User talk:217.46.190.1

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please don't add spam links to articles. It is not what wikipedia is about, and it is annoying to go through and remove them. As you clearly aren't a new user, struggling with the concept, I will be blunt. Consider this the first warning on the road to being blocked. Turn back while you still can.

16:51, 15 December 2005 (UTC) (Skittle)

Actually I am a new user, I found wikipedia when I was looking for some info on scatman john and that is the only page I've read on it so far. I added some links which I thought were genuinely useful - if you didn't find them genuinely useful then I apologise.

Sorry. I probably should have assumed good faith; I'd been dealing with trolls and vandals, then came across an IP (you) adding essentially the same external link to a number of electronic-goods pages. It looked like classic link spamming. Sorry. Your editing is, of course, appreciated. I assumed you weren't a new editor (my mistake) because you were adding external links, which is not typically something done by people unfamiliar with editing.

12:52, 16 December 2005 (UTC) (Skittle)

Thanks Skittle, believe me, working out how to add the links was not an easy task!! The site I was linking to seems to be a bit of an authority site on mobile pricing - I found it on www.moneysavingexpert.com - the guy has a tv program in the UK advocating trying to save consumers as much money as possible.

I got a second opinion in the talk page of mobile phone, talk:mobile phone, and they thought it was spam too. You're clearly just too smart for your own good! If I were a better wikipedian, I would offer you a load of links to useful pages with rules and help. As it is, I don't know them, so I'm afraid you're left to your own devices to find your way, unless someone more knowledgable decides to help out. Standard advice is to get a log in, which requires no information about you at all, not even an email. That way, people trust your edits more and you can create new articles. But who am I to talk? (I have a login, I just find I think I'll only make this one edit, so there's no point in logging in...)

Sorry again.

Skittle

Thanks for your help Skittle, I guess this is the nature of something that everyone can edit, different views on different subjects! By the way on the other external links that you listed further down the talk page I personally wouldn't say they were spam but I'm straining to find a big difference between how relevant they are compared to the links I've listed so maybe removing them would be best as well - tricky business this wiki!!

Anthony

It is. The thing with external links is that it isn't enough to be relevant. You shouldn't list a website that is out to make money unless it contains information unavailable anywhere else, that is relevant. Otherwise, you get swamped in them. And there are companies out there that pay people to mention them on the wiki, post links to their sites, etc! Maybe I'll delete them with a comment, and see if anyone feels strongly enough to reinstate them.

Skittle