User talk:Frostbyte

Frostbyte
I really do think that a link to forum.lockpicer.net in the lockpicking section is useful for people interested in lockpicking. It should not be removed because the forum is small if that site has a large amount of well organized material, which is growing very fast. Also do you know how many members LP101 had when it was first listed?

Also the rules of LP101 which is listed do not allow for competitive sites to be mentioned on their site, but the rules of lockpicker.net do allow this and there is a huge list of other lockpicking sites there. lockpicker.net is much more in the spirit of a wiki than LP101, so I think it should be listed. After all it is only a single line of text in the wiki.

reply to your request (lockpicking article)
OK, I checked the article and, shooting from the hip/gut reaction is I think all of you would be better off expanding the article than arguing over external links.

From my experience, these things can best be solved by an inclusionist approach, and I would advise leaving all the links there, unless they point at a commercial site, that is, a site that makes money online, where including a link to their site would be like an advertisement for a product.

Even in that case I would hesitate to remove the link, unless it seems that the link is serving as an advertisement, in which case maybe edit the text of the link to be neutral in tone.

Like change The best site for DSN on the net. to DSN is a provider of DSN services

What I WOULD do though is to put the links in alphabetical order. Any other way with 'competing' links looks biased.

Also, I'm thinking this will happen kinda frequently, when you edit articles that you feel a personal stake in or an emotional attachment, or any article you have strong feelings about. It is, as you pointed out, sometimes difficult to see one's own biases.

Remember there are millions of users, thousands of editors, and if there is something wrong with an article, it will get fixed. It's not all on your shoulders.

If a link keeps being re-added, it might be a sign that it should stay, or it might be a sign that someone has an ulterior motive for the link.

I'd walk away from the article for a week or so, and then check in on it. If at that point, you think something needs fixing, mention why and what on the discussion page... in fact its always a good idea to discuss big changes or changes you know will be opposed, on the backstage side of the article. I've been in discussions where the article is one page and the discussion is like 20. But those articles are good articles, and the edits are usually 'stable'.

If this becomes a major dispute, and you need an advocate, let me know, but first, try to clarify what your position is, what you think should be done to resolve the issue, and think about why you want it. Then let me know and I'll try to help you or advise you further.

And cheers on a pretty nice article... keep it up. Pedant 23:48, 25 October 2005 (UTC)