Matthew Brown wrote:
Some of the Amazon ones being discussed here were not as part of a bibliographic entry but were being used for facts quoted in an article, e.g. release dates, etc. In that case, it IS being used as a source, and that's a different case.
I think this is an important distinction. Often, the Amazon link is the easiest, best, most reliable source for a certain fact in an article. Should it be replaced ''if possible''? Sure, and no one would object to such a replacement. To simply try and remove the references without replacing is a problem.
The ASIN? Not helpful. ISBNs are more standard and useful, and I can't imagine a worthwhile defense of using ASINs when we're able to use ISBNs so well. But there are two discussions at work here, and it's important to separate the two.
-Jeff