User talk:Falconep

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re: Category:Washington Star people. Falconep, a Category page is not a place for either signatures nor external links. WP:Category has some information on what this part of Wikipedia is for. I do suggest you follow some of the useful links below and hope you enjoy editing here - Peripitus (Talk) 12:44, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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[edit] Washington Star People

HI Falconep, looking through your edits I think the section you need to read is Wikipedia:SPAM#External_link_spamming. To date you seem to have been trying to promote a web-based social network. Wikipedia is a place for creating and editing articles - not promotion nor advertising. - Peripitus (Talk) 21:42, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
Phil (I'm assuming that this is you here), perhaps you have not gained the insight I would have hoped from the above links so I'll try to summarise it here. External links are only used to add to the article - specifically where the material cannot be placed in the article in prose form due to reasons of size, copyright etc. If I have your identity correct then you are an administrator on the Washington Star Alum website which leads to an impression of, if not an actual, conflict of interest. The guideline (not policy) followed here is:

• "Do not edit Wikipedia to promote your own interests, or those of other individuals, companies, or groups, unless you are certain that the interests of Wikipedia remain paramount" (see WP:COI)

Categories are for ordering material on the website, not for adding text and links. If you see that the link is relevant it should go in the Washington Star article. In a category (or it's talk/discussion page) noone will see it and it does not add to the subject matter. Wikipedia sees a lot of people, with an affiliation to a website, who mainly just add links to their websites. Per the note in the Wikipedia:Spam guideline this is usually considered spam.

• "Adding external links to an article or user page for the purpose of promoting a website or a product is not allowed, and is considered to be spam."

What is needed here, as with many links, is third party commentary on the site. From what I can see it is a primary source that has not been commented on or reviewed by a third party. While the site clearly has reputable contributors does not seem to have attracted any significant interest and is unlikely to be seen as a good reliable source for encyclopedic material. I do suggest that you edit the article on the newspaper as, with your background, you are in a good position to improve it.
In answer to your other points:

• Category:Washington Star people is a list of people who have articles on Wikipedia who are known as working at the Washington Star - nothing more.
• I am happy to help you with adding material to the Washington Star article. What is needed for this link is some third-party verified relevance to the article itself.
• Wikipedia relies on secondary sources - primary sources like the Alumni website are discouraged.
• I (an thousands of others) run Wikipedia - as can you. There is little hierarchy here and the policies and guidelines are the largely the result of consensus of editors.

At the moment the site is linked from two pages, neither of which will receive much notice. The article is the better place to place material you see as relevant.- Peripitus (Talk) 00:34, 2 June 2008 (UTC)