User talk:Buildboats

Please do not add commercial links (or links to your own private websites) to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising or a mere collection of external links. You are, however, encouraged to add content instead of links to the encyclopedia as we drive for print or DVD publication; see the welcome page to learn more. Thanks. -- Egil 06:44, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Please stop. If you continue to use Wikipedia for advertising, you will be blocked from editing. Joyous | Talk 22:02, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Adding unrelated external links to articles is considered vandalism. If you continue to use Wikipedia for advertising, you will be blocked from editing. — Johan the Ghost seance 22:07, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Adding links to external sites
Thanks for the message; I'm glad you're simply trying to figure all this out. The bottom line here is that Wikipedia isn't just any old web site; it's an encyclopedia, and has fairly high standards to ensure a good quality of content. This extends to the external links provided in an article. The guidelines on what is and is not acceptable are in Spam; I think you might find that article helpful, as it gives some pretty good guidance.

Now, I'd be the first to admit that this is pretty subjective. For example, sailnet.com is a shop; but they also have a ton of useful sailing/cruising articles. So if I add a link to them, is that spam? My rule of thumb on this is that if the person adding the link is not connected with the web site, that's generally a good sign. In other words, if you think your site is worth linking, mention that in the article's talk page; if other people agree, they will add the link, which makes it all more clearly OK. Also, linking directly to useful info — not the site's front page — and making it clear in the link text that the info is relevant are good things to do.

Hope this helps, and I look forward to your contributions to Wikipedia. You may find the following links helpful (here comes a standard welcome message): I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~&#126;); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Cheers! — Johan the Ghost seance 16:49, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
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