Editing Encyclopedia:FAQ/Contributing (section)

==Links: external and multilingual==
===<span id="TRANS"></span>Should I translate pages across the various Wikipedias?===
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: Yes, it's a good idea to cross-pollinate. Please give credit to the contributors of the original article by noting that you have done so, with a link to the original, in the edit summary or at the article's talk page. See [[Wikipedia:Translation]] for further information.

===<span id="MTRANS"></span>What about using machine translation?===
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: [[Machine translation]] is useful for obtaining the general idea of a text in an unfamiliar language, but it produces poor translations and should not be used on its own. If you want to use machine translation as a translation ''aid'' and intend to edit the result, please go ahead if you think it would be helpful. '''Do not''' paste a machine translation directly into an article.

===<span id="OTHERLANG"></span>How can I tell if an article exists in another language Wikipedia?===
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: We try to build links between different language pages – that's one way of seeing if an article exists elsewhere. If you don't see the language links at the left of a page, go looking for the corresponding article(s) on foreign Wikipedias. If you find them, make a link both ways; if not, you can translate. Bear in mind that article may not be in one-to-one correspondence between Wikipedias. See [[Wikipedia:Interlanguage links]] and [[Wikipedia:Multilingual coordination]] for more information.

===<span id="OTHER"></span>Is it ok to link to other sites?===
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:External links are certainly allowed. Properly used, they increase the usability of Wikipedia. Keep in mind, however, that Wikipedia is not a [[web directory]]; external links should support the content of the article, not replace it. An article should be more than a container for external links, and the content should not require the reader to leave the site to understand the subject.

:Do not place advertising links in Wikipedia. Commercial sites are obvious, but this prohibition ''usually'' includes links to fansites and discussion forums as well unless the site is a notable one in the field. As a general rule of thumb: if you wish to place the link in Wikipedia in order to drive traffic to a site, it probably doesn't belong here. 

:The current convention is to place external links in a separate "External links" section at the bottom of the article. Sites used as references for the article should be listed under a "References" section, or sometimes placed within the article as a footnote. See [[Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] for different ways to create external links.

:See the [[Wikipedia:External links|relevant guideline]] for more examples on when external links are appropriate.
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: <span id="BOOK"></span> There are many templates that help to add formatted links to specific sites at [[:Category:External link templates]]. For example, you can link articles about books to the online copies of those books on [[Project Gutenberg]] using the template {{tl|Gutenberg}}.