Talk:2014–15 Drexel Dragons men's basketball team

External links in the "Score" section

Zachlp keeps adding external links into the "score" section in the schedule template for an individual game. I see no reason as to why they need to be there. I have left hime multiple questions on his talk page, but he seems to not want to answer me. This leads me to believe he has no valid reason to why they should be there. What are other thoughts about it? Corkythehornetfan (Talk) 00:58, 30 December 2014 (UTC)

• Corky, I assume that you're referring to the direct links behind the individual game scores in the schedule and results table? If so, no, there should be no direct links in Wikipedia article text. Per WP:EL, you've got two choices: (1) either convert those direct links to inline footnotes, or (2) move them to the "external links" section at the bottom of the page. After the season is over, you can often use a single source from the athletic department that lists all of the game stats in a single document (e.g., scores, opponent, attendance, tip-off times, etc.). Until then, I question whether it's necessary to footnote every game score in the table. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 00:16, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I am talking about the links to the individual games. Thanks for clearing that up! Corkythehornetfan (Talk) 00:20, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

• (edit conflict) One could argue that they are there for verifiability. However, embedded links are generally avoided. An alternative would be to use something like http://www.drexeldragons.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball as a general reference. On the other hand, replacing general references with inline citations is generally considered helpful.—Bagumba (talk) 00:24, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the response, guys! I guess we'll just wait to see if Zachlp responds here or on the WikiProject talk page... Corkythehornetfan (Talk) 23:07, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Summarizing some comments on this topic at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_College_Basketball#Requested_input, User:Bsuorangecrush appears to prefer a reference to a schedule with all the game details as opposed to multiple ELs, and User:Rikster2 seems to call embedded ELs "misleading" and had a concern with WP:LINKROT.—Bagumba (talk) 00:09, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

• As stated above, the reasons I am defending the external links are because of validity of the scores and the stats that are displayed on the schedule. I don't think Linkrot should be considered a major issue on ESPNs site, as many major reporting services confidently use their links for very old games. Using Drexel's site for box scores is an option, but I would be more worried about Linkrot on their site than I would with ESPN. Theses really aren't links that are expected to go dead.--Zach Pepsin (talk) 07:12, 17 January 2015 (UTC)