User talk:Requestion

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[edit] External spam links

Have you considered writing articles about some of the notable software you have been deleting links to? WP has many gaps and some external links, particularly in lists, are there to temporarily plug these gaps. Stephen B Streater 16:46, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I've reverted a couple of you external link removals. WP:EL is a style guide, not policy, and so is open to reaching a consensus. I feel you haven't considered your removals with sufficient care in the case of some lists. If you would like to discuss any particular link, I (and others) are happy to oblige. Stephen B Streater 17:26, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
That wasn't a list of notable software. It was a link farm. I could go to a software website such as Tucows and add hundreds (if not thousands) of similar and applicable programs to this particular Wikipedia software list. Would Wikipedia benefit from this? No, it would make a horrible mess. My goal is to help keep Wikipedia looking good. (Requestion 15:16, 24 May 2006 (UTC))
Thank you for your response. I was concerned about the apparent indiscriminate removal of information from WP. Your user page makes it look like you have, in your own mind, raised the WP:EL style guide to the status of policy, which it is not. I also remove a lot of external links from WP, but I always check them for relevance first, and often external links contain good, relevant information. Lists are a good place to highlight the lack of an article in WP for people knowledgable in an area. Clearly, I respect a considered removal of a few links, but often links have been added after a discussion and are deemed relevant. The nature of Wikipedia ensures that there is much notable software which doesn't yet have an article. Perhaps you would be interested in writing an article or stub or two yourself? Stephen B Streater 17:19, 24 May 2006 (UTC)
Sorry about that. I'm just trying to clean up the Wikipedia link spam problem. (Requestion 04:21, 27 May 2006 (UTC))
Note that WP:NOT is actually "official policy" and not just a guideline. So I didn't do anything "in my own mind" as Stephen B Streater suggests. (Requestion 22:17, 20 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Removal of spam links

I undid your removal of links from List of audio players (software). Removing links that don't have articles yet is not a valid reason for removing them. --Mperry 16:43, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I am just trying to clean up the Wikipedia. My logic for removal is that the empty links should never have been created in the first place. If a software program is significant enough then an article should be created first. I am against Wikipedia software lists in general, they are fertile ground for link farming, and categories are better at accomplishing the same thing. (Requestion 15:16, 24 May 2006 (UTC))
It should be noted that the above audio player list was a thriving link farm and it was deleted by unanimous vote on July 9th 2006. While I did vote for the deletion, it was not my preferred solution. (Requestion 15:38, 20 November 2006 (UTC))

[edit] FORscene

The original FORscene article has been userfied - you can find it now at User:Stephen B Streater/FORscene. Feel free to knock it into shape. If you need help finding verification, please ask and I'll point you in the right direction. Stephen B Streater 06:15, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Oscilloscope link removal

I added a link to TiePie engineering to the oscilloscope page in the list of oscilloscope manufacturers. I think wiki users should be able to find TiePie engineering in this list because it has been manufacturing oscilloscopes for 19 years and is exporting to 80 countries. Therefore it can be considered to be one of the big players. Can you explain to me why you removed the link and not the links to the other companies? Can you please leave the link intact or remove them all? (Marthein 09:17, 22 November 2006 (GMT+1:00))

Is this Marthein of TiePie? The way you added two TiePie external links was very spammy and caused me to take action. And I wasn't the first, a previous editor removed both of your links! I kept the semi-informative link and I removed the blatant spam link. See WP:EL for policy details. The Oscilloscope page was turning into a link farm so I thank you for suggesting that I clean it up. All external oscilloscope links have been removed and turned into internal links. (Requestion 16:55, 22 November 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Dolby Digital page

I have to apologize for my most recent edit -- I thought that I was logged in and clearly was not. My intention certainly was not to be "sneaky" and will be more careful about that in the future.

I am a novice to Wikipedia and perhaps you can help me understand more clearly why you object to the edits of the external links. I've checked with my colleagues here at Dolby and those three codecs are unlicensed and therefore illegal. I'll recommend to my colleagues that they take it up with SourceForge as you suggest. With that said, we don't feel that they should be promoting their unlicensed software on a page that is intended to discuss Dolby Digital. Could you please elaborate on what you mean by "these are valid links"? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dolby Interactive Marketing (talk • contribs) 22:03, 19 December 2006 (UTC).

Hello Dolby Interactive Marketing and welcome to the Wikipedia. It is important for you realize that the Dolby wikipedia pages are not an extension of the Dolby.com website. You don't own these pages and you cannot control them. Sometimes truthful but unflattering information will be added. You might not like this but that's how the Wikipedia operates. Aggressively deleting information that you do not like could result in bad PR for your company.
The links you deleted are "valid" because they are both informative and relevant. The projects linked to might be unlicensed but I highly doubt that they are illegal. Here is my logic: those projects are hosted on the SourceForge free software portal which is based in Fremont California, and Dolby is well aware of the existence of these projects, and some projects have been active for 4+ years, and Dolby has an army of IP attorneys, and so far those projects have not been shut down. So the only two conclusions a sensible person can make on the legality of those projects is that Dolby has either failed in legal attempts to shut them down or they have chosen to allow the projects to exist due to the potential PR backlash. The links are legal and the links will stay unless you can source some information that says otherwise. (Requestion 16:22, 20 December 2006 (UTC))
We're a smaller company than you probably think (my observation is that our army is of engineers, not lawyers), but there just aren't enough hours in the day for the IP team to track down and pursue every licensing violation out there. They were not aware of these projects on SourceForge. With that said, I have to respectfully disagree with your two conclusions.
I've asked the IP team to investigate but this will, of course, take time. While we wait, I did want to point out that our business model is a licensing business based on patented technology, of which, Dolby Digital is probably the best known. An Implementation License is required to license Dolby technologies in software. Would it be satisfactory to show that these software decoders do not have the required Implementation Licenses to remove them from the page? Dolby Interactive Marketing 23:35, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
No, that would not be satisfactory. It is fairly obvious that a free software project could not afford a Dolby Digital license, and if they could I doubt Dolby would sell them one. But in any case that isn't relevant. Just because Dolby licenses it's patented IP does not mean that the free software projects on SourceForge violate those patents. I personally don't know if they do or if they don't, but as an engineer I do know that there are usually numerous methods that can be used to implement technology around a patent. Like the saying goes "there are many ways to skin a cat" and large tech companies do this all the time and there is nothing illegal about it. I also know for a fact that Dolby (the company) has been aware of those SourceForge projects for several years. Please don't use the Wikipedia Dolby Digital page as a marketing extension of your Dolby.com website. (Requestion 16:47, 21 December 2006 (UTC))
Fair enough. Would you mind sharing who here at Dolby has been aware of those projects? I must be talking to the wrong people here since I'm getting a different answer than you. Your help in getting this sorted out would be greatly appreciated. Rather than posting that info here, please feel free to send that to me privately. Dolby Interactive Marketing 17:46, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
Sorry can't help you there, it was some unknown Dolby employee I met at a tech conference a couple years ago. (Requestion 19:11, 21 December 2006 (UTC))
Wow, you have a really twisted view on external links, removing them when they're intentional yet keeping them when they're unwanted, perhaps you'd be the perfect editor to start this new article: Warez links. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by LinksWant2BeFree (talk • contribs) 20:04, 27 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] PRISM Business Media Inc.

Re [1]: Thanks! I saw you have no contributions there - may I hereby formally invite you to Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam? You look like you would feel right at home there. (I've opened a case about PRISM at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam.) Femto 13:22, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for the invitation. I've discovered that Prism Business Media through a complicated series of acquisitions is Penton Media. The list of Prism domains, agents, and spamming exploits are now located at Talk:Penton Media. It seemed like a better central location of information to me. (Requestion 20:36, 17 February 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Thanks

Thanks for removing bigbag. Now I see no reason to write the artice since you think it is "irrelevant". Did you ever think about it got delayed in writing for some reason? Do you have any knowledge in industrial packaging? --Boongoman 07:38, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, but I've never heard of BigBag before. It looked like a nonsense empty junk link to me. Why don't you write a BigBag article stub first then add the links back. Or, if you like, write the BigBag article and then let me know and I'll add the links back. (Requestion 16:09, 20 February 2007 (UTC))
Then I will put a notice to you. For educational purposes: Bigbags. --Boongoman 16:45, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Wow, those are some big bags. I didn't think Bigbag was for real but I was wrong. I apologize for any harm I may have caused. I have reverted my 3 bad edits. (Requestion 17:22, 21 February 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Screamers (1995 film)

If you have a problem with the VHS & DVD release dates referencing amazon (which you apparently do) then find another source to cite those release dates. I won't let references be removed simply because they link to a commercial entity. Cburnett 17:31, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

I changed the DVD release date reference to a less commercial source. I'm still looking for an alternate VHS release data source. (Requestion 17:59, 20 February 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Link vandalism farm deleted

Please stop removing appropriate external links from wikipedia. It is considered vandalism and strictly prohibited in wikipedia. If you continue vandalism, you will be blocked from editing wikipedia. --Urod 01:34, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

I am absolutely sure that a good software listing should contain external links for all pieces of software where internal links are missing. I am not flexible about it. Oh, and there is a consensus supporting my point of view. Unless you believe that mediation may help, I suggest to go to the arbitration commitee. --Urod 01:48, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

The Arbitration Commitee is here. I will obey any ArbCom decision. --Urod 01:51, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

Go for it. For reference of what this irate and confused user is talking about see Talk:List_of_screen_capture_software. This dispute revolves around my attempts at cleaning up a link farm. (Requestion 01:59, 25 February 2007 (UTC))
The saga continues. User:Urod took this dispute to the Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) in search of help with the "Deletions of external links." Flush with blatant WP:EL and WP:NOT violations, Urod angered the wise policy makers. Instead of the aid Urod seeked, Urod got this double AfD. There was much debate. Socks and spammers popped out of the woodwork. There was vandalism, WP:CIV violations, and blocking. As it turns out, almost everybody loves lists of external links, so large quantities of WP:SPAM were consumed as this AfD festered on for 10 days. In the end the result was Delete and now there is nothingness. (Requestion 23:43, 8 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Special:Linksearch/*.justlearnmorsecode.com

The link you recently removed from the topic on Morse code and a few other relevant topics is in NO way a more "inappropriate external link" than the ones you left in there.

How do you justify this behaviour ? And at any rate, who made YOU God ? - Jalla (07:42, 27 February 2007 (UTC)) (User_talk:85.165.69.221)

Hello Jalla. This has nothing to do with appropriateness or relevance. The justlearnmorsecode.com links you added qualify as link spam. For more information why see WP:NOT. Please feel free to remove your competitors external links in those articles if you feel they are link spam too. (Requestion 18:34, 27 February 2007 (UTC))
Suspected puppet list in chronological order:
A very persistent link spammer and this all began Oct 2005. Count: 30 linkspam adds, 10 warnings. I think it is time to black list the justlearnmorsecode.com domain. (Requestion 23:33, 27 February 2007 (UTC))

[edit] AfD for List of screen recording software

I have replied at my talk page. By the way, I like your user name--it's a nice portmanteau. Cheers, Black Falcon 21:26, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I have to admit that I had to look up portmanteau but it's more than just my name, it is also my personal philosophy. (Requestion 21:36, 26 February 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Special:Contributions/LinksWant2BeFree

Why are you so anal about external links? Wikipedia uses the nofollow tag, so putting an external link in an article does absolutely nothing to increase ranking in search engines. If more information is available off site, then why not link to it? Do you want to make an island out of Wikipedia? (User_talk:LinksWant2BeFree) 19:46, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

LinksWant2BeFree is my first wiki-stalker! I feel so honored, thank you. See Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/List_of_screen_capture_software for reference of what this is about. See the contrib log too, this user is running around Wikipedia and randomly reverting my edits, some current and some months old. (Requestion 20:27, 27 February 2007 (UTC))
Hmmmmm, you have reverted far more of my additions than I have reverted changes by you, so by that definition you are stalking me. I am just returning the favour. You are also not answering any of the questions I posted above. Not that I was expecting an answer, anyone who reads your posts can clearly see that you are more interested in being a pedantic prick rather than having a meaningful discussion. --LinksWant2BeFree 21:08, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, I didn't think you were actually expecting an answer. Well here they are:
  1. because I'm a Wikipedia spam fighter.
  2. WP:EL and WP:NOT and WP:SPAM are good starting points.
  3. An island? I'm removing external link spam. I'm making Wikipedia more of a Roach Motel. "Once you click in, you don't click out." (:
(Requestion 21:35, 27 February 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Issues

Regarding the issues at Talk:List of screen capture software, do you need help fighting this vandalism? If so, drop a note on my talk page, see Wikipedia:Requests for page protection or see Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress. Mermaid from the Baltic Sea 00:59, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the offer. Need to see how the AfD goes. If it's a keep then I'll need some help with the WP:TROUT. If it's a delete then there will undoubtably be some payback vandalism. (Requestion 06:49, 1 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Barnstar

The Spamstar of Glory
Presented to Requestion for dliligence in fighting spam on Wikipedia

This barnstar is in recognition of your tireless effort to clean Wikipedia of unacceptable external links. Although we may have different views on what constitutes a reliable source for the article space, I have the highest regard for your outstanding dedication to identifying and rooting out spam, reverting vandalism and eliminating other nonsense. ✤ JonHarder talk 21:43, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Jon, while we do have differing views on things it is important to know that I do respect your opinion. Thank you for awarding me this high honor. I hope this Spamstar works in warding off all the angry spammers that come here seeking a pound of my flesh. (Requestion 20:57, 2 March 2007 (UTC))
Wikipedia is a better quality project because of hardworking and conscientious editors like both of you! We all tend to have some diversity of opinion (which is good), however the common thread is keeping articles clear of spam and other nonsense. A thankless task for the most part, but invaluable to the project. congrats!--Hu12 20:28, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Batman references

Thank you, Commissioner Gordon. Come on, Sparrow, they're signaling for The SpamWatcher 03:45, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Glad to have you back. Sparrow? Hmmm. What are you doing standing around? Don't you have some spam to find? (Requestion 06:54, 17 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Wikipedia:Association of Members' Advocates/Requests/February 2007/Urod 2

We've now accepted this case. You've been named as an involved party, so you may wish to add a statement on this issue, either at the above link or you can E-mail me. —Pilotguy (go around) 15:32, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

I am not interested in this dispute anymore, because 2 of 3 pages had been deleted. --Urod 17:12, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
Do you know why those pages were deleted? I didn't do it. You did it when you went to the Village Pump and angered the policy makers. I sure hope you intend to honor AMA's decision and follow the WP:EL rules. (Requestion 23:16, 17 March 2007 (UTC))
No, you voted for deletion of it. So you, together with others, deleted it. --Urod 16:49, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
True, I did vote for delete, but I didn't nominate it for AfD. Like I've said before; deletion was not my preferred solution. (Requestion 20:37, 18 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Your "friendly" reminder

I most certainly am not "about to violate 3RR." Such insinuations are false. AnAccount2 20:46, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

That was yesterday. I don't think the word "insinuation" means what you think it means. Have you even read WP:3RR? I was attempting to help keep you from getting blocked. Do you know that you've entered an angry hornets nest with this whole Urod thing? (Requestion 21:13, 18 March 2007 (UTC))
The fact that you admit you consider the dispute so angry means that you see people are putting their emotions above the goal to improve the quality of the encyclopedia. I will continue to replace the link, because it is far more informative than the two links which I removed in its place. I do not know who Urod is, and I have never heard of him before I came across this dispute. And yes, to insinuate means just what I used it to mean. AnAccount2 07:00, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
How and why did you originally go to the C++ page and get involved with this freecomputerbooks.com dispute? Your contribution log shows an interest in electric cars. Your first time venture into a programming language topic with the sole purpose to be confrontational appears highly suspicious. So how and why did you get involved? (Requestion 18:52, 19 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] 3RR

You are also about to violate 3RR.. Besides, I do not violate 3RR, and I do not need reminding.. And, it is NOT spam, Amazon is a source.. Perhaps we should issue spam warnings for linking to imdb now? Illyria05 (Talk • Contributions) 20:50, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for mentioning it, I don't violate 3RR either, but I appreciate the note. Amazon is spam, so is Imdb but not in the same blatant promotional way. (Requestion 21:01, 18 March 2007 (UTC))
Okay, I'm sorry, I should've been more repectful, I think I need to take some time to cool off.. Again, I apologize.. I'm going to take a mini WikiBreak.. Illyria05 (Talk • Contributions) 21:04, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
No problem, no need for an apology. I'm just attempting to keep an uncivil situation as civil as possible. Do you have any idea why this Screamers article has attracted so much heat? I don't understand it. (Requestion 21:16, 18 March 2007 (UTC))
I dunno, anyway, but in the interest of both parties, I requested full protection until this is settled.. Illyria05 (Talk • Contributions) 21:21, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
I made a comment about Illyria05, Matthew, and Cburnett being buddies explains all the heat over at the Screamers (1995 film) article. (Requestion 22:32, 19 March 2007 (UTC))
Replying to the message you left on my talk page.. Anyway, Matthew is one of Wiki-friends, but I do not really know this third person well.. Anyway, I was not happy to see that the edit war began even after the page was un-protected.. And, about the resolution, it's fine :) .. Please reply to me on my talk page :) Illyria05 (Talk • Contributions) 21:40, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of animation studios

I added a link of an animation studio to a "list of animation studios" and you deleted it as link spam. I can only guess why it was deleted, since you didn't bother to give sufficient information. You should be a little more diplomatic next time by including at least a brief description as to why the link was removed. unsigned comment left by User:201.230.159.48 00:12, 19 March 2007

Did you read the message I left on your talk page? Wikipedia is not a mere directory of links is the key issue here. You also shouldn't use Wikipedia to promote your website. I'm also not the only editor who had to remove the links you added. (Requestion 06:21, 19 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Special:Linksearch/*.discount-trailer-parts.com

Hello Requestion, I was wondering why you removed the external link that I posted on the disc brakes page for the do-it-yourself brake job. I was referred to it from a friend of mine who could not remember the name of the website it came from. He told me it was on the disc brakes page in wiki, and that it linked directly to the site. When I checked out the page on disc brakes it was no longer in the external links section. I checked out the history section and saw that it had been deleted because it was spamming wiki. The site in question is www.discount-trailer-parts.com and the user that was spamming was johnnymac99. I went to the site and used the brake video to change the front brakes on my car and it was excellent. I don't know if you have actually watched the video, but it is actually a guy at his home, doing a brake job the way you would if you were doing it yourself. I haven't seen anything else like on the web. I contacted the website through their 'contact us' form and asked them why they were spamming wiki? Their response was that they thought they were adding links that were appropriate where wiki had gaps in their information. I told them that their links had been deleted and that their site was now flagged as a spammer. It was my impression from them that they had no intention of fighting to put their links back on wiki. However, I think it would be a shame if their brake video was not in the disc brakes section of wikipedia. It definitely adds something to the page it was an external link on. It was for this reason that I put it back on as an external link. It also seems that they are not a commercial site as they do not have a store or any advertising on any of their pages. If you haven't checked out the 'how to change brakes' page on www.discount-trailer-parts yet, I recommend that you do. I think you'll agree that it is in the interest of wikipedia to have a link to it, and if you have to change the brakes on your car any time soon, it will probably save you a lot of money on a brake job! Geddes66 20:14, March 18, 2007.

Yes, knowing how to do your own brake job is a wonderful thing and I fully support it. Several editors have had some trouble with spamming to that site though. User_talk:Johnnymac99 almost got his discount-trailer-parts.com website blacklisted. I think the website is really great but this isn't the sort of thing that Wikipedia needs to be linking to. If you are interested in why then I'd suggest doing some reading over at WP:NOT. (Requestion 06:28, 19 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Special:Linksearch/*.xassets.com

Just what is it about the small companies (like Spiceworks) listed on the Systems Management topic that entitles them to be there and not xAssets, which is one of the most important providers of Systems Management Software in the market today and is probably the only technologically realistic competitor in this marketspace to the big+expensive products from companies like HP, BMC and IBM ? xAssets is a substantial organisation with over 30 employees and offices in the USA, Australia and 2 offices in UK, and a global reseller base. It provides solutions to at least 40 Fortune 500 companies, and many more SMEs. Please explain. If you don't list xAssets, dont list any of them ! unsigned comment by User:82.33.82.91 09:37, 20 March 2007

This is even more alarming when you look at the history of Penton Media unsigned comment by User:82.33.82.91 09:41, 20 March 2007
Wikipedia is WP:NOT a web directory and nothing entitles anybody to an external link. Thank you for pointing out the spiceworks.com linkspam, I just removed that link and I added a cleanup-spam tag to the Systems management page. If the stewards of that page don't clean it up themselves then I'll be back in a week to do some major house cleaning. I'm intrigued by your comment about Penton Media, can you tell me more? (Requestion 17:36, 20 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] SWOT Analysis

Thanks for your message, the coursework4you link was placed by another user, by they didn't seem to link it properly. I was unaware of any problems with this site, but I wasn't sure it fitted criteria as a link, I left it in with a note on the discusion page. I will remove it, if it still there.--Pandaplodder 08:48, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your support. Do you know that there is still a coursework4you reference in PEST analysis? (Requestion 17:39, 20 March 2007 (UTC))
Sorry about that, just went through the history log again and saw who put it in. PEST analysis is now clean. (Requestion 17:54, 20 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] your recent anti-spam warnings

Welcome to Wikipedia. We invite everyone to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia. However, the external links you added do not comply with our guidelines for external links. Wikipedia is not a mere directory of links; nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Since Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, external links do not alter search engine rankings. If you feel the link should be added to the article, then please discuss it on the article's talk page before reinserting it. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you.

Please no not leave active links when warning users about the sites that they are spamming that just helps their cause with one more link. Betacommand (talk • contribs • Bot) 19:00, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

First off, they are not active links, they have the spam. domain prefix. Second, WikiProject Spam suggests that we do this. Third, WP:EL does not apply in talk space. Fourth, you do not have a right to modify my talk messages. Fifth, you are a broken bot and you are violating WP:BOT. (Requestion 19:07, 20 March 2007 (UTC))
yes they are active links, spam is in any namespace even if they have a spam prefix just no wiki them. as having any links helps the spammers. and I am not a broken bot. Betacommand (talk • contribs • Bot) 19:22, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, your signature makes it look like you are a bot. A large number of spam fighters utilize this bread-crumb tagging technique. We need to take this to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spam since this is their policy. In the meantime can you please stop changing my messages? It is kind of rude. I know you mean well but if I went around changing peoples messages I would be blocked. (Requestion 19:30, 20 March 2007 (UTC))
already left a note there. add in the nowiki tags will not bet you blocked as the policy about changing others comments does not apply. All my actions were doing was disabling the link in your comment and in no way changing the meaning of your comment. Betacommand (talk • contribs • Bot) 19:37, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
My comment was meant to show up in a LinkSearch: query. So, yeah, you completely changed the meaning. (Requestion 22:21, 20 March 2007 (UTC))
Exactly. If not changing the verbatim meaning, it's certainly messing with someone else's intention behind their comments. Unless there is consensus supporting your position that these links in fact should not be left on talk pages—and that people in fact should be given a warning for it—would you kindly stop this crusade? The whole point of these links is so that the talkpages will appear in a Special:Linksearch for the link, enabling us to keep track of long-term low-volume links accumulating from varying accounts and IP addresses. It helps our cause much more than it helps theirs. Femto 23:41, 20 March 2007 (UTC)
I just came across this essay and thought it relevant to the current conversation: Wikipedia:Don't template the regulars. --A. B. (talk) 19:29, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
FYI, an arbcom action has been opened up -- see: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration#Betacommand. I feel bad about this but from looking at it, it looks like there are a number of issues folks are concerned about. --A. B. (talk) 21:56, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
Thank you for letting me know about that Arbcom link. The blanket de-spamming at rapid speeds seems to have created an angry mob that wants a lynching. Quite frightening and it doesn't look good which is unfortunate because Betacommand's heart is really in the right place. I'm thinking about writing up a short paragraph in Betacommand's defense. I spot checked about 50 of Betacommand's blanket despam edits and they look OK but a scope this massive should of been discussed first at ProjectSpam. What is worrisome is that the mob is focusing on abuse of admin / bot privileges and not on the side effect of 1000+ de-spam edits. When you remove that much spam you are bound to get a couple dozen angry regular editors screaming bloody murder that their external link was deleted, that's just the statistics of it. (Requestion 18:00, 28 March 2007 (UTC))
Three comments:
  • It's possible that Betacommand just has a bunch of tabs open to facilitate copying and pasting a bunch of warnings and edit summaries efficiently, then when he's done, hits a bunch of "save page" buttons all at once. I do this some times. The result is something that looks like a bot working rapidly -- but just for a minute or two.
  • I try to keep my spam deletion accuracy rate >>95%; my goal is to provoke as few regular editor complaints as possible by deleting only spam. Real spam never has anyone going to bat for it. Otherwise, if I'm deleting good-faith but noncompliant links, I just end up disrupting Wikipedia and frustrating the innocent -- I'm not sure it's worth it. It gets a bunch of regular editors angry at the whole spam removal/"link-nazi" "cabal", which doesn't help any of us much. I strongly believe Betacommand needs to slow down and be more selective. There tens or hundreds of thousands of truly spammy, sleazy links among Wikipedia's 3+ million external links -- that's enough to keep all of us busy 24 by 7 without any friendly fire. I'm still in awe of Betacommand's spree of deleting usaid.gov links from articles involving United States Agency for International Development programs -- what on earth was he thinking in targeting that as spam?
  • I remain troubled by Betacommand's tagging your page. I appreciate your forgiveness of him, but that mistake's a pretty big deal, especially since it's not apparently an isolated faux pas. The last time I chewed out a regular editor by mistake after not assuming good faith, I ate crow and wore sackcloth and ashes for months -- and that's as it should have been. We're here to serve, not to hassle.
Having said all this, I appreciate your commenting at Arbcom, positive or negative. I thought you would want to know about this. Let's hope that Betacommand: a. survives and b. learns something. --A. B. (talk) 18:54, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, I also do the batching up of edits trick with Firefox tabs, but I can't sustain those speeds for more than a minute. I'm not sure if BetaCommand did this with a script or a special automated preview tool in which case all the edits were verified by a human. That would toss a wrench into the whole bot abuse argument. It might not of been the proper thing to do but it sure was effective. Did you ever see this thread? Those edit summaries look strangely familiar, hmmmm. Who is the mysterious User_talk:James_McStub? In anycase I think this important topic needs to be discussed further and the WP:EL folk don't seem to be willing to tackle it. (Requestion 20:34, 28 March 2007 (UTC))
Just a note my bot like actions have been reviewed by BAG and they have sanctioned me accordingly. Betacommand (talk • contribs • Bot) 22:20, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
That was some really spooky foreshadowing when I mistakenly said "Fifth, you are a broken bot and you are violating WP:BOT" just prior to your 1000+ despam edit day. I'm not saying that a bot was used, but it was a freaky coincidence nevertheless. Looks like the request for arbitration is going to happen (3 out of 4 so far) and it smells like a witch hunt which is just plain wrong. Let me know if you think a positive comment from me would be more valuable in this current request phase or in the actual arbitration phase? I've never seen an arbitration like this before so let me know your opinion. (Requestion 22:57, 28 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Please reconsider

You reverted my change on the spam project page despite the fact that I've explained it is against Wikipedia policy. You then acted uncivilly and called me a spammer. Please reconsider your actions. I would prefer that you revert your change but at least explain yourself. And apologize for name calling. Noroton 01:39, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Name calling? I was simply stating a fact. Sorry, Noroton but you are a convicted spammer, see here for reference. I am sure you understand the major conflict of interest with letting spammers edit the Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam page. Thank you. (Requestion 02:59, 23 March 2007 (UTC))
  1. unless you have reason to beleive a particular edit is inappropriate, your actions go distinctly against WP:AGF.
  2. Wikipedia does not have a policy for "convicting" anyone. It's an encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and they should be free to do so unless they've made it clear that they will not abide by the rules. Having done something wrong before is not reason enough to revert someone. i kan reed 20:22, 24 March 2007 (UTC)
Hello i kan reed. The reasons why the edit was inappropriate has been discussed by several editors over at the Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam page. This is a much more complicated matter than it seems on the surface. I would appreciate it in the future if you could do a little research, I estimate two hours for this particular case, before you make random comments on my talk page. Thank you. (Requestion 21:12, 24 March 2007 (UTC))
Yeah. I've just been reading about this and it is just another case of Requestion aggressively defacing content on Wikipedia in the name of an imaginary "war" against spam, along with some other schoolkids who are the self-proclaimed WikiProject Spam Members. It is pitiful to see Wikipedia vandalized in this way. Jon Harrop 10:05, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Shredders and Disk Cloning Link Removal

Please help me understand why you would remove my link to TeraByte Unlimited CopyWipe ( http://spam.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php ), from the Shredding page, but leave links to others, including ShredIt and cyberCide. CopyWipe does not have its own article, but neither do the other two. And those are just random examples. (Scott D 02:38, 29 March 2007 (UTC))

Same thing with Disk_cloning. Why remove my one external link, and leave all the others? I don't get it. A new link to terabyteunlimited.com is bad, but existing links to ~30 other external sites like symantec.com, veritas.com, drive-backup.com, altiris.com, linbox.org, feyrer.de, drivesnapshot.de, partimage.org, miray.de, and a slew of others are all OK? Please explain, because this confuses me. I could understand if my edit made the page catch your eye, and a full cleanup was done, but removing only my link doesn't make sense to me. (Scott D 07:27, 29 March 2007 (UTC))

I was not being selective about your terabyteunlimited.com link and it is nothing personal. I simply don't have enough time to delete all the link spam that I see. Please read WP:NOT to understand why I deleted your external link. The {{cleanup-spam}} tag was added to give someone else a chance to deal with this spam problem. I see that you re-added your terabyteunlimited.com link and blanked your discussion page [2] [3]. You should be aware that some admins consider removing user talk page warnings to be vandalism and will permanently block you for such violations. (Requestion 17:28, 29 March 2007 (UTC))
You were not being selective in removing that one link? Sorry, but I cannot get my mind around that statement. There were about 30 links on the one page, all external and essentially identical in nature and intent, and you removed my ONE link. You had time to go to the page, remove my link, and make a couple other edits, but you don't have time to remove even ONE other link, even though they are right there? Again, it is impossible to see this as anything other than selective, arbitrary editing.
Perhaps I will assist you with your "spam link" removal, by removing ALL the links on those two pages.
And I don't need any more thinly-veiled threats, thank you. You, a non-admin, add an unnecessary blurb to my talk page, even though it was essentially redundant to what was already there, and I have to look at it forever? If this is what Wikipedia is like, I'm glad I didn't spend more time here sooner, nor will I bother to contribute further. And like it or not, I feel as if that was your point to begin with. You win. Hooray! (Scott D 22:40, 29 March 2007 (UTC))
You did something that popped up on my spam radar, I went in and removed the spam, it's that simple, and it's nothing personal. If you read WP:NOT you will understand why your links were deleted. Take a look at my contribution log. I have about 1000 despam edits, most of them are very surgical and very clean. When I run into a link farm, I add a cleanup-spam tag and those links get cleaned up at a later date. Thank you for re-adding those links. You prompted me to remove the two spam magnet sections from both of those articles, but please do help with removing spam, we need all the help we can get.
Adding sequential spam warnings is standard practice. It sounds like you didn't even bother reading any of the links in the spam warnings before you blanked your talk page, again. And your comment "Bother to contribute further?" You're joking right? Almost all that you've done in the past two years is add external links to Wikipedia. (Requestion 23:59, 29 March 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Special:Linksearch/*.wi-figurus.com

I saw that the Wirelss LAN page needs some major content update so as a quick fix I added a link to Wi-Fi tutorials written by Jim geier to the Wirless LAN page becuase I believe the users looking for Wireless LAN information would greatly benefit from more than 100 free professional quality tutorials written by Mr. Geier. Jim is author of several books on wireless LAN published by Cisco and other publications. So I would appreciate if you could put th elink back. ( User:Cvparikh 19:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC))

The wi-figurus.com link that you added to Wireless LAN wasn't appropriate because external links to forums, tutorials, and how-to's are to be avoided. Please see WP:EL for further clarification. Bascially Wikipedia is WP:NOT a web directory. Also the AdWords on the wi-figurus.com page suggests a promotional nature, but I would of deleted it even if it didn't have ads. The most important question though is how does that link improve Wikipedia? (Requestion 22:56, 30 March 2007 (UTC))
If this is the case can you please explain how does the current two external links on the Wireless LAN page add value to Wikipedia? They are both very commercial in nature. The first one 'Wireless LAN - Directory & Informational Resource' is nothing but a page full of Google Adesense ads with a list of few external links to Wi-Fi related organizations. The second link, '3G/UMTS wireless LAN router' is a review page (Sept 2005) of Cisco-Linksys and Vodafone introduce a 3G/UMTS wireless LAN router on Engadget site (again comemrical in nature with Google ads). Whereas the link I submitted was to the tutorial section of Wi-FiGurus which has 100 some professional written tutorials that would help any one seeking more educational type information (aren't many wikipedia users information seekers?) about wireless LAN. unsigned comment by [User:Cvparikh]] 16:48, 6 April 2007
I missed that one. Good eye and excellent spam sleuthing! Those links you just described sound very spammy to me. Could you please delete them? I recommend using an informative edit summary. Mentioning something like "removing linkspam" is always a good idea. Stomp out link spam cause it's fun! (Requestion 17:04, 6 April 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Deletion of link on Radicore

Hello, you have twice removed the official web site link from the Radicore article; however, having a link to the official home page is encouraged, quoting WP:EL:

"Articles about any organization, person, web site, or other entity should link to the official site if any."

As long as the address is not found on Wikimedia's blacklist, it can be linked regardless of whether it's been spammed on other articles. If you really want to get rid of it, you are welcome to nominate the article for deletion; however, your current behavior is arbitrary at best. -- intgr 06:44, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Over at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spam we are told to remove all links added by a spammer. I am a surgical spam fighter and that is exactly what I do. User_talk:Tonymarston has been spamming the radicore.org and the tonymarston.net external links across Wikipedia. Tony is one linkspam away from being blocked and blacklisted. Don't worry about the Radicore because it will be deleted soon enough. I would appreciate it if you removed that radicore.org link I deleted. Thank you for your support. (Requestion 14:42, 4 April 2007 (UTC))
I wouldn't expect WikiProject Spam to override the external link guideline. I'll remain neutral. -- intgr 15:35, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Clymer repair manual

Hi. I noticed you've removed the links from Clymer repair manual a few times. I agree with you that the one for the parent company and the one for buying the manual are quite spamish. But I think there should at least be a link for clymer.com, since that is the company that makes the manual. What do you think? Cheers. --EarthPerson 14:48, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

This company is being blacklisted from Wikipedia. Note that User_talk:JHenton is a Penton employee and that this corporate spamming has been going on for many months. (Requestion 14:52, 4 April 2007 (UTC))
I see. Is Clymer repair manual going to be prod'd or AfD'd? If not, can there be a link to clymer.com? I'm only asking since it seems to be related to Chilton manuals and I though that Chilton was notable enough for an article. --EarthPerson 14:57, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
Yes the article will likely be deleted. I'm a little confused. Aren't Clymer and Chilton different companies? Clymer is owned by Prism Media which is Penton Media. (Requestion 15:02, 4 April 2007 (UTC))
My bad. I wasn't clear. They certainly are different companies. I meant that they were related only in the sense that both were third party repair manuals for cars or what-have-you. If you look over an early version of the Clymer article, I put in a see also that included Chilton. Pity about the spaming. I'd think that stubs of each would be good. Thanks. --EarthPerson 15:07, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
If you'd like some more information on the Penton Media spam campaign then check out Talk:Penton_Media and Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam/2007_Archive_Feb#PRISM_Business_Media_Inc. Two months later and I'm still finding and cleaning up old Penton/Prism spam. (Requestion 00:42, 5 April 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Spam#Startcom revisited

Hi. I just left a note against blacklisting Startcom and I wanted to make sure you understood I was not trying to shoot you down. I spent 2 hours of time going through Linux and security articles on other wikipedias today not looking for Startcom links but just trying to figure out if this foreign company was notable -- was anyone anywhere else in the world mentioning the company or its products. I wrote this up at Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/StartCom‎#Startcom references in other Wikipedias. I found the record was mixed in terms of COI vs. AGF edits.

It was only later that I saw [[your post at WT:WPSPAM. I wanted to make sure you didn't think the robot was coming back to try to bite you. --A. B. (talk) 20:36, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

No problem. Thanks for the note. I still haven't decided if I want to voice an opinion of delete or keep in that AfD. I probably should decide soon before the AfD closes. The only thing that makes StartCom Linux marginally interesting is the SSL angle. I'm a huge Linux fan so I am a bit biased. On one hand I've never heard of StartCom which means they fail my personal notability test and on the other hand I want to see Linux succeed. The advertising on the Startcom pages is very heavy and the external linkage also seems spammy. So I have a dilemma. Do I stomp out spam or do I support one of the zillion Linux distributions? (Requestion 22:43, 5 April 2007 (UTC))
I'm not an expert on either Linux or SSL, but from my digging around today, I'd say the SSL is a keeper and the Linux distribution is not. Maybe merge the company and SSL articles together. I found the comment from Stpeter compelling.
As for bad behavior, well ... I just remind myself I'm here to write an encyclopedia and even Satan gets an article. I try to put my personal annoyance aside. (Call me a robot!) But I know how you feel. --A. B. (talk) 23:37, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
SSL is the encrypted layer that you use every time you purchase something on the net. When you see "https:" and the lock, thats SSL. Anybody can get certified keys and that is what StartCom Linux is doing. StartCom doesn't make SSL, they just sell it like many companies do. So the business deal to distribute/sell SSL keys makes StartCom a little different than your average Linux company but it doesn't make them special or even notable.
Even Satan gets an article, I like that. I created the Penton page with a similar line of thinking. Have you noticed that Penton is active again after a 2 month hibernation? Too bad that the MyWikiBiz page got deleted, now it is a redirect. I voted to keep it. (Requestion 01:22, 6 April 2007 (UTC))
On an unrelated topic, nice edit summary (the last part)![4]--YourRobotFriend (talk) 12:23, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
Didn't intend for it sound like broken English. I forgot to add an "is" so it would read: "This is the WP:SPAM talk page not WP:EL, Mars revealed." Maybe it was better that way? About mars-mars-mars.com, I just love calling peoples bluffs with diffs. But in this case I'm not sure he was bluffing, I think he just forgot. After a couple hundred linkspam additions I guess it is difficult to remember exactly what you added! (: (Requestion 16:38, 6 April 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Deletion of RADIUS links

I saw that you removed a number of links to whitepapers on RADIUS - for example the history of RADIUS on the RADIUS server wiki page. After your last deletion, I went through considerable effort to create an HTML page with the white paper content and link on the Wiki page directly to the white paper HTML - so not to send users generically to a resource page with our white papers.

I've done similar work to create other pages to point directly at those pages instead of a generic resource page. I'm trying to be a good citizen, but it seems like once you've locked onto a user, you remove all their links, all the time. Even on pages that list all the radius servers on the market, you specifically targeted my link, and left similar links of all other users.

What's up with that? Our white papers are no less valuable than the Cisco & MS whitepapers that you have routinely left in place. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wikiboy121 (talk • contribs) 22:58, 5 April 2007 (UTC).

It just wasn't me, a lot of other editors have removed your links too. Wikipedia is not an advertising medium. The links you have been adding September 2006 are WP:SPAM. Also please keep in mind that Wikipedia is WP:NOT a web directory. If you feel that your competitor's links are spam then please feel free to remove them, in fact I would appreciate it if you did.
I have a question for you. I understand how interlinknetworks.com and lucidlink.com are connected by Vern Smith. But how does companycrafters.com fit in to this? It has nothing to do with RADIUS. Why are you adding that link? (Requestion 01:08, 6 April 2007 (UTC))

I added the entreprenuer's dictionary as a contribution because I've used it as a resource for financial terms, and it fit the sections I added it to.

[edit] m-indya.com java-samples.com linkspam

The links I had added were informative pages and not spam. Why would you remove relevant links? (Eskalin)

Sorry but Wikipedia is WP:NOT a web directory. You own those websites and that is a serious WP:COI. This has nothing to do with the quality or the appropriateness of your webpage links. Please stop adding those links to Wikipedia. (Requestion 06:49, 6 April 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Radius external link

Hello, I see you removed an external link I added from the RADIUS article to the open.com.au RadiusExpert wiki. Its not clear to me that the link qualifies as linkspam. The RadiusExpert is a vendor-neutral source of relevant RADIUS information including information about compatible RADIUS devices and software contributed by the RADIUS community. It includes relevant information not found in the parent RADIUS article. The link is not "for the purpose of promoting a website or a product". We host the wiki as a service to the RADIUS community, without regard to company or product. I do not belive this is a WP:COI. Please reconsider. Cheers. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mikemccauley (talk • contribs) 01:34, 7 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Jeff Winter

Hi. I didn't add the podcast reference, and I don't really mind whether it's included in the above article. However, for future reference, I need to know why you removed it as linkspam, when the podcast contains the voice of Jeff Winter, and therefore a high degree of relevancy, or at least in my understanding of what makes a reference. Would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks. Refsworldlee(chew-fat)(eds) 21:21, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Hello Refsworldlee. I'm just cleaning up the mess made by a spammer. Check out User talk:65.248.131.254 and Special:Contributions/65.248.131.254 for details. I'm not sure if this user is just an overzealous fan or if this is somehow related to the ScriptLogic spam? (Requestion 21:27, 7 April 2007 (UTC))
Despite being impressed with your good work on this user's spam edits, I really think this is an exception, and he/she has made a valid link to relevant content via the web. Would you be offended if I reverted this instance to include the podcast? Or I could re-add under my own name if you'd rather? Refsworldlee(chew-fat)(eds) 21:53, 7 April 2007 (UTC)
This individual/company has added about 100 external link spams to Wikipedia and you think this quality link is an exception? This users domains are going to be blacklisted so I wouldn't bother re-adding it. A blacklisted link will lock the page until it is removed so it will just cause problems for editors who are not aware. I just found another swath of spam IPs so the scope of this spamming just got bigger. (Requestion 22:02, 7 April 2007 (UTC))
No need to get defensive, I have already said I couldn't care less. It can stay as it is. Refsworldlee(chew-fat)(eds) 23:51, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] OCaml for Scientists

Please stop deleting only my book from the list of OCaml books. The link has been added back by several other people as well as myself. If you believe that Wikipedia should not reference any books then at least be self-consistent and delete all of the books (although I think that would also make Wikipedia worse). -- Jon Harrop

Please stop adding your book and your ffconsultancy.com website to Wikipedia. It is considered spam. You've been warned multiple times and you are about to be blacklisted. Wikipedia is WP:NOT a link directory and it is not meant to be used for advertising or self promotion. Adding your own links to Wikipedia is a serious WP:COI. If you feel that the external links to the other books are spam then please delete them. (Requestion 23:14, 7 April 2007 (UTC))
You recently deleted another link to free articles on our company site that was added by someone else. You are not deleting spam. You are deleting content. -- Jon Harrop
Sorry but Wikipedia is not an advertising medium and external links are not content. (Requestion 03:50, 8 April 2007 (UTC))
You did not delete advertising material. You deleted links to free articles.
I appreciate that you are trying to improve Wikipedia but, having read your talk page, I have had to add you to the Wikipedia vandalism page because of your persistent defacing of valid content that has been contributed by many different people. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jdh30 (talk • contribs) 04:12, 8 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Linkspam ast.cac.washington.edu?

I wouldn't say the links added to bagpipes and hurdy gurdy by telle2007 are linkspam. In fact, they're very high quality demonstrations of instruments, mainly from the French baroque courts. There isn't any advertising on those links that I can find and they are very interesting so I've reverted them back again. I don't know about the other links but you might want to check them out. I'll be offline for a couple hours from now so keep that in mind if you're going to respond soon. :) Graham87 03:18, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Telle2007 is just one of 7 accounts that this individual has used to add a couple hundred external links to Wikipedia. This user doesn't respond on their talk page and the Special:Linksearch/*.ast.cac.washington.edu domain is going to be blacklisted. I have nothing against hurgy gurdys or bagpipes. In fact I remember seeing Sting play one at the Oscars a couple years ago. I'm just trying to clean up the mess made by a mass-spammer. (Requestion 03:30, 8 April 2007 (UTC))

Requestion, you deleted a link from the Ingrid Mattson page citing Linkspam. How was this link different from any of the others? I've also asked this on the article's discussion page Macduff 03:33, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, Requestion is clearly violating WP:VAN by removing links without adequate reason. Jon Harrop
Note that Jon Harrop has a spam complaint above. See the OCaml thread. (Requestion 03:55, 8 April 2007 (UTC))
Note that Requestion now has a vandalism complaint. -- Jon Harrop
Note that the false vandalism claim by Jon Harrop has been discarded, see [5]. Please don't feed this troll anymore. (Requestion 07:13, 8 April 2007 (UTC))
Hello Macduff. I don't know what you mean, different from what others? Take a look at Special:Contributions/Jammer6524. It is the same ast.cac.washington.edu spammer. Follow the LinkSearch above and then click on the contributions for each spam.user and you'll see all the links that they added. I count about 200 linkspams. Many other editors have reverted this spam too. (Requestion 03:55, 8 April 2007 (UTC))

Since this ast.cac.washington.edu spamming has generated a fair amount of interest I am going to begin laying out my evidence:

This individual has so far failed to communicate on any discussion page. New WP:SPA's as they are found will be added above. Blacklisting is going to be requested. (Requestion 07:13, 8 April 2007 (UTC))

Requestion, I appreciate your passion but your emotive language and lack of logic are disheartening. Firstly, you have assumed that those links are all spam. They don't look like spam to me (in fact, there are some very interesting videos freely available from those pages), and they don't look like spam to others here. So that is at best debateable. Secondly, you seem to have assumed that all links to that site must have been added by one individual who created several accounts and used IP addresses registered all over the world. That seems very far fetched claim. I know that you incorrectly accused me of the same thing before you deleted all links to free content on our company's site, so I must assume that you are now incorrectly accusing others.
I think everyone would benefit if you used a little less haste and a little more speed. Consider the hundreds of links before removing them all. Are these links really devoid of merit? If you honestly believe that Wikipedia would be better without any external links then try to convince the admins and alter the software so that external links cannot appear in articles. In the mean time, I think the best way for you to improve Wikipedia is to stop deleting content and upsetting the people who spend their precious free time writing these articles. Jon Harrop 09:46, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The original source for those links

The original source for the links is the Research Channel hosted by the University of Washington. See their about page for more about their mission. They appear to be a cable channel in the US who put many of their programs online. I have no idea why the 7 accounts you listed above had to use the ast.cac.washington.edu URL - perhaps that is spam (the port 20000 number seems suspicious) or maybe it is a legitimate mirror. The SPA's behind these accounts are being far too aggressive but they are adding links to legitimate content. I think the links to ast.cac.washington.edu should be dealt with on a case by case basis (there is bound to be some junk in there) and replaced with links to researchchannel.org. However I understand that the SPA's are adding them far too quickly and aggressively and that is a problem.

I'm also a spam fighter and I normally deal with blatant spam like say these people who spammed a lot of articles last Christmas, but I've never seen a case like this. Graham87 08:06, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

The people who added these links did not seem to consider the relationship of the article to the video, and that is also why they can seem spammy. For example, a link was added to John Astin where the only relationship between him and the video is that he happened to be the narrator. He had nothing to do with the contents of the video, which is actually about pioneering work at Johns Hopkins University related to the history of television. Therefore, I added the link to the history of television article since it provides a valuable resource beyond what could ever be in the article. That is how I ideally see external links sections and I think researchchannel.org could be an excellent resource when used effectively in this way. Graham87 12:33, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spamstar of Glory

The Spamstar of Glory
To Requestion for ferocity in the battle against LinkSpam on Wikipedia. --Hu12 08:09, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

keep up the good work!--Hu12 08:09, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

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