User talk:HWInc
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Please do not add inappropriate external links to Wikipedia, as you did in Sex toy. Wikipedia is not a mere directory of links nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Inappropriate links include (but are not limited to) links to personal web sites, links to web sites with which you are affiliated, and links that exist to attract visitors to a web site or promote a product. See the external links guideline and spam policies for further explanations of links that are considered appropriate. If you feel the link should be added to the article, then please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. See the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thank you. --Karafias Talk • Contributions 07:37, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
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Hey! Welcome to Wikipedia. I'm glad to see your edits were in good faith, and you aren't just a spam-bot that adds links to sexual articles. People affiliated with various commercial sites constantly add links tp their web sites in different wiki articles. If this sort of thing was allowed, it would rapidly blow way out of proportion and wiki articles would become huge link depositories for commercial sites. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a site to advertise on. I can understand that you want to have your work seen, but that isn't really what wikipedia is for. You're welcome to contribute to different sex articles, and use some of your articles as a reference (with <ref></ref> tags). For instance, adding additional information to the sex toy article, then citing one of your articles as a reference. Generally, though, it's frowned on to link to your own site. This implies bias, as you're promoting your own product. Your site may be there more because you are constantly editing pages to include your site, rather than because it deserves to be there. Are your articles noteworthy? Maybe. It's possible that your articles are really great, and they should be there. But your should try and understand that everyone wants to promote their own site, whether it is commercial or not. And most of these sites are of poor quality, commercial, or non-notable. I generally revert vandalism and edits that don't belong, rather than review links and improve articles. Reading everything and deciding to keep it or change it is no easy task, and it almost always offends someone. If you really think your link belongs, bring it up on the article's talk page, and discuss how to integrate it.
An excessive amount of external links is frowned on, and so are commercial links. However, due to the nature of wikipedia, this isn't perfectly enforced. Sexual articles are a big target for pay sites promoting wares. Every wiki article is only as good as the people who edit it. When there is only 5 real editors that occasionally contribute to a certain article, and 34596229 people promoting their site on that article, it can become difficult to keep up with policies and guidelines. I've glanced at some of the pages you edited, and it seems that most of the external links are from non-profit sites that don't sell wares, or are noteworthy research articles, even if they are on a commercial site. Of course, there is also a noticeable excess of links, and some links that don't really belong... anyway, hopefully someone will clean them up. I might get around to it, if I have some spare time this weekend.
Wiki has a lot of policies and guidelines that need to be followed in order to meaningfully contribute. While you may not understand it all at first, they're there for a reason. My suggestion to you is to not add external links at all, at least not until you understand how wiki works a bit more. Using them as a reference to prove a claim is fine. I would encourage you to contribute your knowledge to the articles, rather than just add links to your site. This is an encyclopedia, and the goal here is to improve it. Expanding and improving articles furthers this goal much more than adding yet another external link to a site.
Feel free to contact me with any more questions. By the way, when leaving a message on a talk page, you can "sign" your message with your username and the date by pressing ~~~~. This makes it easier for the person reading the message to identify and contact you. Thanks! --Karafias Talk • Contributions 08:54, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
Please stop adding inappropriate external links to Wikipedia. It is considered spamming and Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising or promotion. Since Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, additions of links to Wikipedia will not alter search engine rankings. If you continue spamming, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. OhNoitsJamie Talk 21:25, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
