User:Jonkerz/One fish in the ocean
 | This is an essay on Links normally to be avoided. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Whenever there are multiple almost identical candidates for an external link, or multiple candidates of the same type of link, it's probably wise to link none. |
There Are 3.7 Trillion Fish In The Ocean. They're Looking For One.
— Tagline from Finding Nemo
On every given subject there are multiple possible external links within the scope of the article's topic. One fish in the ocean refers to the links that easily could be substituted for each other, or, if we are linking one should link all equal links for consistency.
Most of the guidelines at Links normally to be avoided are pretty straight-forward and could not be interpreted in more than one way. When it comes to link promotion it's getting messy. Promotional links to commercial sites are easily identified, but link promoting does not only refer to commercial entities but a wide range of organizations: charities, governmental institutions or a local museum, etc. ad infinitum; while not as obvious as the former, they usually lose the fight given an editwar.
Rationale[edit]
- The value of a unique link (i.e. a specific paper) among countless unique links is offset by how hard it's to find, that is, Wikipedia should not promote it.
- The value of a general link (i.e. a dictionary) among countless general links is offset by how easily it's found, that is, Wikipedia do not need to promote it.
In both cases the reasoning goes like this: link one → link all → Wikipedia is not a link farm → link none
Articles about museums with an X collection do never need to link specific museums; science article X do not need to link research groups on X or courses on X; etc.
This is what one fish in the ocean is all about.
What often falls under this category[edit]
Unique resources[edit]
- Academic papers
- News articles
- Organizations
General resources[edit]
- Videos (movies, documentaries, clips)
- Photo galleries
- Software
The alternatives[edit]
- A directory link, these sites are dedicated to collecting the links Wikipedia should avoid linking.
- Incorporate into article's text if possible, and replace the external link with a reference.
- No links, or only interwiki links, is sometimes sufficient. Every article do not need external links. Readers may use a search engine with the additional benefit of being dynamically updated and most probably not affected by any bias or conflict of interest on a case-by-case basis. Foremost, a search engine is of the reader's choice.