User talk:Searchlit

Please do not add commercial links or links to your own private websites to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising or a mere collection of external links. You are, however, encouraged to add content instead of links to the encyclopedia. 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. Thanks. --TeaDrinker 19:28, 2 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

External Link Policy

Earlier today, I received a message from you about external links and see that what I added is purged. I feel that the policy is very agreeable, but the nature of the link warrants further consideration.

I run a start-up non-profit web site titled SearchLIT.org with the goal of identifying, collecting and organizing great links and information around public domain books for educators and students. A book, such as "Call of the Wild" on SearchLIT.org identifies important information such as grade level and age appropriateness, plus links to wonderful supplementary sites (including Wikipedia) and value-adding lesson plans and quizzes for teachers when appropriate. It is not a commercial site at all. I invite you to check-out SearchLIT.org's text record page for "Call of the Wild" at: http://www.SearchLIT.org/elibrary/viewnovel.php?novel_id=270

After reviewing the contents of this page, do you agree that this provides a strong complement to Wikipedia's page? If so, do you feel that adding this as an external link is suitable? If not, how can I add help Wikipedia with the information that I have collected? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Searchlit (talk • contribs) .

Thanks for the note. In general, folks who are affiliated with a website should not add links to their own site. This is primarily aimed at avoiding conflicts of interest. The best course of action, in my view, would be wait and let editors of specific pages add links to the site themselves, if they find it to be useful, relevant, adding something not found in the article text itself. It is fairly rare that a single site becomes a link in many articles; usually when this happens the site is a very extensive or complete collection (such as IMDB or Project Gutenberg). Perhaps with time (and further development of your site), editors here will recognize your site as such. However at present, my own view is that it probably should not be included in the external links section. Links to further collections of links are not usually the best way to do a links section, in my view. I know this is not the answer you're probably hoping for. Thanks, --TeaDrinker 22:46, 2 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

hello, you deleted my external links recently but I have seen other sites having their external links similarly to what I did and how comes their's is not deleted? I appriciate Wikipedia's policy on linking websites but it isn't fair if one person can do it and others can't! can you explain please? Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.17.167.32 (talk • contribs) .

Sorry about this, I think the above user saw your comments on my talk page and was confused. I will leave a not on his/her talk page. Thanks, --TeaDrinker 23:16, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]