User:Beeswaxcandle/Sandbox4

This policy regulates how links should be used on English Wikisource in order to provide the best value to our readers, reusers, contributors, sister projects, and the Wikimedia movement as a whole. Its primary focus is on links in the texts we host and the user-visible namespaces, but also regulates other aspects of using links on the project and their use in project-internal namespaces. The linking policy defines what links are acceptable in our main texts, but some forms and kinds of linking that are not permitted under this policy may be acceptable under the policy for annotations as a special exception for those texts. Likewise, some links that would otherwise be permitted under this policy may be prohibited by other policies, such as by the copyright policy when the link is to an external site that violates copyright.

Summary

Wikilinks provide hyperlinks to other pages and sections within Wikisource and sister projects supported by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Light wikilinking inside works is permitted and recommended. Recommended links are links to author pages, titles of other works, and internal cross references within a single work. Permitted links that go outside of Wikisource are links to relevant sister projects such as Wiktionary, English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata.^[1]

Links that are forbidden include external links inside a hosted text, links that are interpretative, and links that for other reasons do not serve the reader or violates our principle of neutrality. A key concept in this policy is that there should be no surprises for the reader when they click a link.

Different rules apply for links inside a hosted text, in the header section of a page, a text's talk page, and in project-internal wikipages such as policy pages, discussion forums, and user pages.

Links in presentation namespaces

The use of wikilinks within the presentation namespaces (primarily the Main and Translation namespaces, but also the Page namespace by extension) is limited by policy.

There are two main types of wikilinks: those within the text itself, and those in the header template. See the documentation pages for the {{header}} and {{translation header}} templates for full details of what links are used there.

Basic wikilinks

Certain very basic wikilinks are permitted and, in fact, recommended:

Cross-references to pages or other sections within the work should be linked. For example, q.v. references to other articles in an encyclopaedia, references to other chapters in a book, and text such as "See footnote on page xx".
In journals cross-references to articles in previous issues should also be linked. (Comment: selfrefs)
References to other works should be linked (whether we currently host them or not). If possible, do a deep link (see the section in the Style Guide), but at least link to the full title.
This may require research as many common works are referred to in abbreviated form. When we hold multiple versions or editions of a work, if you are unable to determine which one was meant in the work, then a link to the versions page for the work is acceptable.
Links to mentioned authors and non-authors who meet the criteria to have a portal are always acceptable. Take care, though not to overlink. Linking the first mention in a section (chapter or other subdivision) of the text is sufficient. Also, if the work is about a person and the related_author field in the header template has been used, then linking in the text as well is not necessary. (Comment: related_author)

Unacceptable wikilinks

Links to the Index and Page namespaces and other project-internal pages should not be made within a text. In particular, even though a book's table of contents, list of illustrations, or similar constructs list a specific page number, these should never be linked to individual pages in the Page: namespace.^[2] In transcluded texts, links to the relevant Index: and Page: namespace pages are available either by clicking the source button at the top of the page for the Index and the small page numbers in the left hand margin for the Page namespace. If a work mentions another work, the link should be to the main namespace rather than the Index or Page namespace. The same applies if a work mentions a section or passage of itself or another work. Anchors can be used where needed to create a suitable link target if a wikipage contains multiple independent sections. (Comment: links_to_pages)

Interpretative links are not acceptable.

External links and links to non-Wikimedia pages are not acceptable.

Links to other Wikimedia Projects

Occasional links to Wikipedia for clarity and to Wiktionary for obscure words are permitted. See the section on #Context-appropriate links below for more detail.

Links to pages on other Wikimedia-project are not permitted unless the original text included such links.^[3] These include (but are not limited to):

files and file description pages
pages in the Help, MediaWiki, Module, Project, Special, Template and User namespaces
MediaWiki, Meta-Wiki, Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Labs, Wikibooks, Wikidata, Wikiversity and Wikivoyage pages

Files on Wikimedia Commons that reproduce an image from the work should be included inline in a manner similar to how it appeared in the original work (Comment: include_files) rather than just linked to.^[4]

In regard to Wikidata, direct links to individual data items are explicitly prohibited. See the Wikidata section for Wikidata's purpose in the project and the permitted ways to use Wikidata on English Wikisource. (Comment: wikidata_inline)

Links in other namespaces

Index namespace

Link the Title to the title that is used on the Main namespace page. If the work is transcluded in multiple volumes, link the volume field to the appropriate subpage.
Link the Author to the Author: namespace page for that author.
Link the Publisher to the Portal namespace page for that publisher, if one exists.
If there is an Illustrator, Editor, or Translator, link these to their Author pages.

Portal namespace

Use the authority control template to link to Wikidata.

The lists of works on a portal should all be linked (whether the work is yet created or not). If a work is not yet scan-backed, and there is an Index or File available, then use the template {{small scan link}}. If an Index or File is not available but a scan is known to exist in an online repository, use {{ext scan link}} to link to it. Once a File or Index page exists any {{ext scan link}} should be removed. Once a work has been fully proofread, the {{small scan link}} template should be removed.

Author namespace

Adding a link to an Author page on Wikisource to the corresponding item on Wikidata automatically provides links in the header to the author's pages on Wikipedia, Commons, Wikidata, and Wikibooks. It also allows {{authority control}} to show all available authority control data for that author. Manual links to sister projects in the {{author}} template are therefore not needed and are not permitted by this policy. (Comment: author_ac)

Rather than using the notes field use the related_author field to make links to relevant other authors.

Works listed on an Author page should be linked, regardless of whether the target page exists yet or not. The exception is works that are known to not be freely licensed or public domain, which should not be linked. Co-authors, translators, editors, and illustrators that are mentioned should be linked.

Wikiproject pages

Links on these should be managed in a similar fashion to Portals (with the exception of authority control, which is not applicable). Wikiproject pages are explicitly project-internal pages and more leeway on linking is permitted subject to local consensus.

Talk pages

External links are explicitly permitted on Talk pages, but within the limits of other policies and guidelines such as policies on copyright and acceptable conduct. The {{textinfo}} template has a field for the source of the work, which will usually be offsite. Adding links to the source of biographic data on Author Talk pages is encouraged. Explanatory notes and links may be added to a work's Talk page—provided that such do not become general commentary on the work and its merits.

User and user talk pages

These namespaces are freer than most, with the limitation of advertising and other forms of self-promotional links. It is recommended that links that will identify the user are not posted on these pages.

Uses of links

Interpretative vs. non-interpretative links

A link's target should correspond to the term showing as the link as closely as possible given the context. Links should only be made to the most specific page appropriate to the context of the link.

The linked text and the link target should be essentially the same. No significant amount of interpretation is allowed in adding a wikilink to the body of a text. Doing so is considered to violate our policy of neutrality. As part of this, straight links are preferred whenever possible. Piped links should only be used to hide namespace and project names, to disambiguate, where alternative spelling have been used, different wordings, or other, similar, minor differences.

Example
Status	What you type	How it appears	Notes
Allowed	If the mad hatter of "[[Alice in Wonderland]]" had undertaken to write a history of the world,	If the mad hatter of "Alice in Wonderland" had undertaken to write a history of the world,	The title linked here is clearly marked and no interpretation is necessary in understanding its meaning.
Not allowed	...in Lewis Carroll's [[Alice in Wonderland\|most popular work]].	...in Lewis Carroll's most popular work.	This link makes an assumption about the author's original intention. This should be left to the individual reader.

Wikilinks as annotations

Wikilinks within the body of a text, beyond those mentioned above, are generally considered to be annotations. This only relates to the presentation namespaces (i.e., the main and Translation namespaces) and those the feed into it (e.g., the Page namespace).

Overlinking

Excessive linking should be avoided. Even where it is allowable to add a wikilink under this policy, too many wikilinks can be distracting and should not be used if they are not necessary.

Generally, a link should only appear once on a single wikipage within the body of a given work. For example, if an author is mentioned by name multiple times within a short story, chapter, or other subdivision of a work, only the first instance should be wikilinked.

An author or other person who is already linked in the header should generally not also be linked in the text of the work.

An exception to this is where the work itself makes frequent or repeated references, in which case those references should still be linked.^[5]

Underlinking

Underlinking is not a problem on Wikisource. It is normal for the body of a text to contain no wikilinks at all.

However, each page should have a {{header}} or {{translation header}} template and this should be as complete as possible. In particular, the header template should link to the author's page in the Author namespace. Subpages that represent chapters should link to the previous and next chapters in the work.

Titles of works and the names of authors within the body of the text should normally be wikilinked (to works in the main or Translation namespace and author pages in the Author namespace, respectively) but this is not required.

Unintended emphasis

Wikilinks that place an unintended emphasis on the linked term, to the extent that the work is altered and the term exoticised, should be avoided.

Wikilinks look slightly different than the surrounding, unlinked text. This draws the readers' attention and puts more emphasis on those words. In some situations, this emphasis potentially alters the work itself and can affect its reading. This can occur even when the meaning of the linked term and the link target are essentially the same.

For example, in Flight 93 Cockpit Transcript, wikilinking the phrase "Allah is greatest" to Wikipedia:Takbir places additional emphasis on those words, even though it is technically correct.

Context-appropriate links

The nature of the text may affect whether or not a wikilink is appropriate. This should take into account the author's presumed intentions, the likely audience of the text, and the use to which it may be put.

With academic or scientific works, more wikilinking may be appropriate as academics are more likely to use the text in that fashion. Heavier wikilinking may also be more appropriate in reference works, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, as the links would enhance the usefulness of such as text. (Comment: heavier_linking)

With poetry or fiction, little or no wikilinking is more appropriate. Archaic or obscure words may be wikilinked to their definitions on Wiktionary to aid the reader. It is more acceptable to wikilink difficult words in children's fiction than in adult-orientated fiction due to the presumed younger readership.

With works of a similar type, the specific use of the work can make a difference. For example, general theological works, such as Tracts for the Times (1834), and biblical commentaries, such as A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Judges (1910), both contain Bible passages and references that could be wikilinked to a copy of the Bible on Wikisource. However, a biblical commentary is meant to be used with a copy of the Bible already open; wikilinks are less important here as they are more redundant. On the other hand, it may be more approriate to wikilink references in the general work as the reader is less likely to have a copy of the Bible on hand while reading.

With older works, wikilinks may be more appropriate, whether those works are fictional, scholarly or any other type of text. In these cases, wikilinks are useful for understanding what the author is saying. Cultural references that would have been well known to the contemporary audience can be obscure to modern readers. Authors of older works may also assume that their readers have studied Latin and Greek, which is less likely to be true now. Situations like this can make wikilinks more acceptable than normal.

Red links

If the target page of an internal wikilink does not exist, it will appear red like this.

Sometimes it is useful in editing texts and other pages to create a red link to indicate that a page will be created soon or that an page should be created eventually. Red links show works and authors that could, and should, exist on Wikisource but are currently not present.

A 2008 study relating to the sister project Wikipedia showed that red links helped that project grow.

Wikilinks to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects will never appear red. Such a link will appear in the same light-blue color whether the target page exists or not, and therefore inactive links are indistinguishable from active links. External links should be created only if the target page already exists, or if the target page will be created in short order.

Wikidata

Wikidata is a sister site to Wikisource, it is a free, collaborative, multilingual, secondary database, collecting structured data to provide support for Wikimedia projects. Wikidata supports Wikisource with more easily maintainable interlanguage- and interwiki links, author images, and infoboxes, thus reducing the workload in Wikisource and increasing its quality. Links to sister projects (eg. Wikipedia) and interlanguage links (eg. French Wikisource) should be maintained through the Wikidata database, wherever possible.

The default item view on Wikidata is not user friendly or useful for most people, and for this reason direct wikilinks to Wikidata are not permitted in presentation namespaces. In some cases, however, it may be useful to identify a person or work for which a Wikidata item exists, but for which there is no suitable link target on Wikisource or the permitted sister projects. In these cases it is acceptable to link to Wikidata using the {{wdl}} template, which dynamically displays a link to the most suitable destination based on which targets are available.

Translations

Wikisource translations are original translations of non-English works created by Wikisource contributors. For the purposes of this policy, Wikisource translations are just another kind of text even if they are hosted in the Translation: namespace. All parts of this policy that apply to texts in the main namespace apply equally to Wikisource translations.

Born-digital texts

Works that were originally published in a modern digital format are a special class of text on Wikisource. Such works will often include either web page addresses or have active links within the text, much like a wikipage has. For such works the original links in the form they appeared when published should generally be reproduced when hosted on Wikisource. Restrictions in this policy on acceptable links do not apply directly to these works, but restrictions from other policies, such as the copyright policy, that limit links may still apply.^[6]

In works where the original includes live links, additional links should not be introduced even though they would otherwise be permissible under this policy. This is so that there will not be any confusion about which links were in the original and which were added by Wikisource.

Notes

Note: Footnotes in this page are informative and not normative. If there is a conflict between a footnote and the main text, the main text takes precedence. However, the footnotes are a part of the policy and the guidance and explanations contained in them are intended to inform the interpretation of the policy.

↑ Note that links to Wikidata must always use the {{wdl}} template. See the Wikidata section for details.
↑ For a table of contents the chapter title should be linked to the wikipage in mainspace where that chapter is (or will be) transcluded, and for a list of illustrations the equivalent part should be linked to an anchor where that illustration appears on the mainspace page where it is transcluded. Link targets at arbitrary positions within a page can be created with the {{anchor}} template.
↑ This is to allow for freely licensed modern texts that directly relate to Wikimedia sites or the Wikimedia movement. Examples include research papers and journal articles studying the projects, or books about the free culture movement.
↑ While inline images are not in themselves links, the displayed image is automatically linked to the File: page on Commons. These links as a side-effect of including the image are acceptable, but manually added links to files or file description pages are not.
↑ This applies when, for example, the same or a similar citation occurs in multiple footnotes on a single page or within a single section, chapter, or other subdivision in a text. It will typically not apply within running prose even if the text reference the same author or similar multiple times, but might apply to something like a table which includes a column with citations similar to those usually found in footnotes.
↑ In particular, no page on Wikisource may link to a website that hosts copyright violations even if such a link was included in the work reproduced. This restriction applies to live (clickable) links, and not website addresses included as text.

Comments

^ selfrefs: I think this could be clearer, perhaps with reference to common cases. Perhaps: Self-referential links to pages or other sections within the work should be made. These may include "q.v." references to other entries in an encyclopaedia, references to previous articles of a magazine or other chapters in a book. (Aside: perhaps we should have a way for policy to clearly denote "explanatory notes" that are not, themselves, normative?) Inductiveload—talk/contribs 09:47, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

^ related_author: We also have the related author parameter. Usage of that parameter is inconsistent. Theoretically, at least, if the article has main subject (P921) set, this can be filled in automagically. Inductiveload—talk/contribs 09:47, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

My usage is that where I cannot easily or normally link the related author near the top of the work, then I can use related_author; so it its use is irregular though not inconsistent, I prefer to have those links in the body if possible, though I hate to wikilink anything that is a heading, or otherwise formatted work.

^ links_to_pages: "Wikisource page" is ambiguous: perhaps Links to pages in the Page namespace are not required. (I assume this is talking about linking things like page numbers in TOCs, could also be clarified?) Inductiveload—talk/contribs 09:47, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

Embedded links to Page: ns should not be undertaken in main ns, that is the job of page numbering. If people wish to do links to Page: ns, then do it from the Talk: page where it can be overt and not confuse the linkclickers unaware of our use of namespaces.

^ include_files: This doesn't seem right: is this saying not only you can grangerise anything, but you should? And then it directly contradicts the next sentence because it's an annotation and that's restricted (and requires a clean version)? Inductiveload—talk/contribs 10:05, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

^ wikidata_inline: I'm not entirely convinced by this. If a mentioned "topic" has a Wikidata page, and several sitelinks and copious authority control, but that doesn't (currently) include an enWS author/portal or an enWP page (example: Lode Baekelmans), should we really forbid any wikilink? When the enWS/enWP article materialises, it is extremely unlikely that anyone will come back to it and create that link, so it'll likely be unlinked forever. However, a (putative) auto-resolving WD link would work seamlessly. I suggest at least considering development of such a thing, before we formalise an outright ban into policy. Inductiveload—talk/contribs 09:47, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

Some other comment by me below. If we can use logic that has a template that they can link to the item, and if there is no interwiki to enWP, then no link, when there is an interwiki then it provides that link. We still don't want overlinking through this.

Sure, we don't want people linking to every noun. {{wdl}} seems like a decent start for this (and Reasonator seems better than a raw WD link as the fallback). Inductiveload—talk/contribs 15:23, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

^ heavier_linking: this is at odds with the "annotation" part higher up. If wikilinks are "are generally considered to be annotations" (a vague statement in itself), then according to Wikisource:Annotations (which is admittedly only a guideline, but often used as if it were policy) you may not add any wikilinks without separately maintaining a "clean" version. This is obviously not a practical requirement (not least because we have no way to host multiple versions of something against a single scan (phab:T259963), but also because that's a multiplication of the effort required, both for the contributor and for maintainers). Inductiveload—talk/contribs 09:47, 4 March 2021 (UTC)
Clean version should definitely be a print/download edition, and maybe we can have an annotated print/download version. <shrug>

^ author_ac: the presence of {{authority control}} doesn't affect links in the sister link box. That is driven by the link to the Author page from Wikidata (which is also what fills the AC template). Suggest: Adding a Wikidata sitelink to an Author page automatically provides links in the header to the author's pages on Wikipedia, Commons, Wikidata, and Wikibooks, thus removing the need to supply explicit links. It also allows {{authority control}} to show all available authority control data for that author. Inductiveload—talk/contribs 09:47, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

billinghurst comment

We mention content namespaces though this is then not extrapolated, or further defined. Mediawiki has a technical definition for content namespaces, is that what you are meaning, or are you meaning something else. To see what is look at siteinfo and search for "content": "". I don't think that is what we mean, so I suggest that we find another term than content and define. (Note we included Page: and Index: into our content space to get editing stats aligned with other wikis, and some of the stuff around search.]
- Subsidiary to that, we may need to differentiate between links added in the notes field, and those added in the body text, as the allowances are different. I am more likely to allow some interpretative link there, eg. a parody work could have comment in the notes about whom modern scholars say to whom is considered the target of the parody
We have had different tolerances for wikilinks in author and portal namespaces. In that we have encouraged external linking to works elsewhere that we cannot display, eg. works licensed cc-by-nc... I know that I have linked to some Australian biography pages at the NLA and NZ Library as they had information on the authors, and they had yet to have WP pages, and it was prior to WD. To me, we can do that by directing users to our prepared templates for use, and discourage raw links which should go on the talk page if they are required.
We need to better explain or document that all links in the original work should be maintained as wikilinks, that is that a cross-reference in older works becomes a wikilink, or external wikilinks in modern works are maintained.
- And a get out for "overlinking", for where the work itself makes multiple references then we should not be inhibiting those who do the repeats, one or multiple should be acceptable in our space
In main ns,: direct links to WD are only through the automated linking provided by the header
In main ns: body, links can be direct link to WP articles , or they can be via WP interpreted links through pulling manipulating WD item to point at the WP interwiki. We may need to get an easy template to do wplink to #invoke:WikidataIB to do the interwiki. We can emphasis that WD provided interwikis are more resilient, we should not be prohibiting direct interwikis, call them redundant or deprecated if you like.

Something that we could consider is allowing more fulsome linking, interpretative linking and wikidata direct linking from the talk page of a work, and encourage use of edition = yes as a pointer to that commentary. Whether we setup a framework for talk page additions, or just leave it to people's reasonable additions. This would align with the research that I have added to author_talk: pages, though that is not specifically highlighted or pointed at from the author: page. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:31, 4 March 2021 (UTC)

[1] Note that links to Wikidata must always use the {{wdl}} template. See the Wikidata section for details.

[2] For a table of contents the chapter title should be linked to the wikipage in mainspace where that chapter is (or will be) transcluded, and for a list of illustrations the equivalent part should be linked to an anchor where that illustration appears on the mainspace page where it is transcluded. Link targets at arbitrary positions within a page can be created with the {{anchor}} template.

[3] This is to allow for freely licensed modern texts that directly relate to Wikimedia sites or the Wikimedia movement. Examples include research papers and journal articles studying the projects, or books about the free culture movement.

[4] While inline images are not in themselves links, the displayed image is automatically linked to the File: page on Commons. These links as a side-effect of including the image are acceptable, but manually added links to files or file description pages are not.

[5] This applies when, for example, the same or a similar citation occurs in multiple footnotes on a single page or within a single section, chapter, or other subdivision in a text. It will typically not apply within running prose even if the text reference the same author or similar multiple times, but might apply to something like a table which includes a column with citations similar to those usually found in footnotes.

[6] In particular, no page on Wikisource may link to a website that hosts copyright violations even if such a link was included in the work reproduced. This restriction applies to live (clickable) links, and not website addresses included as text.

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