Robin Shannon (robin.shannon@gmail.com) [041213 00:24]:
I've had this idea kicking around in my mind for a while. What would people think about a third tab for references. ie. The main article tab, the talk tab, and the references tab, and the subscripted numbers (or whatever) would be links to the references tab. i mentioned this to tim starling, and i dont think that he saw any particualarly big tech problem with this.
I see a slight problem in using it to reduce contention: that sometimes the recalcitrant editor has to be hit over the goshdarn head with the references for them to sink in. I'd rather have them rendered in <small> at the bottom of the article if they're not in the main text.
OTOH we could have an option, cinse developer time is of course copious and free [*].
OTOOH, I suggest we get editors into the general habit of providing backup for their assertions, see what form references tend to take then write the feature to facilitate that. How it's done on other Wikipedias would be important to check too.
- d.
[*] probably not