[WikiEN-l] Re: articles about Serbian history

Thu Sep 25 22:04:47 UTC 2003

Geoff Burling wrote:
> Or, to put it another way, is deleting external links that one doesn't
> like similar to deleting material in the Talk: pages one doesn't like?

I have no firm position on what external link requirements we should
have, nor can I say exactly what deleting external links _is_ like,
but I think it's safe to say that external links at the bottom of an
article are part of the article, and deleting them is not like
deleting material from a Talk: page.

I suspect that we could flesh it out a lot better than I'm about to
say it, but isn't a link just a proposition like any other?  It can be
disclaimed like any other, it can be irrelevant like any other, it can
be removed or added like any other.

Some links we should have, but disclaim.  Some links we should not
have, if for no other reason than sheer irrelevancy to the topic at
hand.  Some links we should have, and no special disclaiming other
than 'link to external site' is necessary.

I'd say that in the example you gave, it's perfectly legitimate to
remove the link, and a perfectly legitimate reason is "the site sucks"
or "the link is irrelevant to this page".

--Jimbo