User talk:Nickiberotto

February 2012
Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute to the encyclopedia, one or more of the external links you added to the page Beauty salon do not comply with our guidelines for external links and have been removed. Wikipedia is not a collection of links; nor should it be used as a platform for advertising or promotion, and doing so is contrary to the goals of this project. Because Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, external links do not alter search engine rankings. If you feel the link should be added to the article, please discuss it on the article's talk page before reinserting it. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing constructively to this encyclopedia. * --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 00:04, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Hello Barek! Thank you for trying to keep Wikipedia intact and free of vandalism - I know it's a tough job and I am glad that there are people out there like yourself who take it seriously. Having said that, I would like to ask you whether you would be able to explain why you believe that this link does not comply with the guidelines. I am a writer and I work with several online properties, but have not linked to any of them on Wikipedia because I think I have a pretty good understanding of what's acceptable and what's not. This one, in my opinion, adds a lot of value to the Beauty Salon wiki page and that is why I believe that it should be included. As stated in the description, it's a comprehensive directory of beauty salons in the US (as per the guidelines of links that are accepted; "a well-chosen link to a directory of websites or organizations"), and furthermore, the site allows for visitors to add salons and owners to update their salon information (which is in line with the whole wiki concept). There are also a lot of people working on it to ensure that everything is accurate. With over 60,000 salons currently on the site, a number that grows on a daily basis, I really do believe that the link adds to the wiki page. Let me know if you think otherwise! Nickiberotto (talk • contribs) - 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * The problem is that external links should be to material that adds to the encyclopedic understanding of the article subject, while this link is a commercial directory - simply a business directory of commercial websites. More specifically, the link fails WP:ELNO criterias #1, #4, #5, #13, and #14.  If you disagree and still feel that the link should be added, please bring the link up for discussion at the external link noticeboard. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 00:59, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for your prompt reply. I tried to edit the page you suggested, but I was not sure how to start a new section and didn't want to mess up the structure, so I decided to reply to you here. I know that it may be too much to ask, but maybe you can copy this whole talk into the external link noticeboard so that others can pitch in as well - I wish I knew how to do that. In regards to the criterias that you mentioned:


 * 1) 1 - "unique resource beyond what the article would contain" - I strongly believe that it does. The same way that a DMOZ link would, by being a directory of further resources on the very topic of the article. In this case, the topic is beauty salons, so it would be reasonable to include a directory of beauty salons. Don't you think?


 * 1) 4 - "Links mainly intended to promote a website" - That could be argued for pretty much every external link on Wikipedia. All those links are essentially promoting sites whether that was the initial intent or not. Having said that, the ones that are actual spam as explained in the respective Wikipedia page are obvious.


 * 1) 5 - Same as the above. A user tried to replace the link that I added with a spam link and I reverted the change as soon as I saw that. The same user tried to do the same in several other pages and fortunately he/she was caught and those links were removed. Affiliate links, links to videos promoting products or links to pages with excessive advertisements, definitely do not have a place here! These are clearly made for the sole purpose of promotion. Furthermore, if an individual salon were to add their site as an external link, then again, that would not be acceptable. But the purpose of the link that I added is to expand upon the information in the article/page.


 * 1) 13 - "Sites that are only indirectly related to the article's subject" - I don't see how the site is indirectly related to the article's subject. They are both about beauty salons - the relation is truly direct.


 * 1) 14 - "Lists of links to manufacturers, suppliers or customers." - There was no list of links. I just added 1 link to a salon directory.

And again, I really appreciate you taking the time to go through this with me. I know that it's not your "job" to reply to any of my messages, but I thought that since you were the only respectable person to revert my addition, I should try to talk about it with you. Based on the above, and if you agree, I would like to re-add the link on the page.

Let me know what you think. Nickiberotto (talk • contribs) - 29 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I've copied the discussion to External links/Noticeboard, so that others can review and weigh-in on the merits of the link. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 16:54, 29 February 2012 (UTC)