2008/9/25 Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com:
If a reference is used more than once, it's not all in one place anyway. It actually solves the issue of someone accidentally deleting the text for the ref not realising it is used elsewhere. For refs only used once, it makes maintenance of the ref a little harder, but maintenance of the rest of the article much easier.
There are areas where articles are likely to rack up a lot of single use refs. But such a system already exists. Doesn't help a huge amount. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Bolton_and_Bury_Canal#Work_begins