User talk:Ampleaptitude

Welcome

Hello, Ampleaptitude, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions to this free encyclopedia. If you decide that you need help, check out Getting Help below, ask at the help desk, or place {{Help me}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Also, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! Julietdeltalima (talk) 16:34, 27 July 2018 (UTC) Getting started Introduction Contributing to Wikipedia The five pillars of Wikipedia How to edit a page Intuitive guide to Wikipedia Finding your way around Table of contents Directories and indexes Department directory Editing articles How to develop an article Simplified Manual of Style Getting help Frequently asked questions Cheatsheet Our new user help forum, the Teahouse The Help Desk, for more advanced questions Help pages Article Wizard – a Wizard to help you create articles How you can help Community Portal Join a WikiProject Follow Wikipedia etiquette Practice civility Discover what's going on in the Wikimedia community

WP:EL and dead links

Thanks for your thoughtful request for clarification! There's a subtle but important distinction in dealing with "external links," which are to resources on other websites that don't replicate the material already in the article, and references, which provide support for statements that are in the article. Labeling references that have turned into dead links is really the principal goal of the dead-link-labeling process, because we have to verify what the encyclopedia says. An external link to a website that provides helpful hints for conquering writer's block isn't like that. The link you labeled as dead was actually a link that shouldn't really have been there in the first place, and the link you added isn't any better; those sites aren't authoritative or notable and Wikipedia shouldn't be endorsing one over another. WP:EL is the policy section that goes into this in some level of (insomnia-fighting; grab a cup of coffee or such) detail. (What's worse, a lot of new accounts show up for the sole purpose of spamming external links to particular websites into a whole bunch of articles, and as a new accountholder, your addition of an external link as one of your first edits raised a big red flag.) Appropriate external links might include, for example, a link to a university library's comprehensive collection of the letters and papers of the historical figure who is an article subject. "Helpful hints" aren't what the encyclopedia is here to refer people to, especially when the content isn't peer-reviewed or otherwise especially trustworthy. Wikipedia's policy on reliable sources is another fine snoozefest that is nonetheless very important.

Thanks again for your pleasant question. I invite you to use the Teahouse if you have other questions or want a second opinion; like everyone else here, I'm a mere volunteer, and you happened by sheer luck to catch me at a moment when I had a few minutes to respond fairly quickly, which is not likely to happen the rest of the day for me today. You will almost certainly get a fairly quick reply at the Teahouse whereas I may not have time to leave an editing window open for this long until over the weekend. Good luck! - Julietdeltalima (talk) 17:13, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

Thanks you so much Julietdeltalima! I am a Spanish speak too, but I try really hard to speak and type in proper English, so I did not know if that had something to do with it. But now I know and I will try to get things in the right place next time. Thanks again! Ampleaptitude (talk) 17:23, 27 July 2018 (UTC)

Your email

I received your email. I'm afraid I don't get involved much in that kind of issue and I'm thus not familiar with the protocol. I'd suggest that the simplest thing to do would be to post your concern to the article talk page along with whatever documentation you have. Sorry I'm not more help. Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) 18:21, 27 July 2018 (UTC)