User talk:Markm84

Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute to the encyclopedia, one or more of the external links you added to the page Marlin Model 1894 do not comply with our guidelines for external links and have been removed. Wikipedia is not a collection of links; nor should it be used as a platform for advertising or promotion, and doing so is contrary to the goals of this project. Because Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, external links do not alter search engine rankings. If you feel the link should be added to the article, please discuss it on the article's talk page before reinserting it. Please take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing constructively to this encyclopedia. Thank you.
⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 19:25, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I had recently added an external link for Marlin's Model 1894 Deluxe. It would be on-topic for the Marlin Model 1894 page but also provides information on the Deluxe model that is not covered in the page's current overview. The link is open to public access and the publication covers an actual product review for that model. It was meant to expand on the information available on the current page. Markm84 (talk)

It is on-topic but you appear to have a conflict of interest related to realguns.com which is against our guidelines for promoting and it may be viewed as Spamming. What is your association with the website?
⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 20:02, 19 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not associated with them, just a visitor Markm84 (talk) 20:19, 19 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please stop adding inappropriate external links to Wikipedia, as you did to Marlin Model 336. It is considered spamming and Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising or promotion. Because Wikipedia uses nofollow tags, additions of links to Wikipedia will not alter search engine rankings. If you continue spamming, you may be blocked from editing Wikipedia.
⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 04:01, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Markm84, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the New contributors' help page, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type {{helpme}} and your question on this page, and someone will show up shortly to answer. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

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We hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on talk and vote pages using four tildes, like this: ~~~~. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Active Banana (^bananaphone 20:44, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is your last warning; the next time you insert a spam link, as you did at .204 Ruger, you may be blocked from editing without further notice. Persistent spammers may have their websites blacklisted, preventing anyone from linking to them from all Wikimedia sites as well as potentially being penalized by search engines.
⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 20:48, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure where you're getting "spam" from. The links are specifically on topic for the page they were posted to. They're links to public access pages with information that supplements the content already on the page. I'm adding information.

Any reason why you woke up this morning and elected to remove any contributions I've made to Wikipedia? External links are links outside of Wikipedia that are relevant to the topic on the page. It's unique information that compliments the information page on Wikipedia. Markm84 (talk) 21:07, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's spam. If they are added through other accounts then we will blacklist the site. I don't find your claims that you aren't connected to the site credible.
⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 21:24, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You have been blocked from editing for a period of 48 hours for The links you add are not in accordance with our guidelines for the External Links section, and you continued to add them after you were warned. Please take other editors' advice to heart.. Once the block has expired, you are welcome to make useful contributions. If you would like to be unblocked, you may appeal this block by adding the text {{unblock|reason=Your reason here ~~~~}}, but you should read the guide to appealing blocks first. Drmies (talk) 21:28, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You are suspected of sockpuppetry, which means that someone suspects you of using multiple Wikipedia accounts for prohibited purposes. Please make yourself familiar with the notes for the suspect, then respond to the evidence at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Ck1959ne. Thank you.
⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 21:47, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Someone named "Berean_Hunter" accused me of spamming and removed the external links I've added. The links were from an online publication I visit regularly, and I'm not sure why those links are being labeled as spam while other publication links were left intact.

I went out of my way to put up links that were on-topic, weren't redundant with information already on the page or its external links, they were original content, and the links are open to the public.

I thought the external links were a way of providing more on-topic information that couldn't be integrated into the Wiki page itself? I don't know why he's accusing me of spam or singling me out.

Markm84 (talk) 18:53, 13 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The guideline on using or removing external links is Wikipedia:External links. On the whole the advice is not to add external links unless the link is an official website of the topic. I note that you are adding links to articles in a web publication. If you feel there is information in those articles that is not contained in our article, then we would prefer that you added the appropriate information to our article, and used the publication's article as a reliable source. That is how we build our articles. It was decided right at the start of Wikipedia that simply linking to other articles would not help build the encyclopedia and simply make us a link directory. The success of Wikipedia as an encyclopedia shows that our approach was correct, and we continue to be quite strong on removing links to other publications. I haven't closely examined the web publication, but it may or may not be regarded as a WP:Reliable source, so my recommendation for you is:

• Contact Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard and ask if realguns.com would be considered a reliable source
• If realguns is confirmed as a reliable source, read through the articles, and pick out information that would be useful in the Wikipedia articles.
• Add the information to the Wikipedia articles, using your own words (you can't copy and paste as that would infringe copyright).
• Follow the guideline in Wikipedia:Citing sources in citing to realguns.com

Let me know if you need any more help. SilkTork *^{Tea time} 08:26, 14 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]