User talk:Amyyylp

Adding links to articles

 * I am posting this message to you because you are one of a fairly large group of fairly inexperienced editors who have recently been adding links to the article The Odyssey (Smith), and many of the links have been unsuitable. I said "fairly inexperienced", but that expression covers a range from several brand new accounts to some which have been around for some time, but have previously done very little editing. I shall first describe what the concern about the editing is, and then ask you whether you can clarify for me how this has happened.


 * Adding links from one article to another, known as "wikilinks", can be very helpful, but it is a very common mistake among new editors to add too many wikilinks to articles, in on or other of two ways, both of which are commonly referred to as "overlinking". Firstly, a wikilink should normally be added only if it provides information which is likely to help readers of the article in which the link is placed to understand content of that article, or provide further information closely connected to content of that article. Linking to articles in other situations is not just unnecessary, it can actually be harmful, because research has established that the more irrelevant, or only slightly relevant, links there are in a page, the less likely readers are to find the ones which they might find useful. Thus, for example, nobody reading the article The Odyssey (Smith) is likely to need to consult the article clock in order to understand content of The Odyssey (Smith), nor does the article clock contain any information about Smith's Odyssey, so linking the one to the other is not likely to be helpful, but that is one of the links which have recently been added. Secondly, an article should not normally contain more than one link to any other article: just linking the first mention of the linked term is enough.

 A couple of people have now given me answers to the question below, so I now understand what was happening, and I don't need any more explanation. JBW (talk) 12:03, 27 March 2024 (UTC)


 * There is nothing unusual about new or fairly inexperienced editors overlinking: as I said above, it is a very common mistake. However, for so many inexperienced editors to all come along to the same article and all start making very similar edits is most unusual; in fact I don't believe I have ever seen it before. There must be a connection; maybe someone has been organising some sort of group editing and has encouraged editors to add links to that article, or something of the kind. Are you able to give me any information which may clarify for me what is happening? JBW (talk) 22:51, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

April 2024
Hello, I'm Funnyfarmofdoom. I noticed that in this edit to Alex Marson, you removed content without adequately explaining why. In the future, it would be helpful to others if you described your changes to Wikipedia with an edit summary. If this was a mistake, don't worry, the removed content has been restored. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you. Funnyfarmofdoom (talk to me) 19:43, 1 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Hello! I'm a new editor so thanks for bringing my attention to this! I now know why I need to provide edit summaries. I felt that the information was redundant because it's not highly significant and is mentioned later in the affiliations section, but I could be wrong. Amyyylp (talk) 19:45, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

Hello. Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia. I noticed that your recent edit to Flo-Master did not have an edit summary. You can use the edit summary field to explain your reasoning for an edit, or to provide a description of what the edit changes. Summaries save time for other editors and reduce the chances that your edit will be misunderstood. For some edits, an adequate summary may be quite brief.

The edit summary field looks like this:

Please provide an edit summary for every edit you make. With a Wikipedia account you can give yourself a reminder to add an edit summary by setting, and then click the "Save" button. Thanks! Funnyfarmofdoom (talk to me) 19:44, 1 April 2024 (UTC)