h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are some HREF links I'd like to include in Entries that might, or might not, break the House Rules; one is to a site that contains a few _possibly_ objectionable images, but not on the actual page I'd be linking to, and the others are foreign language sites. (I'm not sure how these are handled; the House Rules state that the Moderators 'may also have to fail links to sites which are in languages other than English' if they are suspected to be objectionable, but the F.A.Q. pages note that Moderators may be unable to establish whether pages in languages they can't read are objectionable.)

Since I'd naturally like to avoid breaching the House Rules and having content removed for me, I was wondering what I ought to do in order to find out in advance what links would be acceptable. Ought I to ask the Gurus? Post at Editorial Feedback? E-mail someone?

If I am supposed to put the questions via conversations, including links in postings would rather defeat the object of the exercise; my present assuption is that it would be sufficient just to leave out the 'http://' so as to prevent the URLs being converted into links. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this point.

As far as I've been able to gather, the enforcement of the House Rules regarding links focuses on what is on the actual page you're linking to, and not on all the multitudes of other pages you might be able to get to from that page.

For example, there's a rule about no commercial links, which in practice means no links to pages where you can directly buy something. So, for example, I can give you the link to the US Girl Scouts page, but not the link to the store that sells their uniforms. And in fact, the former link does show up here on h2g2, but not the latter, and you can get to the latter from the former in about one click, and that's all still kosher.

If at all possible, I would avoid linking to foreign language sites, as it is awfully difficult to control when or if those will be moderated. A good chunk of the time, there are alternative sites that you can use that are available in English. And when there's not, I personally would rather go without the link than deal with the entry being moderated down the line.

, one of the Gurus

Oh, and in case these are entries that you had thought about submitting to Peer Review, be aware of the fact that the standard of what links are okay for Edited Guide entries is somewhat higher than for what links simply don't violate the House Rules.

-- the ferocious linkinator

Okay, . I was rather expecting that my desire to direct people to downloads relevant to A2383427 -- to the best of my knowledge available only on Japanese sites -- would be thwarted; and at least now I can be reasonably confident about another site I very much wanted to link to.

Thanks very much.

There is no difference between a hyperlinked URL, and one that doesn't link - they would still all be checked.

A general guide about sites in a non-English language is that if they have an English version the Moderators will check that. If it doesn't, and they don't speak that language, they will fail it because they can't check it - unless it appears to be a 'official' site.

Although Moderators will only generally check the first page, if they see a link on that page that appears to go to something that would fail, they will check it. Even if they pass a site, there is no guarantee that someone else wouldn't follow the link and read the whole site, and then complain if they find something inappropriate about it. Then the Moderators will fail the link.

You can't link directly to downloads.

Right. So, returning to the original question, can I ask about a site beforehand if I'm unsure about it, or do I just wait to be moderated and in the meantime hope I haven't broken the rules?

s off to remove a link he added following last night's conversation -- assuming it's still there.

An attempted work-around may now be seen at the end of A2383427.

N.B. My previous post applies only to the foreign-language sites.

I've applied a similar workaround near the end (excluding footnotes) of A2444285; my guess is that the site would fail if thoroughly checked. As for 'official'-looking sites -- how about the Japanese-language homepage of a civic centre?

A civic centre would probably do. Don't forget that I can only give 'general' advice. For h2g2 specific advice I can't help. There is no obligation for the h2g2 Editors to allow any external links they don't like the look of - it's their site, and the editorial decisions belong to them. They might deem it not worth a link to a site 99% of the readers here can't read. Is this intended for the Edited Guide?

If you think a site would fail, leave it off is the best advice I can give.

Both Entries are intended for the E.G., yes. The civic centre site is of minor importance; I was just trying to get a better idea of where the lines are supposed to be drawn. The sites I wanted to link A2383427 to, and have given directions to instead, contained downloads (themselves with Japanese writing and vocals) directly relevant to the Entry, and not available on any English-language site of which I'm aware; they can be found via one of the sites I linked the entry to, and so I was able to give directions as to how to reach them; it'll be inconvenient for people to have to go through another site, but it's not that problematic. (Actually, if the amount of activity on the Peer Review thread is anything to go by nobody else will be bothered either way.)

The site I wanted to link A2444285 to is a sadder loss, since it's got quite a lot of content that's unavailable anywhere else I know of; unfortunately a couple of pages there contain images that I imagine would be failed, and there's an external link to a site that would definitely be failed. As you can see (a little above the footnotes), the suggestions I've given for finding the site I wanted to link to are rather vague and involve the use of Google; hopefully this approach is unobjectionable.

On a pedantic note, I was under the impression that the h2g2 Editors were subject to decisions from higher up in the B.B.C.

Thanks for the advice.

"On a pedantic note, I was under the impression that the h2g2 Editors were subject to decisions from higher up in the B.B.C."

They are subject to BBC Guidelines, which I am also subject to. So the advice I was giving was within those guidelines, but individual site owners/Editors do not have to go right up to the edge of those limits, they can stop before they get there.

As to Googling, you probably shouldn't tell people to Google for a site that would fail if you linked to it directly, although I'm not sure where the Editors are on this. I know that on the messageboards that's a fail.

As your entries are headed for the EG, the Editors will see them and can make a decision on any links that might be borderline.

Or rather, one that I assume would fail were the Moderators to scour it; I'm still having to work according to what appears to be the best hypothesis.

I haven't actually instructed anyone to Google; I have informed the reader that 'anyone looking for this site will have to type "excel saga" into a search engine. It's likely to be one of the first options to appear on Google, and has a very predictable name.' This information, presumably, will have to go; the more exploratorily minded will doubtless find their way there anyhow. I'll tell them it's a test of their dedication to the Ideological Secret Organisation ACROSS, or something equally helpful.

That last sentence was intended as a joke, by the way. I've actually rejigged the Entry to tell them nothing other than that there's a site I can't link to; so if they come upon it, and find the ecchi doujinshi stuff, they may not be taken entirely by surprise, as I originally was.