User:Y256/Mizar system external links
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This page hosts my personal views as to why Mizar system external links are not in violation of Wikipedia policies and guidelines. To make it concrete I am posting here the link I placed on the sigma-field article external links section.
- Formal definition of sigma-field in the Mizar system, and the list of theorems formally proved about it.
Please feel free to edit as you see fit. Be aware that this is not a talk page so please do not sign. I will make an effort to retain your contributions. A swift discussion of this topic took place at the Mizar system talk page, but failed to reveal much support for these links.
Yaniv256 (talk) 19:33, 31 July 2012 (UTC)
Pro: WP:EL states that "some acceptable links include those that 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, or other meaningful, relevant content that is not suitable for inclusion in an article for reasons unrelated to its accuracy". The formal definition of sigma-field and the collection of proofs that have been formalized on it is on-topic on the sigma-field page. It cannot be added to the article because the amount of detail and form of presentation would overwhelm the typical reader. However, it is of interest to current mathematics and computer science students in the advanced undergraduate and graduate level, as it allows them to sort out exactly what a sigma field is and how its properties are proved in absolute rigor.
Con:
Con: WP:ELNO.1 states that linking to "any site that does not provide a unique resource beyond what the article would contain if it became a featured article" should be avoided.
Pro: Clearly, a sigma-field featured article would not contain the body of all formalized proofs on sigma-fields. It may contain the formalized definition, one day in the future, if and when the formal language in which it is stated becomes commonly used in higher education.
Con: WP:ELNO.7 recommends that one should generally avoid "Sites that are inaccessible to a substantial number of users, such as sites that only work with a specific browser or in a specific country".
Pro: The links provided should work in most browsers and countries. They do not require an academic library proxy, so they are more accessible than most scientific publications.
Con: WP:ELNO.9 recommends that one should generally avoid "Links to any search results pages, such as links to individual website searches, search engines, search aggregators, or RSS feeds".
Pro: Yes, that it is correct. The list of theorems is generated ad-hoc by a search engine. But, one would have to look at the code to know that. The argument is that the content which is provided does not resemble a search engine result. And, that it is the content of the page linked that WP:ELNO.9 refers to.
Con: WP:ELNO.13 states that "the link should be directly related to the subject of the article. A general site that has information about a variety of subjects should usually not be linked to from an article on a more specific subject ... If a section of a general website is devoted to the subject of the article, and meets the other criteria for linking, then that part of the site could be deep linked".
Pro: Agreed. The suggested insertion includes one internal off-topic link, the Mizar system link, that is needed in order to introduce the two on-topic external deep links.