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Vinismo:External links policy
From Vinismo
External links are links to other web sites besides Vinismo. In general the Vinismo policy is that external links should be kept to a bare minimum, and only links to primary sources should be used. There should not be an external links section on any article.
What to link to
External links should point to primary sources. For example:
- Official website for a winery
- Official website for a vintner's association in relation to a specific region or appellation
- Official government Web sites
Using only primary sources makes our wine guide more succinct: where there is usually one or sometimes two primary source links for any subject, there can be hundreds or thousands of secondary source links. We also avoid subjectivity and conflict. It's difficult to decide collaboratively which of the thousands of English-language newspapers, magazines, and Web sites has done the very best article about Bordeaux wines, but it's quite easy for everyone to agree that http://www.vins-bordeaux.fr/ is the official website of the Council of Bordeaux vintners.
What not to link to
Avoid linking to secondary sources. For example, avoid using links to:
- Wine shopping websites
- Wine forums or blogs
- Restaurant guides
- Map services
- Newspaper or magazine articles
- Personal image galleries
- Personal wine sites
- Search engine results (http://www.google.com/search?q=Bordeaux )
In particular, avoid links to other wine guides. We should have wine information in Vinismo, not linked to from Vinismo. This is an incentive issue; if we have lots of links to other wine guides, we lose the impetus to create our own. In addition, many users could need to print copies of Vinismo articles, and therefore need information to be within the article rather than linked to at another site.
Usage and formatting of external links
Bad formattings
- Front-linked. Must not be used in listings. The Wikitext looks like this (and is one of the main reasons we don't do this, since the URL winds up being first): [http://www.example.com/ Link Text].
- Unpacked http://www.example.com/. In general unpacked links are not used. If one must be included, simply type the URL with no additional wiki syntax: http://www.example.com/.
Use short readable links
Remember that for print versions of Vinismo, links will be presented in all their URLish ugliness. Readers of the print versions will have to type in by hand the URL that you add. For this reason, try to use the shortest URL possible for links, even if it means a little more work on the part of the reader when they click through a link. Where possible, try to trim out "housekeeping" stuff from the URL. You can almost always leave off "index.html", "index.htm", "index.asp" or "index.php" from a link, for example.
If http://www.example.com/ redirects automatically to a home page like http://www.example.com/home/index.asp?id=384&lang=en, use the shorter version, even though it's "really" going to the long version. Similarly, if http://www.example.net/ has a "splash screen" which eventually takes you to http://www.example.net/index2.htm or something, leave the top-level link in, even though the "real information" is located elsewhere.
Of course, if the page you're linking to isn't at the "root" of the site, it makes sense to leave the path part of the URL in. Don't change http://examples.org/sparkling wines/ to http://examples.org/, since that top-level page probably doesn't have the same information.
English-language sites
This version of Vinismo is for English-language speakers. With few exceptions, it's preferable to include only links to English-language sites or pages. Sites don't have to be exclusively in English, but they should provide some English-language information that will be valuable to our users.
Many sites have the information in several languages, e.g., the local language and English. They handle this in different ways:
- Some use the browser's language preference in which case you just use a link to the main page (like in our example, www.vins-bordeaux.fr. This has the advantage that if a non-English speaker uses the English Vinismo and follows a link to a page also available in his/her language, the right version will be displayed. You will have to set you browser's language preference to English to test if there is an English version or you can enter the URL in a proxy such as Proxify. You can check the language preference of your browser, also.
- Some sites have an English version with a good permanent URL, such as: http://example.com/english, use that URL
- Some sites have a main page in a non-English language with a cryptic link to an English page, such as http://example.com/fff?349sdshd.asp. This might not be a permanent link, so it is better to use the URL of the main page and let Wikitravel users find the current link to the English version.
Unpack links
A link is not a substitute for actual information. Our goals include creating pages useful as printed guides. So, we need to include information that's at the other end of a link, even if it may seem redundant for on-line use.
For example, in a winery page, get the address, phone number, visiting hours, and other info for the winery, even if it's right there on an external Web page. Someone using a printed guide won't have access to whatever's on that page.
Print version
Be aware that when Vinismo articles are printed the Vinismo stylesheets are set up so that the full URL of a link will automatically appear in text enclosed in parentheses immediately after the link text.
