Talk:Library of Economics and Liberty

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I'm a bit curious why this page is marked as a potential advertisement while the Wikipedia page for, say, Bartleby.com is not.

Econlib.org's history is very similar to Bartleby.com's, only with an explicit emphasis on great classics of economics. Like Bartleby.com, it branched out to include a widely-used reference encyclopedia. It also branched out to include other media, such as podcasts with renowned economists, including Nobel Prize winners.

What about this entry has singled it out for looking like an advertisement? Why are the Wikipedia articles for, say, Amazon.com and Project Gutenberg not also labeled as advertisements? Why not Wikipedia's Democrat and Chronicle page--a small newspaper in Rochester, NY whose page looks more like advertising than the Econlib page? Why not the Economic Policy Institute page?

Is it a question of writing style?

The Econlib article passes all the criteria set out in Wikipedia's guidelines at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:NOT#SOAPBOX. It is written objectively and unbiasedly. Every sentence is third-party verifiable. It is not about a small group or garage-based company. The outside links are directly relevant and limited, analogous to those for the Wikipedia entries for corporations such as Amazon.com and Bartleby.com.

Marking it as potential advertising seems arbitrary.


As a friend and believer of Econlib, I have to say it did sound like an ad, though I'm not completely sure why. It's tacit. But I think most of this was due to writing style. May I make the following suggestions:
  • Group the information. General stuff first (like the sponsor), specific stuff later (like the content and audience).
  • Add headings and subheading to label said groups.
  • Back proclamations with citations (what is "popular"?).
  • Avoid phrases like "EconLib is devoted to..." Instead use "EconLib focuses on..." It's more objective.
  • Avoid reptitions ("It supplies educational resources for students, teachers, researchers, librarians, and aficionados of economic thought."...."Most EconLib site resources are oriented toward students and teachers in college, late high school, or early graduate school, with a focus on economics."
  • Sign your posts.
I've made a lot of changes to the article, including the removal of some items which I wasn't sure about. (Is it really valuable to say Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is a popular document to download?) Anything I took out could always be added later--best to be sure that the ad tag stays off. -David Youngberg 22:03, 8 May 2007 (UTC)