or tables, per the guideline on foreign-language sites.
8. Bookstore sites; instead, use the "ISBN" linking format, giving an opportunity to search a wide variety of free and non-free book sources.
9. Blogs, social networking sites (such as MySpace) and forums should generally not be linked to unless mandated by the article itself.
10. Links to search engine results.

Sites requiring registration

Many otherwise valuable sites are of limited use to most readers because the site requires registration or a paid subscription. Many on-line newspapers require registration to access some or all of their content, while some require a subscription. On-line magazines frequently require subscriptions to access their sites or for premium content. If old newspaper and magazines articles are archived, there is usually a fee for accessing them.

A site that requires registration or a subscription should not be linked to unless:

• It is being used as a source,
• The web site itself is the topic of the article, or
• It has relevant content of substantially higher quality than any available from other websites.

Foreign language links

English language links are strongly preferred in the English-language Wikipedia. It may be appropriate to have a link to a foreign language site, such as when an official site is unavailable in English, or when the link is to the subject's text in its original language.

When the external links are to sites in multiple languages, it can be useful to label them with language icons, including labeling the English-language sites in the list with {{en icon}}, which shows as (in English). These are available for most languages, and follow the usual two-letter language codes: for example, etc.

Rich media

As remarked above, there is a strong presumption against linking directly to rich media. It is acceptable to link to pages in straight HTML, PHP, ASP, etc., that in turn link to rich media.

In an instance where a direct link to rich media is deemed appropriate, an explicit indication of the technology needed to access the content must be given, as in the following examples:

• Interview (along with Lenny Kaye) November 11, 2005 on KEXP; 53 minutes, includes three songs. (Windows Media Player, RealPlayer).
• Berkowitz, Joel, Avrom Goldfaden and the Modern Yiddish Theater: The Bard of Old Constantine (PDF), Pakn Treger, no. 44, Winter 2004, 10-19.

What can be done with a dead external link

Links to dead URLs in a list of external links are of no use to Wikipedia articles. Such dead links should either be removed, or updated with archived versions, which may be found at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Note however, that the matter can be quite different when these links are references: see Wikipedia:Citing sources#What to do when a reference link "goes dead".

Note that some dead links are caused by vandalism (for example, a vandal disabling links to products competing with the vandal's favored product). It may therefore be worth checking to see if there is a working link in earlier versions of article. Some vandalism of this type is quite subtle, such as replacing ASCII letters in the URL with identical-looking Cyrillic letters.

Redirection sites

Do not use URL redirection sites in external links. Such sites include tinyurl.com and makeashorterlink.com. Most of these sites are listed in the m:Spam blacklist because they are frequently abused by linkspammers, which means that it is not possible to save a page that contains such a link. Since URL redirection sites are added to the blacklist whenever abuse occurs, you may create problems for future editors by using them.

Permanent URL (PURL) sites, like purl.org, may be a different case, as sometimes the PURL version is considered by the site owner to be a more official URL than the direct URL — in that case, the PURL should be used.