JohJak2

For you to know, for me to find out.

Vandalised

• 08:18, 23 October 2006 213.189.93.248
  

IP: 213.189.93.248; Country: Kuwait; City: Kuwait, Al Kuwayt

Which or that? (stolen from User:Ground Zero)

Many Wikipedians use which and that interchangeably. Each of these words has a specific use that conveys different meanings to the reader. Here are a couple of examples to illustrate the difference:

A1. My car that is blue needs painting.

A2. My car, which is blue, needs painting.

Each sentence tells us something about the car, but the choice of which or that changes the meaning of the sentences.

In sentence A1, the use of that suggests that I own more than one car and therefore must specify that I am talking about a particular car—the blue one. If I left out "that is blue", the reader would not know which of my cars I was talking about.

In sentence A2, I am telling you that I own only one car, and that it needs painting. The fact that it is blue is incidental. I am only adding that in as additional information. I could leave out that information and the sentence would still make sense.

B1. The studies that were written by graduate students are well-researched.

B2. The studies, which were written by graduate students, are well-researched.

In sentence B1, the reader understands that only some of the studies were written by graduate students. If I were to omit "that were written by graduates students", the sentence tells the reader, "The studies are well-researched". This would be inaccurate, because not all of the studies were well-researched—only those written by graduates students. "[That] were written by graduate students" is essential to the meaning of the sentence.

On the other hand, in sentence B2, the information that the studies were written by graduates students is not necessary for the sentence to convey the correct meaning; in this case, all of the studies were well-written. The fact that they were written by graduates students may be interesting, but the central point of the sentence, that the studies were well-written, would still be clear even without that additional information.

Summary:

• Use that when the information is essential to the meaning of the sentence.
• Use which when it is not essential.

Mapping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages/Links#Maps

Text

text 16:33, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

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Spam?

Thanks for your awareness. Wikipedia has a policy against wikispam (i.e. advertisements masquerading as article, and/or placing inappropriate external links). Whenever you suspect a user is trying to use Wikipedia as a vehicle to advertise a certain company/product/service/solution/website, you are free to remove it from the article. Please use a clear edit summary to indicate that you're removing wikispam. It is also advisable to contact the spammer via his/her talk page, for instance by placing one of the standard anti-spam templates, {{spam}}, {{spam2}}, and {{spam3}}. Thanks again, RexNL 16:45, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

I am not aware of any prohibition of listing company names in related articles. Why is it not fair to say that Shimano makes Flight Deck for STI, or Campagnolo makes Ergo Brain for Ergopower? Polar was linked because they make the heart-rate type. Removing Cat Eye makes some sense, as it doesn't have any other mention in the article.

I looked through WP:SPAM and WP:EL and didn't see any clear indication against mentioning companies. I noticed you asked RexNL about it. For future reference, the Wikipedia:Help Desk has a helpful and knowledgeable bunch. Let me know your thoughts. Christopherlin 19:47, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

More spam info

It's usually either pretty obvious spam or a subjective look at all of the links on an article. The obvious stuff is a single user/IP adding links to the same site across multiple articles (Especially if the site being linked has a high value adword like Mesothelioma). Where there are lots of links, I usually take a look at them all and try to decide if the page being linked to adds to the value of the article. Look out for blogs, forums with less than a few thousand posts and anything with little content and lots of ads.
Taking a look at the Spam WikiProject might help you get a feel for things. --GraemeL ^(talk) 19:22, 5 October 2006 (UTC)