[WikiEN-l] Fwd: ASINs and ISBNs

[Jeff Raymond]

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