[WikiEN-l] Proposal on references

[Daniel P. B. Smith]

> From: zero 0000 <nought_0000 at yahoo.com>
>
> One of the most common complaints about the <ref>...</ref>
> feature is how it disrupts the line spacing.  Have we tried not
> raising the reference numbers at all?  It seems to me that
> judicious use of font size and color would work ok even
> when the reference numbers were sitting on the basline.
> Then the line-spacing problem would go away.

I'd like to think big here and work in a more general way on the  
problem of making references have a less intrusive appearance.

Of the people who complain that dense references make articles  
unreadable, I am not sure to what extent they are truly complaining  
about the appearance or to what extent they simply disagree with the  
verifiability policy... but under the current system dense references  
do interfere with readability.

While we're doing this, I'd like to see something else. The present  
system is an imitation of the superscripted-footnote-reference system  
used in books. It works well in books because the text of a book  
doesn't change after it has been printed.

In Wikipedia, a reference should mark, not the end of the fact being  
supported, but the _beginning and end_ of the fact being supported.  
As things stand, careless editing (and there's no way to enforce  
careFUL editing) can easily make unsupported statements appear to be  
supported. A recent example, from the article on the Statue of  
Liberty. A passage once read:

The seven spikes in the crown represent the seven seas and seven  
continents.[2]

In due course, or undue course, someone decided to add what I think  
were personal musings about the statue symbolizing "the American  
Dream," a concept I think was unfamiliar to Bartholdi, and the  
passage mutated to:

Each spike on the Seven-spiked crown denotes the seven seas or the  
seven continents. The torch embodies the meaning of enlightenment and  
guidance for the millions of immigrants seeking freedom from  
oppression. The broken shackles lying at Lady Liberty's feet confirm  
this view.[2]

You see the problem. The cited source says nothing about shackles or  
immigrants. (For that matter, it says nothing about _each_ individual  
spike denoting the seven seas or seven continents. Now, personally I  
think spike #1 represents the seven seas, spike #2 the seven  
continents, spike #3 the Seven Dwarfs, spike #4 the Seven Deadly  
Sins, spike #5 the Seven Samurai, spike #6 the Seven Pleiades, and  
spike #7 represents the day Bartholdi rested...)