The Dead Linger Wiki:External links

External links take readers to pages outside of The Dead Linger Official Wiki, but not to another wiki—links to Wikipedia and the like are called interwiki links. They can be useful when citing information or providing extra information when adding it to the wiki would not be appropriate, such as being outside its scope or copyrighted. However, external links can also be abused: they might link to shock sites, pages with malware, or Rick Astley. Hence, this page contains some do's and don'ts for for adding external links.

When to use external links
In general, external links should add value to the article. This means articles should not have external links unless there is a good reason to do so. An editor might add a link so that readers can read more on the subject, for example, when it's not a good idea to put that same information on this wiki. The Kickstarter funding drive page has an external link to Kickstarter.com because users might want to see the Kickstarter page for The Dead Linger; an external link is used because there is no informational value in directly copying the entire page over to the wiki. Another good reason to use an external link might be for verifiability: readers can follow the link and see for themselves whether this wiki's report of the information is accurate. Such links are also useful for editors if they want to add or rephrase information on the wiki based on that source.

Adding external links to advertise something or to intentionally mislead people is obviously wrong. It's also not a good idea to add an external link if the information is better presented as a wiki article; linking to a developer blog about a game mechanic is no substitute for writing a proper article about the game mechanic. (Though the link can be useful for verifiability, as stated above.) In a few cases, an external link can be replaced by something better; there's little reason to make an external link to Wikipedia when an interwiki link is also possible—editors can link to an article on Wikipedia by prefixing  in front of the article title.

How to use external links
The MediaWiki software usually automatically recognizes links, as long as they start with a prefix like  or. Using single brackets around an external link will shorten it to just a number. (The first link is numbered 1, the second link is numbered 2, etc.) Using single brackets around a link and then typing text after the link will turn the words into a hyperlink. In this way,  becomes http://www.example.com,   becomes, and   becomes this.

HTTPS
When a person reads a site, data is being transferred between their computer and the website's server. Another person on the same network can easily intercept this information, seeing not just what you're looking at but reading right along with you. HTTPS is an encrypted protocol, meaning the information sent across HTTPS can be intercepted but will be encrypted, i.e. unreadable. Although it's possible to crack HTTPS, using it prevents people from casually stealing passwords, hijacking someone's browser, or simply spying on others. That's why it's good practice to use HTTPS for external links. When a wiki reader clicks on an HTTPS link, they connect to the website using HTTPS automatically. Using HTTPS links improves security for readers without any work on their part.

A link can usually be turned into an HTTPS link by replacing  with. However, not all websites work properly with HTTPS, so it's important to check whether a link works with HTTPS before adding or converting it. Websites which can use HTTPS include:


 * Youtube
 * Twitter
 * Imgur
 * Flickr
 * Google

URL shortening
URL shortening services take a link and then represent it in a shorter format by creating their own link to redirect to the original. http://www.thedeadlinger.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page can be turned into http://tinyurl.com/7j7hamc, which is half its size. However, URL shorteners make it hard to see what page a link will lead to without following the link first. This makes it hard for editors to detect inappropriate links and may also make readers more reluctant to click on them. Hence, avoid using shortened URLS for external links.

An exception to this is use of an "official" shortener. A link using Youtu.be is always going to lead to a video on youtube.com, so it's clear what's being linked to. Similarly, a link using t.co is sure to lead to something on Twitter.com.