FT2 wrote:
- auto-render all [http://link.com] as <ref>http://link.com</ref>. It's
not perfect but the information's the best there is and its consistent in style.
I like #3.
That seems reasonable to me---that's usually what people mean by the inline links anyway (an assertion that their link constitutes a reference). Of course someone should still come along and either: 1) expand them into a full citation (e.g. with {{cite web}}); or 2) determine that the link is not a reliable source, and either remove it or move it to the "external links" section. But we have to do that with links that are already in ref tags anyway.
-Mark