Talk:Storytelling festival

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I have removed most of the links, which pointed towards commercial websites. A warning has been posted to user:Alancookie's user talk page by User:Will_Beback. Sfacets 07:01, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

I understand the policy of not having a mere list of external links, but the links that have been removed from this page are (contrary to the vandalism unit's above contention) to NON-profit/NON-commercial sites. Removing ALL the links (besides the link that is more related to the tellers and not the festivals) seems a bit extreme since it removes any links to any festivals which is what the article is about. Until more internal WikiPedia pages are built by those that are familiar with each individual festival, I believe that it would be useful to have some of them linked here since many of the festivals have various distinct qualities, not only in region, size and venue. I have a feeling that this page has been vandalized by the people who are charged with keeping others from being destructive...tearing down and removing information for the sake of inflating their "number of edits" instead of posting constructive information on the talk page and encouraging others to contribute. Shame on you Vandalism Unit! Alancookie 20:54, 5 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Is there a single site somewhere that provides a link to all of the festivals? That'd handle providing the info for those who are interested. -Will Beback 21:16, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

This was discussed among various users on Irc, all on whom agreed on the removal of the links - all of which were more commercial-focused than information based. I was the one who actually removed the links in question. I really don't care how many edits appear under my username, and inflating these numbers is not my intent, nor I suspect was it Will Beback's. The purpose of wikipedia is to inform, rather than promote any commercial venture. There were far more links than there was information or internal links on the page. The fact that you (Alancookie) have mostly if not only submitted external links to these festivals, even on pages not dealing exclusively with festivals, is not very favourable to your argument. Sfacets 05:15, 6 April 2006 (UTC)


 * "Spam is Spam"? I would disagree...spam is unsolicited advertising and I think that if your goal is to eliminate all external links to any site that has adversiting or any commercial focus would eliminate useful external links from WikiPedia.  Links on a page about storytelling festivals that link to a variety of storytelling festivals can hardly be called purely advertising as opposed to informative to someone who is looking for information about storytelling festivals.  Now if they were links to topics entirely unrelated to storytelling on this page, I could see your argument.  In response to your comment about linking to a page that is not exclusively festival related, but is directly related to the city or culture of the region then I would have to argue that your (and maybe I need to include the entire vandalism unit here since you were all mostly in agreement) legalistic and purist approach will only hamper the development of WikiPedia.  I included the link on my hometown page because it's a part of our city/region's culture (after including more information about the festival itself).  Of course, I am not familiar with every festival in every city...but I'm sure that someone from those cities might be more enticed to expand their own city's page to include information about their own culture/fairs/festivals...but not if the overzealous vandalism unit deems relevant links spam. Alancookie 21:39, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

I do appreciate Will BeBack's constructive suggestion (thanks Will!) to develop an external page that holds links as a solution to creating an overwhelming list here...I will explore that possibility and appreciate Will's taking the time to not to just slam the door on a new user who is attempting to expand WikiPedia (not destroy or vandalize, but actually taking time be a productive member of this community). Alancookie 21:39, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

I am curious about the concluding statement "Paper tickets are traditionally traded in... etc." Is this a regional or festival specific practice? It is not a common event at Canadian festivals, and if it is specific to one country, perhaps someone could clarify the comment. --Dalejarvis 12:53, 19 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Maybe this should be "In the United States, ..." since this tradition is carried out at the US National Storytelling festival and (as far as I know) most, if not all, smaller festivals in the US...? Alancookie 15:57, 19 October 2006 (UTC)