Wikipedia:External links/Noticeboard

Welcome to the external links noticeboard
This page is for reporting possible breaches of the external links policy. Post questions here regarding whether particular external links are appropriate or compliant with Wikipedia's guidelines for external links. Provide links to the relevant article(s), talk page(s), and external links(s) that are being discussed. Questions about prominent websites like YouTube, IMDb, Twitter, or Find a Grave might be addressed with information from this guide. Sections older than 10 days archived by MiszaBot II. (For help, see Wikipedia:Purge) If you mention specific editors, you must notify them. You may use {{subst:ELN-notice}} to do so.
Search this noticeboard & archives Additional notes: Concerns with links used as references should be handled at the reliable sources noticeboard. For cases involving blatant spamming, please file a report at the spam project. Obvious cases of corporate vanity can be tagged with {{db-spam}}. This board is not intended for generalized discussion about the external links guidelines themselves, which should be handled at the guideline talk page. To mark a report resolved, place {{Resolved|Your reason here ~~~~}} at the top of the section.
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Wolfram Alpha

I'm seeing a recent uptick in additions of external links to Wolfram Alpha by different throwaway IP addresses: see e.g. Special:Contributions/37.139.70.1, Special:Contributions/78.138.97.85, Special:Contributions/82.103.129.244, Special:Contributions/103.246.96.184. Given the nearly-identical edit summary but vast distance in geolocation of these addresses, I'm guessing some abuse of proxying services to disguise the origins of these edits. My feeling is that Wolfram Alpha should by presumption be disallowed as failing WP:ELNO #9 (search engine results) but we have currently over 1000 of those links. Anyway, I'm not sure what to do here other than offer a general heads-up. —David Eppstein (talk) 00:41, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Not clear the claimed similarity in the edit summaries other than what appears to be legitimate intention to contribute to the understanding of a Wikipedia article. Wolfram Alpha does not seem to be a search engine either, according to the Wikipedia definition a search engine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_search_engine) is "a system designed to search the World Wide Web" but is rather a closed and curated system/knowledge database (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Alpha). 58.82.136.78 (talk) 19:10, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

You don't think edit summaries "Properties and evolution of rule X in Wolfram|Alpha" for different values of X are unusually similar? When none of that phrase appears at the actual link? And the IP addresses geolocate to different continents? —David Eppstein (talk) 19:41, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

Well, yes, 3 occurrences of "properties of" (and not your exact template wording) in what appears to be about 10 legitimate additions from your mentioned cases of what appears useful content to Wikipedia articles from 3 IPs among perhaps a hundred IPs that have added what you say are 1K links to WA over a large period of time does not seem like an argument to me specially under the light of the Wikipedia rule that you brought up. 58.82.136.78 (talk) 20:30, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

I admire the openness of your mind. And I'm surprised that you don't try even more homeopathy by mentioning the thousands of legitimate users of Wikipedia and millions of articles here. But as the saying goes we should not keep our minds so open that our brains fall out. —David Eppstein (talk) 20:38, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

Want to get a real account? So far your edits are limited to four total, and you talk like you think you are someone we should be listening to. I can only assume you cycle through IPs, in which we should know who you are by having you sign in. DreamGuy (talk) 20:39, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

No I have not a Wikipedia account, it is a good suggestion though, thanks. I am a reader who finds useful what appears to be links that provide further insight from a reliable source (not a search engine) that adds sometimes even dynamic content that enriches the reading experience of a Wikipedia article, I hope you find me worth listening to. I do not cycle through IPs myself and my IP is the assigned one from my ISP and corresponds to my current location. 58.82.136.78 (talk) 21:28, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

Spam or not, it needs cleanup. --Ronz (talk) 22:55, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

External link in the article List of oldest companies.

My addition of an external link to a totally nonprofit web page listing the oldest companies in Finland by date was deleted by Nikthestunned as a "spamlink".

It is, however, certainly not spam, but perfectly relevant information and based on long time research. Covering years up to 1879 the Finnish list is also a useful addition to Wikipedia's worldwide list up to 1699. Benevolent and relevant attemps to assist Wikipedia's readers by supplementing the global list should definitely not be dismissed as "spam", but rather encouraged.

I request the link to be reinstated. Alternatively, should my link be considered violating some other Wikipedia guideline, I request the wording of the dismissal to be changed. Calling my well meaning contribution "spam" is unjustly discrediting. Please review this case. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.89.123.43 (talk) 09:55, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

List of Nikki and John Pranksters In Love episodes

List of Nikki and John Pranksters In Love episodes (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Currently there are 195 links to YouTube videos (one for each episode) embedded into the article. I could see how a single link to the YouTube channel might be acceptable if used as an inline citation or added to an "External links" section, but 195 embedded links does seem more like promotional spam than anything else per WP:LINKFARM and WP:ELNO. The YouTube videos all seem to be from the series' official YouTube channel so I don't think they are copyvios, but once again 195 links seems really excessive. Anyway, I am wondering if another editor (or two) might take a look and let me know if I am missing something here. Thanks in advance. -- Marchjuly (talk) 05:13, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

With these, I always wonder whether they should be there at all. Wikipedia is about 'reporting' the existence of the episodes, which could be a mere listing with a proper reference (an I would not consider a YouTube channel a proper source for that). The links to the actual episodes, to me, fail WP:NOT - we are not a directory (Wikipedia is not a service to readers to find the actual episode and watch them).

As it now stands, that list hurts my eyes, and it is completely unreferenced (especially due to the, and including the, 'being incomplete'). --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 05:27, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Is this link ok for Norumbega

• http://www.davistownmuseum.org/publications/volume4.html various publications on Norumbega including some maps] which for an article on a fringe subject seems acceptable. Doug Weller (talk) 07:11, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Affilliate links to betting websites

I just reverted two IP edits to FanDuel and DraftKings that inserted affiliate spam links to both articles, while using an edit summary of "rm affiliate spam" -- clearly indicating that the user was aware that this kind of spam doesn't belong in the article. I guess the user thought that nobody would analyze the content, and would read only the edit summary. A review of the history of both articles shows that this is an ongoing problem; indeed, both articles have been semi-protected (in the past) for periods of time to help reduce this and other forms of vandalism.

The purpose of this report is not to report a specific user (I've placed a template warning on the IP user's talk page, for whatever good it will do), but to suggest that alternative means need to be used to prevent this in the future. I wonder if an edit filter can be created that will nip this in the bud, while still allowing normal editing of the page? It appears that both sites use affiliate marketing codes that have pretty well-defined characteristics -- exactly what is needed for an effective edit filter. _{(Please ping when replying here.)} Etamni | ✉ | ✓  16:51, 25 December 2015 (UTC)

Using Google scholar pages as ELs

I see my last query wasn't responded, but every hopeful, is using pages such as this one[1] suitable for the author's article? Doug Weller talk 14:39, 10 January 2016 (UTC)