[WikiEN-l] Suggestion on how referencing system could be improved

[Gwern Branwen]

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 3:54 AM, stevertigo<stvrtg at gmail.com> wrote:
> Gwern Branwen<gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 9:46 PM, Thomas Larsen<larsen.thomas.h at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> If I may make a suggestion? That syntax is kind of clunky - maybe we
>> could have a simpler syntax, something like '{{ref|foo}}' &
>> '{{note|foo}: text'...
>
> Reviving a year-old thread? Hm.
> Related note: Bodnotbod dropped us a link:
>> http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Move_references_out_of_the_code
>
> -Stevertigo

That was actually the thread that reminded me; but I couldn't resist
the chance to point out the irony of how recent referencing
discontents have come full circle from the {{ref}} days.

It took about 3 years to put in place references ('01 to '04/'05),
another 3 switch from {{ref}} to <ref> and grow weary of it ('05 to
now), so I suppose in 2014 or 2015, people will be complaining about
how opaque references in a different section are, how hard to keep in
sync with the article text, and how in programming we put the docs
right with the functions/methods and why-can't-we-do-that?, and
suggest switching to this new referencing system...

-- 
gwern