User talk:Ctroy36

Photonics links
Please do not add inappropriate external links to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a mere directory of links nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Inappropriate links include (but are not limited to) links to personal web sites, links to web sites that you are affiliated with, and links that exist to attract visitors to a web site or promote a product. See the external links guideline and spam policies for further explanations of links that are considered appropriate. If you feel the link should be added to the article, then please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. See the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thank you. -Loren 02:06, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Please stop adding inappropriate external links to Wikipedia. It is considered spamming, and Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising. Thanks. --Srleffler 00:33, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

If you feel that your photonics links are relevant and not merely advertisement, surely they belong in Photonics? Anthony Appleyard 16:41, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

I do not understand why the links I added have been taken down. There were links to photonics.com in the past and they were OK. Photonics.com has been receiving 100-150 visits weekly from those links and we belived that adding them in other pertinent technology areas would provide users with access to more information.

Photonics.com is the most complete reference to all aspects of photonics technology anywhere on the Internet. It includes articles from the Photonics Handbook, the Photonics Dictionary, a Corporate Guide, daily industry news articles from Photonics Spectra, Biophotonics and Europhotonics magazines, trade show information and reviews and new product reviews.

Hundreds of thousands of industry individuals visit each month to obtain the latest news and information on the industry.

To deny a link to this unique and valuable resource is, in my humble opinion, to pervert the very purpose Wikipedia avows. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ctroy36 (talk • contribs) 11:37, October 17, 2006.


 * Thanks for asking. Wikipedia has fairly strict criteria for what kinds of external links are suitable for inclusion in the encyclopedia. The page External links gives some information on this. Generally links must add value to the encyclopedia articles, and should not be overly commercial. The problem with photonics.com is that its homepage is very generic. It adds little specific value to any particular encyclopedia article to which it is added. Someone reading an article on holography, for example, is not especially likely to find anything of value immediately upon linking to the photonics.com homepage. The same is true of most of the other articles to which this link was added. If, as you claim, there is valuable information in the "Photonics Handbook", "Photonics Dictionary", etc., it would have been better if you had linked to the specific articles that contained the information relevant to each Wikipedia article. Better still, though, would be to edit the articles to include the additional information directly.


 * Another issue is that you appear to work for the company that runs this site. The guidelines specifically discourage individuals from adding links to sites they own or maintain. Your comment above about Photonics.com "receiving 100-150 visits weekly from those links" is precisely why we have this rule. When an editor adds a link to a Wikipedia article, his/her only goal must be to improve the article. Adding links to drive traffic to an external site is never acceptable on Wikipedia. That is not what Wikipedia is for.


 * On my talk page, you wrote: "Laurin Publishing, parent of Photonics.com. has been serving the photonics/optics industry for more than 50 years. We serve and support the industry and do not engage in spam or any unethical practices. To insinuate so is unfair and uniformed." It's great that Laurin is committed to ethical behavior. Adding large numbers of links to one site is not considered acceptable behavior on Wikipedia, and this activity is known as "linkspamming". The size and influence of the organization adding the links is not relevant. See How not to be a spammer for more info. On behalf of the community, I request Laurin Publishing and its employees not to engage in this behavior.


 * Sites that have been widely linkspammed tend to get removed from articles on sight, so links that formerly passed (or were overlooked) are likely to be removed as a result of your linkspamming. Please do not replace them. Repeated insertion of links to a site can lead to that site being blacklisted. This is a software setting that causes the server to reject any attempt to add a link to an external domain. Once blacklisted, sites on that domain can never be linked to from any Wikipedia article.--Srleffler 23:39, 17 October 2006 (UTC)


 * By the way, I left your link at photonics, but improved the format and made the text more neutral. Links must not be "promoted". You can't say that it's the site for photonics. I also moved it lower in the list because frankly the Photonics.com homepage is less obviously useful than some of the other sites, which provide a more direct link to educational content. At a glance, your site appears to be mostly ads and republished press releases. Further inspection may reveal more useful content, but it's not the first thing one sees.--Srleffler 23:49, 17 October 2006 (UTC)