List-defined references (WP:LDR) involve reducing the amount of code
dedicated to references in the main body, by moving most of it to the
bottom of the article (here's an example of a diff that showcases how
this works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_Wide_Web&diff=prev&…)3433599).
Wiki policies and community are currently divided on whether this is a
good idea or not. I'd think that reducing the amount of wiki code in the
main body of text is a good idea, as it makes the text less code-heavy,
thus friendlier (a step towards WYSWIG), which should make editing more
easy for all editors, particularly the newbies whom I'd expect be most
likely to be scared by the code. However, I was asked for a proof of
that, and hence I wonder if anybody knows any studies that would be
relevant to this discussion?
On a related note, LDR reformatting of an article does tend to increase
the article size by about 10%. Is there any research on how an increase
in article size affects page load times, and editing window lag?
--
Piotr Konieczny
"To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's
laurels, is defeat." --Józef Pilsudski