User talk:Rict

Please do not add inappropriate external links to Wikipedia, as you did in Ballarat, Victoria. Wikipedia is not a mere directory of links nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Inappropriate links include (but are not limited to) links to personal web sites, links to web sites with which you are affiliated, and links that exist to attract visitors to a web site or promote a product. See the external links guideline and spam policies for further explanations of links that are considered appropriate. If you feel the link should be added to the article, then please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. See the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thank you. Gnangarra 00:36, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Please do not add inappropriate external links to Wikipedia, as you did in Banyule City Council. Wikipedia is not a mere directory of links nor should it be used for advertising or promotion. Inappropriate links include (but are not limited to) links to personal web sites, links to web sites with which you are affiliated, and links that exist to attract visitors to a web site or promote a product. See the external links guideline and spam policies for further explanations of links that are considered appropriate. If you feel the link should be added to the article, then please discuss it on the article's talk page rather than re-adding it. See the welcome page to learn more about Wikipedia. Thank you. Gnangarra 00:38, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Please stop adding inappropriate external links to Wikipedia, as you did in City of Bayside. It is considered spamming, and Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising. Thanks. Gnangarra 00:39, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Please stop. If you continue spamming, as you did in City of Brimbank, you will be blocked from editing. Gnangarra 00:42, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

You have been blocked from editing for violating Wikipedia policy by spamming. If you believe this block is unjustified you may contest this block by replying here on your talk page by adding the text {{unblock|your reason here}}. You may also email the blocking administrator or any administrator from this list instead, or mail unblock-en-l@mail.wikimedia.org. Gnangarra 00:46, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Blocking of editing for adding external links

The links that are added are links to population forcasts and community profiles for the populations living in the local areas. Why is this spamming - the information is derived from census information and is also supplied on the councils' own websites. If you follow the links there is no promotional material included on the site - merely information about the characteristics of the area and population. The sites themselves are provided by and run by a company - id consulting, a demographics company - but each site is badged as that of the local authority. This is publicly available information included on most of those authorties sites and surely is useful information to be linked to articles about the loal areas concerned. I have stoppoed putting the links on the sites, but I do not see how this is spamming or advertising, as the sites suely contain only information of interest and relevance to possible users of the site.

You have been adding links to your site http://www.id.com.au/home/default by adding links to your client list http://www.id.com.au/home/default.asp?pg=4. where they have an article, this violates WP:EL and WP:SPAM, I had already placed 4 warniings on this talk page but you continued to add these links without stopping to get any clarification as to why the warnings. The account has no other edits except to place these links there is no reason to assume that you wont restart adding this external link again. Please also be aware that once the block has expired you are welcome to return and contribute to wikipedia, but if you repeat todays action then an admin will apply a block of a longer time period. Additionally http://www.id.com.au/home/default may be added to list of spam sites which will prevent any links from your company. Gnangarra 01:30, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for replying.

The reason that I did not comply with the request to stop was that I did not notice that I had received a message. It is the first time I have edited a Wikipedia site and I was pasting the links into the sites - so I had already exceeded the number of alerts before noticing that I was doing anything wrong.

I am also concerned that local authority clients of ours have also added our link to articles about their areas - which is what promopted me to add links to articles for areas we have profiled. An example is Shire of Yarra Ranges. What is to prevent our web-link being listed as spam as a result of thier independent actions.

Also, is there no way that sites such as this can be linked? The intention was not to promote, but to make the information available, and it appeared to me to be something that legitimately added to the worth of the articles in question. This information is available publicly on local authorities' web-sites and the sites themselves are not promotional of the company I work for. It merely seemed like a good way of making the information about these areas more accessible, which is the main reason this company was set up in the first place - because good demographic information at a local area is difficult to get hold of and interpret. Having produced this information, the concern is to ensure that people interested in a local area have access to this type of information.

Finally, how long is the ban in place?

The block is for 24 hours only, merely adding to external links doesnt add anything to information in the article. The best way is to improve the article based on information from your site and then cite the page as a source. The site will only be list is if theres a repeat of today actions which where against policy, where individual editors use your site as a source and add a link this wont cause it to listed, once listed bots will remove those links. Out of fairness I have advise WP:AN/I about my actions in this case and asked that another admin to review, if they may choose to unblock your account earlier. Gnangarra 01:59, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Unblocked

After discussions with another admin who's opinions I respect I have unblocked your account. Suggest that you aquaint yourself with Wikipedia:Spam#How_not_to_be_a_spammer and external link policies before adding further links to articles. As an act of good faith I have also advised another editor who has edited a number of LGA articles about the exisitance your cite and suggested that there maybe information that'll be useful to some articles. Gnangarra 03:44, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks

I confirm that we will not add any links to sites concerning LGAs we have undertaken work for. Sorry about the misunderstanding. The editor you refer to is welcome to contact me at any time if it would be of use to his / her articles.

Links

Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Melbourne If you leave amessage here as discussed then editors who are working on articles may be interested in the site. also Wikipedia:Australian Wikipedians' notice board here Gnangarra 05:41, 2 January 2007 (UTC)