User talk:203.87.209.110

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Thank you for experimenting with the page Mode (statistics) on Wikipedia. Your test worked, and it has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you may want to do. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. //Memming 15:12, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SOCKS list

Please do not rearrange external links list in SOCKS article. Sorting by any criteria other than alphabetical assigns an undue weight to top items. This may be considered blatant external link spamming and lead to the URL being permanently blacklisted from Wikipedia altogether. In fact, formally according to this policy, the whole list needs to be removed. My edit removed some of the commercial/promotional bias from a list until proper cleanup can be done. Reverting my edit is really pushing for the removal of the list. Alex Pankratov 21:50, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

As I explained above, external links lists are against WP policy. Lists that are ordered by some non-trivial criteria (presumably to push certain items closer to the top) are manifestation of active spamming. I did not want to escalate this issue as I am generally against removal of the content from WP, but your edits leave no choice. I am requesting Admin help to get this list removed once and for all. Alex Pankratov 02:23, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
FYI. Please let your opinion be known there if desired. Alex Pankratov 02:36, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
Please also try and refrain from personal attacks. Thank you. Alex Pankratov 02:25, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
I have to ask you again to refrain from personal attacks. One can hardly have a reasonable conversation with a person who advises to "go to censor some Russian press". If do want to talk about the actual subject matter, please restore the civility of the conversation first. Alex Pankratov 02:40, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
Ok, thanks for removing unrelated remarks. Back to the subject then. Lists of external links are technically against WP's "Not a directory" policy. This tends to attract overzealous editors that nuke them left and right without giving it much of a thought. I've been through this before, see for example IAX article edits. The policy is quite ambiguous, but unfortunately many editors tend to interpret way too strictly. See, for example, this exchange. What appears to help in preventing these blanket removals is keeping a link list as neutral as possible. Ideally the list should be converted to use WP's List template, similar to how it done, for example, on Instant Messagers page. Note that how the list defaults to sorting by the name. When it's sorted in any other way, one can argue a bias to promote top items. It is also the order that one would expect from the encyclopedia material. Hence my edits. Alex Pankratov 04:30, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Lists of external links are considered routinely tagged for the cleanup. The policy is that lists should consists of internal Wiki links, which is the only way to guarantee the compliance with WP:RS guideline. See the reference in External Links discussion I gave in the post immediately above this one. I have requested help in cleaning the list up here and here. Please refrain from deleting the tag for now, until more people respond. Alex Pankratov 23:20, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] November 2007

Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia, as you did to Talk:Nursing home. Your edits appear to constitute vandalism and have been reverted. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. Burlywood 16:30, 15 November 2007 (UTC)