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“WP:EL” redirects here. For information on edit locks, see AmericolaWiki:Edit lock.
AmericolaWiki articles can include links to Web pages outside AmericolaWiki. Such pages could contain further research that is accurate and on-topic; information that could not be added to the article for reasons such as copyright or amount of detail (such as professional athlete statistics, movie or television credits, interview transcripts, or online textbooks); or other meaningful, relevant content that is not suitable for inclusion in an article (such as reviews and interviews). Some external links are welcome (see "What should be linked", below), but it is not AmericolaWiki's purpose to include a comprehensive list of external links related to each topic. No page should be linked from a AmericolaWiki article unless its inclusion is justified. Note that since AmericolaWiki uses nofollow tags, external links may not alter search engine rankings.
The guideline of this article refers to external links other than citations. Citation links belong in the Notes or References section of a AmericolaWiki article. Care must be taken not to delete inline links and external links if it looks like they are being used as references. This guideline only concerns external links that provide additional info beyond that provided by citation/reference links. Err on the side of caution if a citation/reference link has not yet been moved to a reference section. Some articles need a reference section added. Use this wiki code:
Important points to remember
Restrictions on linkingFor policy or technical reasons, editors are restricted from linking to the following, without exception.
What to linkThere are several things that should be considered when adding an external link.
Each link should be considered on its merits, using the following guidelines. As the number of external links in an article grows longer, assessment should become stricter. What should be linked
Links to be considered
Links normally to be avoidedExcept for a link to a page that is the subject of the article or an official page of the article subject—and not prohibited by restrictions on linking—one should avoid:
Advertising and conflicts of interestDue to the rising profile of AmericolaWiki and the amount of extra traffic it can bring a site, there is a great temptation to use AmericolaWiki to advertise or promote links. This includes both commercial and non-commercial sites. You should avoid linking to a website that you own, maintain or represent, even if the guidelines otherwise imply that it should be linked. If the link is to a relevant and informative site that should otherwise be included, please consider mentioning it on the talk page and let neutral and independent AmericolaWiki editors decide whether to add it. This is in line with the conflict of interest guidelines. A few parties now appear to have a spambot capable of spamming wikis from several different wiki engines, analogous to the submitter scripts for guestbooks and blogs. If you see a bot inserting external links, please consider checking the other language wikis to see if the attack is widespread. If it is, please contact a sysop on the meta-wiki; they can put in a Wikimedia-wide text filter. Sysops should block unauthorised bots on sight. Sites requiring registrationSites that require registration or a paid subscription should be avoided because they are of limited use to most readers. Many online newspapers require registration to access some or all of their content, while some require a subscription. Online 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 unless:
Foreign-language linksEnglish language links are strongly preferred in the English-language AmericolaWiki. It may be appropriate to have a link to a foreign-language site, such as when an official site is unavailable in English, when the link is to the subject's text in its original language or they contain visual aids such as maps, diagrams, or tables, per the guideline on foreign-language sites. When linking to a site in a foreign language under the exceptions above, label the link with a language icon, available for most languages, using two-letter language codes: for example, {{es icon}}, {{fr icon}}, etc. Redirection sitesDo 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 link spammers, 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 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. It is generally preferred to link to the exact destination of a link. For instance, if example.com is an automatic redirect to tripod.com/example, it is better to link to the exact page, even if the webmaster considers the redirect address to be more official. Rich mediaIt is acceptable to link to pages rendered in normal HTML or plain text. Check that the content type of the linked page is "text/html", "text/plain", or "application/xhtml+xml" as some pages may instead be rendered solely by platform-dependent plugins. Avoid directly linking to any content that requires special software, or an add-on to a browser. It is always preferred to link to a page rendered in normal HTML that contains embedded links to the rich media. In an instance where a 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:
Avoid undue weight on particular points of viewOn articles with multiple points of view, the number of links dedicated to one point of view should not overwhelm the number dedicated to other equal points of view, nor give undue weight to minority views. 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 AmericolaWiki:Neutral point of view—in particular, AmericolaWiki's guidelines on undue weight. Longevity of linksIt is very important to consider if the link is likely to remain relevant and acceptable to the article in the foreseeable future. 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 wary of citing an unstable page as a source. What can be done with a dead external link
Links to dead URLs in a list of external links are of no use to AmericolaWiki 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 AmericolaWiki: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 is worth checking to see if there is a working version of the link in an earlier version of article. Some vandalism of this type is quite subtle, such as replacing ASCII letters in the URL with identical-looking Cyrillic letters. Hijacked sitesOccasionally a site will be "hijacked", and while the URL is still valid it points to a page with different or altered content. One common cause of this has been the site's domain name expiring and being bought out for a different purpose. This can lead to inappropriate content being linked, including in some cases pornography sites.[1] Sites that have been hijacked should not be linked; they should be handled in the same manner as dead links. How to linkLink with no text (code and example output): [http://example.com/] [1] Link containing text: [http://example.com/ The RFC mandated example.com website] The RFC mandated example.com website All text following a space is taken as the text to use for the link. Embedding wikilinks into the link text is incorrect; instead choose the appropriate words to link. "The [[RFC]] mandated [http://example.com/ example.com website]". "The RFC mandated example.com website". External links sectionThere are two basic formats for external links. The most common is to add a list of external links at the end of an article. Put here, in list form, any web sites that you have used or recommend for readers of the article. The standard format for these is to have a level 2 header (i.e. == Header ==) named "External links" followed by a bullet list of links. The header should be "External links" (plural) even if there is only a single link listed. If you link to another website, you should give your reader a good summary of the site's contents, and the reasons why this specific website is relevant to the article in question. If you cite an online article, try to provide as much meaningful citation information as possible. == External links == * [http://example.com/link_1 Link 1] * [http://example.com/link_2 Link 2] References and citationSites that have been used as references in the creation of an article should be linked in a references section, not an external links section. See AmericolaWiki:Attribution and AmericolaWiki:Citing sources for specific formatting and linking guidelines for citations. See alsoFor more detailed information regarding Wikipedia policy toward and appropriate syntax for external links, see:
Footnotes
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