David Gerard wrote
What we need is to encourage a culture of including references.
I'm happy if I can get a good book or two referenced, and an external link or so to corroborate. I am totally against having to footnote everything. That is a lame way to have to write - training wheels for Ph.D. students.
Basic point for me, in fact becoming fundamental: WP is not an academic institution, and can't afford 'guild restrictions'. Leaving the question of what it is.
We need to have the word 'para-academic' in mind. WP can be everyone's resource of quick access, to extent that they have an Internet connection. WP can be one of the Seven Wonders of the Web. WP can make para-academic sound very good: not the thesis of 300000 words on a humanities subject, but the executive summary. Please don't tell me that WP can go head-to-head with academia. Of course cranking up the standards would help, generally speaking; of course making formats for references less slapdash, and having some editing tools for that, would also be a plus.
Charles