Links

You are welcome to link to sacred-texts, and even copy large parts of the non-copyrighted texts from our site to your site. But, sorry, we can't exchange links with your site. This isn't because we don't respect your site, it's just that this is a different kind of site.

Linking Policy

If we link to your site it will be because we determined it was necessary, not because you asked us to. In fact, just sending a 'link exchange' email automatically disqualifies you from getting a link from us.

There are only a few sites which we link to. These are sites which fit these criteria:

1) Public domain etexts.
By this is meant complete and accurate scans of redistributable or public domain books up to current practices and standards of the free etext movement, in plain text or HTML format; not just short articles, and not just repostings, framesets or links to material available elsewhere.

2) Lots of them.
Having just one text doesn't count. Linked sites have extensive, unique content, including at least several texts not found elsewhere. I don't normally link to sites which are solely about one author, either.

3) On the topic of religion, mythology, etc.
Sites about sports, cooking, dating, gifts, shopping, etc. by definition are excluded from this criteria.

4) Freely accessible.
This content has to be available freely and anonymously; this means visitors don't have to pay to access the content or go through a registration process.

5) Archive.
An archive is different than an advocacy site, in that a site's central mission is collecting and organizing texts, rather than advocacy for a particular point of view. This doesn't mean that the people running a site can't have or express a point of view, or have obvious ties to some belief system, simply that this is secondary to the archival function of the site.

If we add a link to another site, it doesn't mean that we agree with everything at their site. It simply means that they have some other texts on the topic of religion and so on, which we can't provide.

Examples

Here are some sites which meet these criteria:

ONE WAY TO GET A LINK

It will weigh heavily in your favor if: 1) your site actually meets the criteria listed above and 2) contributes one or more public domain etext which you've scanned and proofed to sacred-texts.

HOW NOT TO GET A LINK

Send an obvious form letter requesting a link exchange.

Any good policy needs some exceptions.

I have included some links where appropriate to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (OCRT) site. This site has independently reviewed factual articles about many religions. Often controversial, always educational, OCRT is a one-stop source if you want deep background material on the texts presented at this site.

Another site located in my hometown of Santa Cruz, CA, with very similar philosophy as Sacred Texts is the World Prayers Project.

Adherents.com has detailed statistics on the numbers of adherents to various religions, and takes special care to sort out the hype from the facts. It is also a good place to learn about current debates about the classification of the worlds' religions.

I also like the Encylopedia Mythica site; this is a massively hyperlinked site with information on mythology and folklore of every culture.

Got Mead? - Did you know there are hundreds of references to mead, fermented honey-based wine, hidden at sacred-texts? A complete list can be found here.

World Mysteries - Explore lost civilizations, ancient ruins, sacred writings, unexplained artifacts, and science mysteries. Highly recommended

Treasure Coast Mysteries
A completely different kind of mysteries...
The proprietor of this website is a Mystery writer. He contacted me because he needed some deep background information on Hawaiian ethnobotany for his latest book, Treasure Coast Archipelago. To make a long story short, he ransacked my brain about Hawaiian shamanism, and in return he made sacred-texts into a plot point. If you like mysteries, or have a yen to go fishing in Florida, give his site a look!