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m Undid revision 889380902 by Otisbear (talk) misplaced and broke the comment tag--feel free to write it again in the correct section; reverting especially because I couldn't save my edit as the link is blacklisted.
→‎Proposed removals: Proposed removal of ycdtotv.com
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A [[market research]] company. Seems serious. Did not saw suspicious activity like a spam farm or something similar. Was refereed by [https://aviationweek.com/awincommercial/report-sees-urban-air-mobility-market-growing-11-annually Aviation Week], one of the two most prominent aviation publication (the other being flightglobal), with high standards.
A [[market research]] company. Seems serious. Did not saw suspicious activity like a spam farm or something similar. Was refereed by [https://aviationweek.com/awincommercial/report-sees-urban-air-mobility-market-growing-11-annually Aviation Week], one of the two most prominent aviation publication (the other being flightglobal), with high standards.
It seemed to be blacklisted as it was linked by a spammer in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist/archives/December_2013#marketsandmarkets.com 2013] and agin in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist/archives/July_2015 2015] but I'm not sure he's still active.--[[User:Marc Lacoste|Marc Lacoste]] ([[User talk:Marc Lacoste|talk]]) 13:58, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
It seemed to be blacklisted as it was linked by a spammer in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist/archives/December_2013#marketsandmarkets.com 2013] and agin in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist/archives/July_2015 2015] but I'm not sure he's still active.--[[User:Marc Lacoste|Marc Lacoste]] ([[User talk:Marc Lacoste|talk]]) 13:58, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

== ycdtotv.com ==
{{Link summary|ycdtotv.com}}

The official site for the cult television [[You Can't Do That on Television]]. Very reputable resource, includes historical data, with sources, and direct interviews and features with cast and crew. It appears it was flagged for spam in [[MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist/log/2010#June 2010|June 2010]] when the site was moving servers (various features were down for quite some time that summer, I recall). That said, the site has been back in good standing for several years now. It's not as active as it used to be, but still serves as a great resource for up to date information regarding the show and it's related media.--[[User:Theonewhoisseveral|Theonewhoisseveral]] ([[User talk:Theonewhoisseveral|talk]]) 07:18, 25 March 2019 (UTC)


=Troubleshooting and problems=
=Troubleshooting and problems=

Revision as of 14:18, 25 March 2019

    Mediawiki:Spam-blacklist is meant to be used by the spam blacklist extension. Unlike the meta spam blacklist, this blacklist affects pages on the English Wikipedia only. Any administrator may edit the spam blacklist. See Wikipedia:Spam blacklist for more information about the spam blacklist.


    Instructions for editors

    There are 4 sections for posting comments below. Please make comments in the appropriate section. These links take you to the appropriate section:

    1. Proposed additions
    2. Proposed removals
    3. Troubleshooting and problems
    4. Discussion

    Each section has a message box with instructions. In addition, please sign your posts with ~~~~ after your comment.

    Completed requests are archived. Additions and removals are logged, reasons for blacklisting can be found there.

    Addition of the templates {{Link summary}} (for domains), {{IP summary}} (for IP editors) and {{User summary}} (for users with account) results in the COIBot reports to be refreshed. See User:COIBot for more information on the reports.


    Instructions for admins
    Any admin unfamiliar with this page should probably read this first, thanks.
    If in doubt, please leave a request and a spam-knowledgeable admin will follow-up.

    Please consider using Special:BlockedExternalDomains instead, powered by the AbuseFilter extension. This is faster and more easily searchable, though only supports whole domains and not whitelisting.

    1. Does the site have any validity to the project?
    2. Have links been placed after warnings/blocks? Have other methods of control been exhausted? Would referring this to our anti-spam bot, XLinkBot be a more appropriate step? Is there a WikiProject Spam report? If so, a permanent link would be helpful.
    3. Please ensure all links have been removed from articles and discussion pages before blacklisting. (They do not have to be removed from user or user talk pages.)
    4. Make the entry at the bottom of the list (before the last line). Please do not do this unless you are familiar with regular expressions — the disruption that can be caused is substantial.
    5. Close the request entry on here using either {{done}} or {{not done}} as appropriate. The request should be left open for a week maybe as there will often be further related sites or an appeal in that time.
    6. Log the entry. Warning: if you do not log any entry you make on the blacklist, it may well be removed if someone appeals and no valid reasons can be found. To log the entry, you will need this number – 889406977 after you have closed the request. See here for more info on logging.


    Proposed additions

    Nazi Germany SPS/fanboi sites

    These three sites are basically SPS fanboi/user forum sites relating to Nazi Germany, and are regularly used to cite all sorts of major and minor things on a large number of articles. Currently, some editors (like me) do regular culls to remove these links, but a global approach seems to be in order. I asked about what to do about them at the Village pump (policy) page, and they directed me here. Perhaps an edit filter would be a better way of approaching this, but basically I think it would be in the interests of WP to stop people citing from them. How best to do that is the question. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 09:39, 10 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    I'm not averse to either blacklisting or an edit filter, is there a discussion at WP:RSN on this? Guy (Help!) 07:09, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    feldgrau.com has been discussed long ago here, but do you think we'd need a RSN discussion before blacklisting/edit filtering? Or are we better off having that discussion here? I am happy to mount a case for each one as needed, I don't think it will be too difficult to show that they are not RS. Cheers, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 07:22, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    In general, for non-spammed links, we only look at technical controls once there is consensus that a site is not RS. A discussion at RSN is the best place, not least because it gets a lot more eyes than this page. I am sure it won't be hard to demonstrate non-RS, and at that point the next step would be to add tot he reference revert list and/or add an edit filter. Guy (Help!) 08:24, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    That's good advice. I will create threads on RSN to discuss these websites, and then re-post with links once they resolve. Thanks, Guy. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 09:32, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    OK Guy, that was inconclusive unfortunately, except that there seems to be a pretty clear consensus here that axishistory.com is unreliable and should not be used as a source. Could we talk about blacklisting it? Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 07:07, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Do I sense a reluctance to blacklist these sorts of sites? Is this sort of thing not done? Thanks, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 06:54, 24 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Betting spam

    Other related sites with occasional spam:

    A group of connected betting-related websites and blogs, promoted by the same spammer or group of spammers (see User:Bola88/sandbox (history)) and Special:Contributions/203.95.198.130 for the connection). The main issue is 7asiabet.com, but the sites are all maintained by the same entity and prone to recurring spam. Several blocks and warnings to single-purpose accounts and IPs. No educational usage. GermanJoe (talk) 08:50, 12 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Update: still spamming as of 19 March. Please blacklist the whole bunch (all sites maintained by or connected to the same spammer/entity). Added 1 new URL and the most-recent dynamic IP. GermanJoe (talk) 18:09, 21 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    YouTube trolling

    I am not quite sure how to format this with templates, so here is the raw info:

    • Video link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1RqAHB0Jgw
    • Suggested regex (per previous similar entries in blacklist): \byoutube\.com\/watch\?v=i1RqAHB0Jgw\b

    Repeated addition of a troll/fake video at List of esports games with dynamic IPs. 3 previous protections have been ineffective, maybe a blacklist is the better approach instead of locking the article even longer. GermanJoe (talk) 08:46, 13 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    • Regex requested to be blacklisted: \byoutube\.com.*?i1RqAHB0Jgw\b

    Adapt and properly request regex. --Dirk Beetstra T C 11:36, 13 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    @GermanJoe: plus Added to MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. --Dirk Beetstra T C 11:36, 13 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @Beetstra: Thank you. I took the liberty to add the template info to Template:Spam-blacklist proposed additions. Otherwise I'll forget it again (in approx. 4-5 days). GermanJoe (talk) 11:51, 13 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Advameg sites (city-data.com, filmreference.com, etc.)

    • Task: To disallow Main article space edits which include links to these sites, and particularly to prevent them from being used as references.
    • Reason: The Advameg sites listed below have been described in many prior discussions as a content farm primarily designed to bring visitors to advertisers. They are often brought to attention in spam reports, reliable sources discussions, and related to copyright violations. The data is not attributed to specific authors, there appears to be no editorial policy, and some data is user-generated - making them unreliable sources. In some cases, they should be considered WP:TERTIARY sources. Below is a (possibly incomplete) list of websites (taken from www.advameg.com/) which should be blocked, along with links to prior discussions involving them that I could find (feel free to add others). --Netoholic @ 17:33, 13 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Site list

    • americanforeignrelations.com [1]
    • bankencyclopedia.com
    • biologyreference.com
    • chemistryexplained.com
    • city-data.com [2][3]
    • currency-conversion.info
    • deathreference.com [4]
    • discoveriesinmedicine.com
    • drug-data.com
    • everyculture.com
    • faqs.org [5]
      • faqs.org/allusions/
      • faqs.org/childhood/
      • faqs.org/collective-nouns/
      • faqs.org/espionage/
      • faqs.org/health/
      • faqs.org/health-encyc/
      • faqs.org/minorities/
      • faqs.org/nutrition/
      • faqs.org/ologies-isms
      • faqs.org/people-search/
      • faqs.org/sports-science/
      • faqs.org/time/
    • fashionencyclopedia.com
    • filmreference.com [6][7][8][9]
    • foodbycountry.com
    • healthofchildren.com
    • humanillnesses.com
    • lovetheoutdoors.com
      • lovetheoutdoors.com/fly-fishing/
    • madehow.com [10]
    • minddisorders.com
    • musicbanter.com
    • mythencyclopedia.com
    • nationsencyclopedia.com
    • newsearching.com
    • nonprofitfacts.com
    • notablebiographies.com [11]
    • patentsencyclopedia.com
    • photo-dictionary.com
    • pollutionissues.com
    • presidentprofiles.com
    • pressreference.com
    • readabstracts.com
    • referenceforbusiness.com [12][13]
    • scienceclarified.com
    • shareranks.com
    • siteencyclopedia.com
    • surgeryencyclopedia.com
    • thegardenhelper.com
    • trademarkencyclopedia.com
    • unexplainedstuff.com
    • unit-conversion.info
    • waterencyclopedia.com
    • weatherexplained.com
    • whatdoesthatmean.com
      • whatdoesthatmean.com/dictionary/

    Example LinkSummaries

    (others avoided for brevity)

    Discussion

    Moved this request from Wikipedia:Edit filter/Requested#Advameg sites (city-data.com, filmreference.com, notablebiographies.com, etc.). -- Netoholic @ 17:38, 13 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Woohoo .. User:Netoholic, can you please look at MediaWiki_talk:Spam-whitelist/Archives/2007/12#encyclopedia.stateuniversity.com .. that list corrolates to the list below. --Dirk Beetstra T C 10:20, 14 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    @MER-C: as above list dates back 12 years ago, and the people who were handling that at that time are not here anymore, maybe you can help to have a look? I will poke COIBot on the domains mentioned there, and below domains should generate reports now at well. --Dirk Beetstra T C 10:23, 14 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Advameg sites - full set

    As the request on the edit filter request page (mentioned above) was closed referring it back here, compiling here a full list for tracking and script-assisted blacklisting. Ping Netoholic. --Dirk Beetstra T C 10:11, 14 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Adsense and webbugs

    For tracking this, these seem to be common on large subsets of these sites. This links back then to many other sites and cases as well. --Dirk Beetstra T C 12:44, 14 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    mindmajix.com

    Repeated spamming for an online training site and blog by single-purpose accounts and IPs, continued after multiple warnings (see linksearch results). No encyclopedic usage. GermanJoe (talk) 09:50, 14 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    @GermanJoe: Handled on meta. --Dirk Beetstra T C 10:03, 14 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    eatingtheroad.wordpress.com

    self-publish source. Some entry, such as the webpage added to Stouffer's, was a copyvio copy of International Directory of Company Histories. Matthew hk (talk) 12:52, 18 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    smultitechnologies.com

    Links spammed by different IPs since November 2018. SmartSE (talk) 16:57, 18 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    This is being spammed to 40 or more Indian film articles in their reference section by shehadsc (talk · contribs) its a song download site that does not seem to verify anything, regards Atlantic306 (talk) 23:50, 19 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    㥗釛.xsl.pt

    Spammed by

    The first one redirects to the second one, which is of those "earn money fast" sites. —RainFall 07:24, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    @RainFall: the former is already on meta, I'll add the latter to the same section. --Dirk Beetstra T C 07:31, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @RainFall: now at Special:AbuseFilter/976 until other issues are resolved. --Dirk Beetstra T C 11:37, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @RainFall: meta spam blacklist has been fixed, it should now really be blocked. --Dirk Beetstra T C 12:35, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]


    orgduns.com

    Spammed by

    This is a new domain for the already blacklisted dnbnumber.com. See further up the page: MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist#dnbnumber.com - MrOllie (talk) 14:34, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    @MrOllie: plus Added to MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist. --Dirk Beetstra T C 15:03, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    DailyStormer.name

    For reasons that should be blindingly obvious, there should never in the history of the planet be a reason for Wikipedia to link to the Daily Stormer. NorthBySouthBaranof (talk) 23:21, 22 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Proposed removals


    gyangoggles.com

    gyangoggles.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:frSpamcheckMER-C X-wikigs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot-Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: searchmeta • Domain: domaintoolsAboutUs.com HI! I agree that I violated the rule of "no spamming" by Wikipedia but trust me it was unintentional. I run this blog to share tech news and reviews and to my best knowledge, I was referring to related topics. I assure you, I will avoid it and never ever put my site link. Please give me a chance. Thank you.

    no Declined. If you will never again put your site link on Wikipedia, why are you requesting removal? Either way, the link won't get in. If a trusted, high-volume editor requests removal, we can consider it then. ~Anachronist (talk) 17:43, 19 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @Anomalous+0: Sir, I said that I will never use my site link in another context. If I find my site link relevant then only I will use it otherwise I won't. I didn't know that this type of linking is not allowed and many youtube videos suggest that putting site link in Wikipedia is good for SEO. Now that I know the rule I will never use a link which is not 100% relevant to the topic. Please give me last chance and remove my site from the block list. I will tell other people also to keep Wikipedia clean and not to spam it through a blog post. Thanks.
    Sites aren't removed from the blacklist at the behest of their owners. —A little blue Bori v^_^v Bori! 23:32, 22 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    moneysavingexpert.com

    moneysavingexpert.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:frSpamcheckMER-C X-wikigs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot-Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: searchmeta • Domain: domaintoolsAboutUs.com

    This is a reputable UK website dealing with consumer financial advice. There's nothing in the MoneySavingExpert.com article to suggest otherwise, so I've no idea why they've been blacklisted. Mspritch (talk) 12:32, 19 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    MoneySavingExpert.com is not a reliable source. Owned by Moneysupermarket.com, a price comparison site. Most links are to the site's "blog" and "forums" subdomain, and even the pages on the root domain are highly promotional.

    This site is primarily a collection of affiliate links and most of its pages are filled with sponsored content. I'm not opposed to whitelisting the moneysavingexpert.com/news section of the site, although I still wouldn't consider it a reliable source. — Newslinger talk 16:10, 19 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
     Defer to Whitelist. ~Anachronist (talk) 17:46, 19 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @Mspritch: no Declined,  Defer to Whitelist for specific links on this domain (from what I see, I would even oppose a blanket whitelisting of the /news part). --Dirk Beetstra T C 18:18, 19 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    marketsandmarkets.com

    marketsandmarkets.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:frSpamcheckMER-C X-wikigs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot-Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: searchmeta • Domain: domaintoolsAboutUs.com

    A market research company. Seems serious. Did not saw suspicious activity like a spam farm or something similar. Was refereed by Aviation Week, one of the two most prominent aviation publication (the other being flightglobal), with high standards. It seemed to be blacklisted as it was linked by a spammer in 2013 and agin in 2015 but I'm not sure he's still active.--Marc Lacoste (talk) 13:58, 20 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    ycdtotv.com

    ycdtotv.com: Linksearch en (insource) - meta - de - fr - simple - wikt:en - wikt:frSpamcheckMER-C X-wikigs • Reports: Links on en - COIBot - COIBot-Local • Discussions: tracked - advanced - RSN • COIBot-Link, Local, & XWiki Reports - Wikipedia: en - fr - de • Google: searchmeta • Domain: domaintoolsAboutUs.com

    The official site for the cult television You Can't Do That on Television. Very reputable resource, includes historical data, with sources, and direct interviews and features with cast and crew. It appears it was flagged for spam in June 2010 when the site was moving servers (various features were down for quite some time that summer, I recall). That said, the site has been back in good standing for several years now. It's not as active as it used to be, but still serves as a great resource for up to date information regarding the show and it's related media.--Theonewhoisseveral (talk) 07:18, 25 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Troubleshooting and problems

    dnbnumber.com problems

    Hi there. Guy added dnbnumber dot com to the blacklist on March 6, and yet these two edits subsequently succeeded:

    Am I misunderstanding how the blacklist works? Thanks! —johndburger 22:22, 9 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    @Johndburger: The link already exists in the same paragraph. It therefore doesn't count as an added link, and I suspect that's the reason it didn't hit the blacklist. I thought the presence of a blacklisted link prevented a save, but that behaviour seems to have changed since I last looked at it. If it's a spam link, existing instances should be removed from the article. -- zzuuzz (talk) 23:38, 9 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Ah, got it - thanks! —johndburger 05:28, 10 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @Johndburger: As Zzuuzz says. If the link is already there (i.e. if it duplicates) it does not trigger the blacklist. Similar, if a blacklisted link is on the page it does not prohibit other edits.
    As it is now blacklisted, all occurances should be either removed or whitelisted, as any edit damaging the link may result in problems later on. --Dirk Beetstra T C 06:17, 10 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @Johndburger: With the recent ongoing issues at Data Universal Numbering System maybe a short temporary semi-protection at WP:RfPP would be the better approach to discourage such link additions. Just a random thought though, up to you if you want to try this venue. With the mentioned technical limitations, blacklisting is kind of pointless in this case (unless all URL usages can be removed or whitelisted). GermanJoe (talk) 09:37, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    At some point during the edit warring the spammer hijacked all of the references to point at their URL and nobody noticed. I've removed the spam site and restored the original refs. - MrOllie (talk) 11:29, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you. Now the blacklist filter blocks new additions for the domain in this article (just tested). GermanJoe (talk) 11:40, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    Yah, I cleaned up one, but hadn't noticed all the others. Thanks all! —johndburger 12:32, 11 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Logging / COIBot Instructions

    Blacklist logging

    Full instructions for admins


    Quick reference

    For Spam reports or requests originating from this page, use template {{/request|0#section_name}}

    • {{/request|213416274#Section_name}}
    • Insert the oldid 213416274 a hash "#" and the Section_name (Underscoring_spaces_where_applicable):
    • Use within the entry log here.

    For Spam reports or requests originating from Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam use template {{WPSPAM|0#section_name}}

    • {{WPSPAM|182725895#Section_name}}
    • Insert the oldid 182725895 a hash "#" and the Section_name (Underscoring_spaces_where_applicable):
    • Use within the entry log here.
    Note: If you do not log your entries, it may be removed if someone appeals the entry and no valid reasons can be found.

    Addition to the COIBot reports

    The lower list in the COIBot reports now have after each link four numbers between brackets (e.g. "www.example.com (0, 0, 0, 0)"):

    1. first number, how many links did this user add (is the same after each link)
    2. second number, how many times did this link get added to wikipedia (for as far as the linkwatcher database goes back)
    3. third number, how many times did this user add this link
    4. fourth number, to how many different wikipedia did this user add this link.

    If the third number or the fourth number are high with respect to the first or the second, then that means that the user has at least a preference for using that link. Be careful with other statistics from these numbers (e.g. good user who adds a lot of links). If there are more statistics that would be useful, please notify me, and I will have a look if I can get the info out of the database and report it. This data is available in real-time on IRC.

    Poking COIBot

    When adding {{LinkSummary}}, {{UserSummary}} and/or {{IPSummary}} templates to WT:WPSPAM, WT:SBL, WT:SWL and User:COIBot/Poke (the latter for privileged editors) COIBot will generate linkreports for the domains, and userreports for users and IPs.


    Discussion

    Protected edit request on 15 March 2019

    Remove Breitbart.com from blacklist. Breitbart is a news website with a monthly readership of over 45 million people, and has been nationally recognized (and has had stories borrowed from) other media outlets including the NYT, Fox, CNN, etc. Furthermore, it does not engage in spam practices as described in the criteria for websites on this list. 18.40.120.193 (talk) 03:07, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

     Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit protected}} template. — JJMC89(T·C) 05:02, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    Protected edit request on 21 March 2019

    Remove the spurious unclosed bold (''') from the line

    # <b style="color: red; font-size: larger;">Log your addition. All additions to this blacklist MUST also be [[MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist/log|logged here]].'''</b>Anomalocaris (talk) 15:38, 21 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @Anomalocaris: I guess it was an unopened bold, but you are right, I have removed it. --Dirk Beetstra T C 15:41, 21 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    @Beetstra: Thanks! —Anomalocaris (talk) 15:43, 21 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    parliament.uk

    I'm trying to create a list of notable petitions for UK Parliament petitions website, but it says petition.parliament.uk is blocked. Why? It's a government website. Johndavies837 (talk) 16:41, 21 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

    @Johndavies837: Petitions, fundraisers and similar are blacklisted as they are mainly abused ('vote [here] to help our good cause') and do not serve any further use. They are at best a primary source, but should only be mentioned when there are secondary sources showing that they are notable (which almost always makes the primary source unnecessary). To control the abuse those sites were blacklisted, and the ones to which we really need to link (which is rather minimal, it boils down to those specific ones which are notable in itself and an odd primary source) can be whitelisted ( Defer to Whitelist; note that the bar will be extra high when the petitions are still open). I hope this explains. --Dirk Beetstra T C 17:49, 21 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]
    That makes sense, thanks for the explanation. Using links to news articles works fine for the most part. The only problem is that they often don't show the final number of signatures. Johndavies837 (talk) 17:57, 21 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]