User talk:Stritchy

Welcome to Wikipedia. We invite everyone to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia. However, one or more of the external links you added do not comply with our guidelines for external links and have been removed. Wikipedia is not a mere directory of links; nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Since Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, external links do not alter search engine rankings. If you feel the link should be added to the article, then please discuss it on the before reinserting it. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. --Van helsing 11:35, 16 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Whoa ther Van helsing.


 * I'm not spamming - the Honda Owners Club is the bike club for owners of ALL types and marques of Honda bikes.
 * It is therefore perfectly natural that the HOC should be represented on the pages of Honda bikes.
 * We are a non profit making organisation, with a wealth of information available on-line.
 * — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stritchy (talk • contribs)
 * Hi Stritchy, let me tell you that WP:EL includes a lot of info for you to get a feel how Wikipedia is generally dealing with external links. When someone’s only edits are the inclusion of a link to one particular website in articles, chances are pretty big that that will trigger a remove-spam-link reaction with other editors. As you are apparently the designer of the website you want to include, I would appreciate it if you would read our guideline on conflict of interest. And yes, your site may be a wealth of information (see: WikiProject Spam), but it is not only me you have to convince.
 * I think the best thing to do is to first discuss the inclusion of your website on the talk pages of the relevant articles, if there is a consensus to include your link, it will be included. --Van helsing 12:29, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your guidance. As you can see I'm new to this and didn't appreciate the problem. I will be more circumspect with my postings in the future. There is so much information about 'dos & don'ts'! Perhaps you could point me in the right direction about how I add 'Honda Owners Club' to Wikipedia. Many thanks Stritchy 13:37, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia; so it would be great if you could add the information and knowledge you have to the articles (instead of the EL). If you prefer to add the EL anyway, the best way would be to post a message on the talk page of the project on motorcycling. That’s probably quicker than posting on all the Honda bikes talk pages. Just something in the sense of "Hey guys, I would like to include this external link on these articles... Would that be okay?", including the why’s, where’s and your affiliation with the website (see: Talk page for some help on editing a talk page). Hopefully people will look at the website and respond to your inquiry, a discussion will follow in which you are of course encouraged to participate. Quite often a consensus develops from that discussion, upon which you will know if its okay to include or not to include the EL. --Van helsing 14:49, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually, we've discussed the issue of appropriate external links extensively at WikiProject Motorcycling. Consensus has built towards rejecting external links except for manufacturer sites and rare, irreplacable references where none other exist, but even then using the cite as a citation to support specific facts is preferred.  Rather we would suggest that people contribute to the open directory project dmoz.org (especially when a model-specific subsection exists) and we will link to dmoz. Thanks for participating in Wikipedia. Brianhe 04:38, 28 August 2007 (UTC)