User talk:BllueberryLilyy

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.


 * 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) 22:37, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Hello JBW. I understand your post and the irrelevancy of over linking. I am a new editor to Wikipedia and recently sought after an article to get started on. I came across "The Odyssey (Smith)", as a recommendation from my suggested edits page. As a suggested edit, I was recommended to "add more links to other articles to help integrate it into the encyclopedia." Upon opening the article, I realised that it was in fact overlinked. I only made one edit to "The Odyssey (Smith)" article and can argue that it was a necessary wikilink. As I am an unexperienced Wikipedia editor and am not particularly informed on the topic of "The Odyssey (Smith)", I did not want to make any further changes to the article.
 * I understand your concern and hope that the article will be rectified soon, possibly by a more experienced editor. BllueberryLilyy (talk) 03:58, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your answer. I hadn't realised that it was a "suggested edit", but now I understand. JBW (talk) 11:50, 27 March 2024 (UTC)