UniWiki:Manual of Style/Linking: Difference between revisions

Line 43:

If you feel that a link does not belong in the body of an article, consider moving it to a [[UniWiki:Manual of Style/Layout#See also section|"See also" section]].

====~~{{anchor|Overlinking}}~~What generally should not be linked====

====What generally should not be linked====

~~{{shortcut|WP:OLINK|WP:OVERLINKING|MOS:OVERLINK}}~~

An ''overlinked'' article contains an excessive number of links, making it difficult to identify links likely to aid the reader's understanding significantly.<ref name="Dvorak">{{cite journal |authorlink= John C. Dvorak |last= Dvorak |first= John C. |title= Missing Links |magazine= [[PC Magazine]] |date= April 16, 2002 |url= http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,33326,00.asp |accessdate= September 16, 2015}}</ref> A [[m:Research:Improving_link_coverage|2015 study of log data]] found that "in the English Wikipedia, of all the 800,000 links added ... in February 2015, the majority (66%) were not clicked even a single time in March 2015, and among the rest, most links were clicked only very rarely", and that "simply adding more links does not increase the overall number of clicks taken from a page. Instead, links compete with each other for user attention."<ref>Ashwin Paranjape, Bob West, Jure Leskovec, Leila Zia: Improving Website Hyperlink Structure Using Server Logs. WSDM’16, February 22–25, 2016, San Francisco, CA, USA. [http://infolab.stanford.edu/~west1/pubs/Paranjape-West-Leskovec-Zia_WSDM-16.pdf PDF]</ref>

An ''overlinked'' article contains an excessive number of links, making it difficult to identify links likely to aid the reader's understanding significantly.

A good question to ask yourself is whether reading the article you're about to link to would help someone understand the article you are linking from. Unless a term is particularly relevant to the context in the article, the following are not usually linked:

*Everyday words understood by most readers in context

* Everyday words understood by most readers in context

*The names of ''major'' geographic features, locations (e.g. United States, London, New York City, France, Berlin...), languages, nationalities (e.g. English, British, American, French, German...) and religions (e.g. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism...)

* The names of ''major'' geographic features, locations (e.g. United States, London, New York City, France, Berlin...), languages, nationalities (e.g. English, British, American, French, German...) and religions (e.g. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism...)

*Common occupations

* Common occupations

*[[#Units of measurement that are not obscure|Common units of measurement]], e.g. units relating to currency, time, temperature, length, area, or volume (if both non-metric and metric equivalents are provided, as in {{xt|{{convert|18|°C|°F}}}}, usually neither unit needs to be linked, because almost all readers will understand at least one or the other unit)

* [[#Units of measurement that are not obscure|Common units of measurement]], e.g. units relating to currency, time, temperature, length, area, or volume.

*Dates ''(see {{section link||Chronological items}} below)''

Do not link to pages that [[Wikipedia:Redirect|redirect]] back to the page the link is on ~~(unless the link is to a [[:Category:Redirects with possibilities|redirect with possibilities]] that links to an appropriate ''section'' of the current article)~~.

Do not link to pages that [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Redirect|redirect]] back to the page the link is on.

The function of links is to clarify, not emphasize; do not create links in order to draw attention to certain words or ideas, or as a mark of respect.

~~{{shortcut|MOS:DUPLINK|WP:REPEATLINK}}~~

Generally, a link should appear only {{em|once}} in an article, but if helpful for readers, a link may be repeated in [[UniWiki:Manual of Style/Infoboxes|infoboxes]], tables, image captions, [[Wikipedia:Help:Footnotes|footnotes]], [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Hatnote|hatnotes]], and at the first occurrence after the lead. Duplicate links in an article can be identified by using a tool that can be found at [[Wikipedia:User:Ucucha/duplinks]].

~~{{Anchor|Repeated links}}~~

Generally, a link should appear only {{em|once}} in an article, but if helpful for readers, a link may be repeated in [[~~Wikipedia~~:Manual of Style/Infoboxes|infoboxes]], tables, image captions, [[Help:Footnotes|footnotes]], [[Wikipedia:Hatnote|hatnotes]], and at the first occurrence after the lead. Duplicate links in an article can be identified by using a tool that can be found at [[User:Ucucha/duplinks]]. However, in [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Glossaries|glossaries]], which are primarily referred to for encyclopedic entries on specific terms rather than read from top to bottom like a regular article, it is usually desirable to repeat links (including to other terms in the glossary) that were not already linked in the same entry {{crossref|(see [[Template:Glossary link]])}}.

Duplicate linking in lists is permissible if it significantly aids the reader. This is most often the case when the list is presenting information that could just as aptly be formatted in a table, and is expected to be parsed for particular bits of data, not read from top to bottom. If the list is normal article prose that happens to be formatted as a list, treat it as normal article prose.

@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 If you feel that a link does not belong in the body of an article, consider moving it to a [[UniWiki:Manual of Style/Layout#See also section|"See also" section]].
-===={{anchor|Overlinking}}What generally should not be linked====
+====What generally should not be linked====
-<!-- This Anchor tag serves to provide a permanent target for incoming section links. Please do not move it out of the section heading, even though it disrupts edit summary generation (you can manually fix the edit summary before saving your changes). Please do not modify it, even if you modify the section title. -->
-{{shortcut|WP:OLINK|WP:OVERLINKING|MOS:OVERLINK}}
-An ''overlinked'' article contains an excessive number of links, making it difficult to identify links likely to aid the reader's understanding significantly.<ref name="Dvorak">{{cite journal |authorlink= John C. Dvorak |last= Dvorak |first= John C. |title= Missing Links |magazine= [[PC Magazine]] |date= April 16, 2002 |url= http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,33326,00.asp |accessdate= September 16, 2015}}</ref> A [[m:Research:Improving_link_coverage|2015 study of log data]] found that "in the English Wikipedia, of all the 800,000 links added ... in February 2015, the majority (66%) were not clicked even a single time in March 2015, and among the rest, most links were clicked only very rarely", and that "simply adding more links does not increase the overall number of clicks taken from a page. Instead, links compete with each other for user attention."<ref>Ashwin Paranjape, Bob West, Jure Leskovec, Leila Zia: Improving Website Hyperlink Structure Using Server Logs. WSDM’16, February 22–25, 2016, San Francisco, CA, USA. [http://infolab.stanford.edu/~west1/pubs/Paranjape-West-Leskovec-Zia_WSDM-16.pdf PDF]</ref>
+An ''overlinked'' article contains an excessive number of links, making it difficult to identify links likely to aid the reader's understanding significantly.
 A good question to ask yourself is whether reading the article you're about to link to would help someone understand the article you are linking from. Unless a term is particularly relevant to the context in the article, the following are not usually linked:
-*Everyday words understood by most readers in context
+* Everyday words understood by most readers in context
-*The names of ''major'' geographic features, locations (e.g. United States, London, New York City, France, Berlin...), languages, nationalities (e.g. English, British, American, French, German...) and religions (e.g. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism...)
+* The names of ''major'' geographic features, locations (e.g. United States, London, New York City, France, Berlin...), languages, nationalities (e.g. English, British, American, French, German...) and religions (e.g. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism...)
-*Common occupations
+* Common occupations
-*[[#Units of measurement that are not obscure|Common units of measurement]], e.g. units relating to currency, time, temperature, length, area, or volume (if both non-metric and metric equivalents are provided, as in {{xt|{{convert|18|°C|°F}}}}, usually neither unit needs to be linked, because almost all readers will understand at least one or the other unit)
+* [[#Units of measurement that are not obscure|Common units of measurement]], e.g. units relating to currency, time, temperature, length, area, or volume.
 *Dates ''(see {{section link||Chronological items}} below)''
-Do not link to pages that [[Wikipedia:Redirect|redirect]] back to the page the link is on (unless the link is to a [[:Category:Redirects with possibilities|redirect with possibilities]] that links to an appropriate ''section'' of the current article).
+Do not link to pages that [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Redirect|redirect]] back to the page the link is on.
 The function of links is to clarify, not emphasize; do not create links in order to draw attention to certain words or ideas, or as a mark of respect.
-{{shortcut|MOS:DUPLINK|WP:REPEATLINK}}
+Generally, a link should appear only {{em|once}} in an article, but if helpful for readers, a link may be repeated in [[UniWiki:Manual of Style/Infoboxes|infoboxes]], tables, image captions, [[Wikipedia:Help:Footnotes|footnotes]], [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Hatnote|hatnotes]], and at the first occurrence after the lead. Duplicate links in an article can be identified by using a tool that can be found at [[Wikipedia:User:Ucucha/duplinks]].
-{{Anchor|Repeated links}}
-Generally, a link should appear only {{em|once}} in an article, but if helpful for readers, a link may be repeated in [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Infoboxes|infoboxes]], tables, image captions, [[Help:Footnotes|footnotes]], [[Wikipedia:Hatnote|hatnotes]], and at the first occurrence after the lead. Duplicate links in an article can be identified by using a tool that can be found at [[User:Ucucha/duplinks]]. However, in [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Glossaries|glossaries]], which are primarily referred to for encyclopedic entries on specific terms rather than read from top to bottom like a regular article, it is usually desirable to repeat links (including to other terms in the glossary) that were not already linked in the same entry {{crossref|(see [[Template:Glossary link]])}}.
 Duplicate linking in lists is permissible if it significantly aids the reader. This is most often the case when the list is presenting information that could just as aptly be formatted in a table, and is expected to be parsed for particular bits of data, not read from top to bottom. If the list is normal article prose that happens to be formatted as a list, treat it as normal article prose.