User talk:Wchc

August 2008

Please do not add inappropriate external links to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a collection 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 attract visitors to a web site or promote a product. See the external links guideline and spam guideline for further explanations. Since Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, external links do not alter search engine rankings. If you feel the link should be added to the article, please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. Thank you. Ckatz^chat_spy 22:08, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Welcome

Hello Wchc, and Welcome to Wikipedia! Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Also, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! Franamax (talk) 18:10, 28 August 2008 (UTC) Getting started Introduction The five pillars of Wikipedia How to edit a page Finding your way around Table of contents Department directory Editing articles How to develop an article Manual of Style Getting help Frequently asked questions Cheatsheet Where to ask a question Help pages New contributors' help page How you can help Contributing to Wikipedia Community Portal Follow Wikipedia etiquette Practice civility

External links

Hi Wchc, I see you've asked Ckatz about external links and I thought I'd take a stab at answering.

As Ckatz noted above, the best way to add external links is to discuss them first on the article talk page (remember to sign your posts with four tildes ~~~~). You can also check the article history for the recent editors and ask on their talk pages. Another place to go is the associated WikiProject, in this case WPP Washington. (Beware, sometimes WikiProjects are inactive)

I'd personally say your link would be okay for the Whatcom County article but not necessary for the individual towns, but you should get the opinion of people actually involved in editing those articles.

In any case, you're best off going slow and contributing more than just your favourite external links to Wikipedia. When a new (or anonymous) user shows up and the only thing they do is add the same link over and over, they're almost automatically treated with some suspicion, since all they're doing is adding links to a website and there's no evidence they're here to contribute constructively. Your link may be a special case, but take your time, ask around and make sure you have consensus. Good luck! Franamax (talk) 18:19, 28 August 2008 (UTC)