User talk:Vilhelmcorlin

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[edit] External Links

You can read the policy at Wikipedia:External Links. To summarize, the purpose of external links is to provide information for the reader. Commercial links are to be avoided wherever possible, because if you allow one, you have to allow them all. Many articles (and Student loan is clearly one) would become massive collections of advertising links vastly outweighing actual article content if we let them. Fan-1967 05:49, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I read the link. Decent article, in the middle of a page full of links trying to sell loan services. Is the article potentially useful? Maybe, but I didn't offhand see anything unique or groundbreaking. Is the link essential enough to the article to justify sending people to that page full of advertising links? I don't think so. Fan-1967 06:50, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Not sure that I am replying in the right place, but I'll try:

I see your point but wonder why you feel you would have to allow ALL commerical links if you allow one.

Hard and fast rules like that can exclude otherwise useful info.

I would think that your goal is to provide the users of Wikipedia with the best information and therefore would want to provide commerical links that are worthy. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Vilhelmcorlin (talk • contribs).

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I've rearranged the Talk page to keep things in sequence. Basically the problem is how do you decide to keep one commercial link but not allow another? How do you come up with a gauge to decide which should stay? Generally, one commercial link on a page is seen as an invitation to those who would like to post others, and if you remove theirs while someone else's remain, they will complain that it's unfair. Unless you can come up with some clearly defined criteria, it's really hard to justify keeping one and not all.

Ultimately, you have to come down to a simple question. Is there genuinely essential information available in the commercial link that would not be available otherwise? Or, to put it another way, don't include commercial links unless you absolutely have to. Fan-1967 15:47, 26 November 2006 (UTC)