[Foundation-l] Sources and sourceability

[daniwo59 at aol.com]

This is certainly a step in the right direction. 
 
In a message dated 12/3/2005 10:55:06 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
2.718281828 at gmail.com writes:

A  layered suggestion:


Step 1 : Strongly promote the current  recommended footnote system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes

Step 2 : Strongly  encourage the use of proper full cites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages/Sources_of_articles/G
eneric_citations

Step  3 : Add software features making each of these easier : add localizable 
 
strings for each field-name for cites and footnotes; then add 'footnote'  and 
'cite' buttons to the edit toolbar; provide "footnote" markup that  handles 
autonumbering; add a keyboard-shortcut for footnoting; add  footnote- and 
citation-aware menu options to WP browser  plugins.

Step 4 : Work on unifying "References"/ "Citations"/  "Sources"/ 
"Bibliography"/ 
"External link[s]"/ "Further reading" style at  the end of each article.

Step 5 : Add separate 'references' pages for  every article.  These pages 
should 
include: the date the article was  created; the date of the last non-minor 
edit; 
the list of users, ips, and  flagged-bots that have edited the article; a 
list 
of sources and other  references that had been added at some point to the 
article; even a clear  list of metadata about the article 
(protection/pov/cleanup/quality-  assessment status).

Step 6 : Add a namespace/project to store the  best-known information about 
every source used on any project, including  user comments and trackbacks to 
articles referencing each source.   (Optionally: seed this project with 
OpenCat 
content.)

Step  6.5:  Add a wikitext feature like "{{cite:ISBN 0518274822|pp 12-23}}"  
which would subst: in the details of that work in proper citation  format.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Wikicite