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

[stevertigo]

Gwern Branwen<gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.

Ah. Unusually enough, it also appears to have been a thread that
stayed on topic for most of its duration. (I read click on too many
interestingly-named threads with quite unrelated or uninteresting
comment).

> 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...

Yes, things on teh Interweb develop v e r y  s l o w l y.

-Stevertigo
PS: http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Move_references_out_of_the_code