[WikiEN-l] Why are URLs numbered?

[Gregory Maxwell]

On 9/5/07, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> Seems overly complicated.  Why not just have a bot go through and
> change all the instances of [url] (in the article namespace) to
> <ref>url</ref>, and add a references section if necessary?
>
> There really are two separate issues.  That the numbering schemes
> clash is one valid issue.  That the English Wikipedia has deprecated
> the use of these types of links is another.

+1