On 27/02/2008, David Goodman dgoodmanny@gmail.com wrote:
Here's part of what I mean: I. There's a List of notable Xs. that these are in fact notable Xs is demonstrated implicitly by the very sort of links you mention, because they all have linked WP articles. But frequently at AfD there's a demand that each individual item in the list also be shown to be notable by a specific link to some source or other. This is unnecessary, unless it is non-obvious that it is notable for being an X, rather than something else.
That's such a specific usage that I would dismiss it as IAR.
II. within articles, the links you mention don't work well, because they are not specific--it just says the subject of the other article is mentioned there, not that there is relevant information about it. such links are hyperlinks to provide related information, not to demonstrate evidence for something. This also holds with see also's. they mean related information, not information proving anything in particular.
Indeed. A reference is a source for a specific bit of information, it's not a place to go to get further information (it may well serve that purpose as well, but that's not the point of it).