Difference between revisions of "User:Wookipan/External links policy"
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# Require the visitor to register an account in order to view the contents or participate in a community. | # Require the visitor to register an account in order to view the contents or participate in a community. | ||
# Contain malware, malicious scripts or trojan exploits. | # Contain malware, malicious scripts or trojan exploits. | ||
| − | # Intend to self-promote or promote a website<ref>This seems like two things, and I don't know if either of them are really accurate. Self-promotion is hard to judge, e.g. is it OK for the creator of a community update to link to their website? What about one of the contributors linking ther deviantart?</ref> and/or product that has no relevance to the ''Team Fortress'' franchise whatsoever.<ref This one seems easier to explain, and should probably be in the lead; external links are only allowed when relevant. (For example, we talk about portal 2 -- a link to wikipedia.com/portal_2 would be fine but is wholly unrelated to tf2.)</ref> | + | # Intend to self-promote or promote a website<ref>This seems like two things, and I don't know if either of them are really accurate. Self-promotion is hard to judge, e.g. is it OK for the creator of a community update to link to their website? What about one of the contributors linking ther deviantart?</ref> and/or product that has no relevance to the ''Team Fortress'' franchise whatsoever.<ref> This one seems easier to explain, and should probably be in the lead; external links are only allowed when relevant. (For example, we talk about portal 2 -- a link to wikipedia.com/portal_2 would be fine but is wholly unrelated to tf2.)</ref> |
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Revision as of 04:52, 7 March 2022
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Articles on the Team Fortress Wiki may include external links, or links to websites outside the Wiki. External links are often placed at the very bottom of an article, either as their own section or in the list of references. However, external links are also used in the body of some articles, most notably linking to Wikipedia, Steam, and other independent sources.
External links must always lead to trustworthy websites; links that lead to suspicious websites of any kind will be removed without warning. If you find a link to a malicious site, you should remove it immediately and report it to the staff for further investigation.
Aside from a website being trustworthy, links also must not be "closed", where the source is locked behind account registration. For example, websites or platforms that require the visitor to register an account in order to view their contents[1]. In short, sources must be available at all times to all users, with no additional effort.
- ↑ darkid: You also said links should not require registration "for participating in a community" here, and I don't know if I agree. For example, we might link to a developer post on twitter; that's visible but you can't participate without a twitter account.
There are a couple of exceptions:
- Links on user pages are generally exempt from the "closed" rule, but still must be trustworthy.
- Community event organizers that use Discord (or similar closed platforms) are instead adviseddarkid: encouraged? Is this a hard requirement? to create a Steam Community group, and moderate through that.
Is this summary necessary? I feel like this would be better as a {{nutshell}}, and only if this page gets too long.
To sum it up, do not provide links to sites that:
- Mislead the reader by use of factually inaccurate material (or unverifiable sources).
- Require the visitor to register an account in order to view the contents or participate in a community.
- Contain malware, malicious scripts or trojan exploits.
- Intend to self-promote or promote a website[1] and/or product that has no relevance to the Team Fortress franchise whatsoever.[2]
- ↑ This seems like two things, and I don't know if either of them are really accurate. Self-promotion is hard to judge, e.g. is it OK for the creator of a community update to link to their website? What about one of the contributors linking ther deviantart?
- ↑ This one seems easier to explain, and should probably be in the lead; external links are only allowed when relevant. (For example, we talk about portal 2 -- a link to wikipedia.com/portal_2 would be fine but is wholly unrelated to tf2.)
Examples
Here are a few examples of sites which are acceptable/unacceptable external links
| Website | Safe | Open | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Yes | Yes | Wikipedia's content is vetted by moderators, so it is a trustworthy, independent source. |
| Steam | Yes | Mostly | Steam store pages are provided by developers and are a good primary source of information. However, steam comments are user-submitted and may not be factual. |
| Mostly | Mostly | darkid: I don't know that I would list reddit here. Some reddit communities are 18+ and reddit content is not always thoroughly moderated. | |
| TF2Maps.net | Yes | Mostly | Similarly to steam, TF2Maps is a good primary source for mapping development. However, some of the threads contain user comments and may not be factual. |
| ETF2L | Yes | Mostly | darkid: ETF2L is similar to steam/tf2maps. I would only list one or two of these. |
| The Wayback Machine | Mostly | Yes | The internet archive hosts a service which makes persistent copies of pages. This is a good way to keep content open, even when the original site disappears or is privatised. However, its safety depends on the safety of the original contents. |
| Discord | Mostly | No | Discord channels can be 18+, and are inaccessible without an invitation. Note that a picture of a discord message is not acceptable because it cannot be verified. |
| Yes | No | Facebook has a fairly stringent terms of use, so its contents are safe. However, content requires an account to view, and is thus not open. | |
| Mostly | Mostly | Twitter does host some 18+ content, and some of its contents may be closed, for example direct messages or private profiles. A copy of a private twitter profile via the wayback machine would be considered open. | |
| t3amf0rtress.com | No | N/A | Phishing websites which masquerade as real websites are unsafe, and should not be linked under any circumstances. |
| spam-promotion.com | Mostly not | N/A | Sites which are blatant advertisements are not acceptable links since they do not provide value and are often malicious. |
