User:Tony1/Most poorly wikilinked article award

Wikilinks are an essential part of Wikipedia. However, if the linking system is to work well, editors need to exercise skill and judgement in their choice and manner of linking. WP:LINK sets out the guidelines for doing this.

This page is for users to nominate astonishingly irrelevant, unfocused, redundant or poorly piped internal links that they wish to be considered for the award. Although there is an element of humour in the forum, it has its serious side: promoting the need for good linking practice among editors.

The award
As usual for Wikipedia, there is no physical award. The winner for each quarterly period is judged by Ceoil, and announced beneath each monthly table.

Nominations
Prizes will be awarded on the basis of whole articles, not individual links or groups of links. The scope is limited to (non-disambiguation) mainspace articles.

December 2010
Prizes will be awarded on the basis of whole articles, not individual links or groups of links.

November 2010
Prizes will be awarded on the basis of whole articles, not individual links or groups of links.

October 2010
From October onwards, prizes will be awarded on the basis of whole articles, not individual links or groups of links.

September 2010
This is the last month in which the criterion is individual wikilinks.

August 2010
Winner for August 2010:
 * Kayau for Sir. That the word was linked in an article on linguists is frightening to me. Well spotted. Ceoil (talk) 22:26, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

July 2010
Winner for July 2010:
 * Would be User:A. di M. Anybody with an email address gets four or five Viagra offers a day; if they dont they are not doing it correctly. Honourable mention to the link to girl. Ceoil (talk) 04:38, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

June 2010
Winner for June 2010: Oh so thats what the words father, brother mean. Ohconfucius for showing us why we cant have nice things around here. Honorable mention for and grace they surpass. Ceoil (talk) 23:41, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

May 2010
Winner for May 2010
 * Has to be World from Ohconfucius. It's were you are. Seeing internet is similarly amusing when I see it in blue. Ceoil (talk) 04:29, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

April 2010
Winner for April 2010: Goes to Ohconfucius for joke, because of the irony, and because the edit removes a pet dislike of mine - infoboxes are bad enough but intolerable if terms like America and New York are linked within. Ug. I think Kayau's three entries are very grand, but again too strange for me to believe that the reason they were linked in the first place did not involve an element of conscious devilment by a 9 year old. Ceoil (talk) 22:32, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

March 2010
Winner for March 2010: This was a hard one to choose; I was leaning towards Certes's 1, 3, 6, 8, 8, 9, is, a, from, the, which I may yet print in colour and frame. But I think it is surely too surreal not to be slow vandalism. The winner then is the removal from Tarja Halonen of the blue linked - tree. Also by Certes. Its overlinking like that that makes me question my fellow man.

Note to the runner ups: although Tony asked me to cover for His Grace while he deals with trouble from overseas, I have none of thoes two men's morals and am highly corruptible. Ceoil (talk) 22:01, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

February 2010
Winner for February 2010: There were many bizarre links (although fewer than in January), and I liked many of them, but the award goes to one with a great educational value, which illustrates one of the greatest mistakes an editor can make when linking. The article in question is Marvin Gaye, and in it could be found the following gem, nominated by Belovedfreak: "Martin Lawrence". See how hard it is to tell that they are two links? After some dithering, I decided that the first link—"Martin"—was more ridiculous (the disambiguation page was longer), and so this shall be the silliest link of February 2010.

My second choice for this month was another confusing link: A. di M.'s Large Hadron Collider was a delightful false tautology with a great potential for throwing readers off track.

I do enjoy what I do, but make no mistake: entertainment value aside, if I could wish out of existence all links like the ones seen above, I'd do so. However, in the knowledge that there will be such links for a long time to come, I can only hope that they will be found, eliminated, and placed here for all to see and learn from. Waltham, The Duke of 06:04, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

January 2010
Winner for January 2010: With 82 entries, January 2010 broke all records of participation. I am certainly very happy to see so many new faces. Unfortunately, this also means that my choice is made harder, and that I've had to pass over many excellent candidates. Now, the winner... From the article Civil confinement, an unexpected bit of linguistic meta-commentary in the form of the link not without. Nominated by Robofish, it is a type of Easter egg that we should never, ever have to see in articles, and for this reason it wins this busy month's award.
 * Two honourable mentions. First, SuperFlash101's "3", from Phineas Flynn. Not only was it entirely unnecessary but, as most Wikipedians know, it leads to the article for a year—specifically, the year when the rule of emperor Augustus was renewed for a ten-year period, and Wang Mang foiled a plot by his son, his brother-in-law and the Wei clan to oust him. Interesting stuff. Second, Majorly's "linked" from Rubber duck. I actually found "spoke" funnier, but one has to appreciate the self-referential nature of redundantly linking the word "link". Waltham, The Duke of 17:07, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

The 2009 prize
Winner for the year: From the shortlist of "window", "disaster", "head", "dog" and "Wikipedia", the silliest wikilink of 2009 is ... "window"! Congratulations, Ohconfucius; you get to hold the cup for one year. (His Grace the Duke of Waltham)

December 2009
Winner for December 2009: December 2009 was another month with worthy nominations, including the first two from non-mainspace pages. But the award can only go to one contender, and I have decided to bestow it upon Adrian J. Hunter for "Wikipedia" from Wikipedia:Manual of Style (biographies). The assumption that anyone would be reading a Wikipedia project page (in the Manual of Style of all places!) without knowing what Wikipedia is simply cannot go unrecognised. "Computer-generated cartoon elephant" initially seemed to be a strong contender on pure-silliness grounds, but I could not accept it because it was actually a group of links. (His Grace the Duke of Waltham)

November 2009
Winner for November 2009: As tempting as "toilet attendant" may have been for its comedy value, one cannot ignore the fact that pretty much every person in the world old enough to read knows what a dog is. And even if they don't remember that one of the most prized qualities in a dog is loyalty, the reader was helpfully reminded of this in the text. The canine was mentioned (and linked) in passing in Characters of Final Fantasy VI and the winner for November 2009 is (again) Ohconfucius. (His Grace the Duke of Waltham)

October 2009
Winner for October 2009: Many ridiculous links were nominated in October, but the difference in John Martin Scripps is that we have an entire collection of them. Nominated by Ohconfucius, who is this month's winner, the anatomy-themed links include such unknown concepts as "arms", "knees" and "torso". As only one link can actually be chosen, however, I have elected "head" to represent the group. Make of that what you will. (His Grace the Duke of Waltham)

September 2009
Winner for September 2009: Tony1 for "disaster" from Elton John. ("Human" and "lid" came close.) The link is pretty much self-describing; "utterly redundant" and "completely irrelevant" are the first characterisations to spring to mind, but this one also happens to grace a quotation. One almost expects an Easter egg there, explaining the exact nature of the disaster. This would be fine for the Daily Mail, but it is hardly appropriate for an encyclopaedia. (His Grace the Duke of Waltham)

August 2009
Winner for August 2009: Ohconfucius for his August nomination of "windows", from 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh attacks. There was a hard fight between it and "alcohol" (not in a bar, though), for they were equally useless; in the end, the Microsoft association that pops up in one's head on second reading won the day for the transparent-opening-in-a-wall camp. (His Grace the Duke of Waltham)