Editing Encyclopedia:FAQ/Contributing (section)

===<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}}.