[Wikipedia-l] Lists of book references and external links

[Ray Saintonge]

Bryan Derksen wrote:

>Matt Brown wrote:
>  
>
>>I've learned, personally, {{cite web}} and {{cite book}}'s
>>fundamentals, and look stuff up from time to time.  I've also created
>>subst:able templates for reference works I cite a lot, so I don't have
>>to do the thinking.
>>    
>>
>Way back when I was doing a bunch of work citing various articles about
>Stargate subjects and I kept using the same episode citations over and
>over. I considered creating a group of templates specifically for those
>cites, for example
>
><ref>{{cite stargate sg-1/broca's gap}}</ref>
>
>So I wouldn't have to keep looking up airdates and other details to fill
>in, and if the citation format changed or more information became
>available they could all be updated with a single edit. Perhaps some
>sort of formalized system along these lines might be useful for common
>references? <ref>{{cite collection/Oxford dictionary 2006}}, p.
>1245</ref> for example. These big bibliographic lists would then become
>collections of templates like this and they'd make better project pages.
>
There's something to be said in favour of a bibliographic project.  
Wikipedians could register what they have, in case someone wants details 
looked up.  Maybe the software could even put up a red flag when the 
owner hasn't put up a single edit in the last three months essentially 
telling others that they are wasting their time asking him.

I do have seriously increasing concerns about the trend toward excessive 
templates.  They tend to reflect an obsession toward uniformity that can 
obscure the basic values of simplicity where anyone to edit.  The 
counter-argument may well be, "Go ahead and add the data; we can fix the 
format later."  That still makes it difficult for a non-techie to 
correct data that he considers incorrect.

Ec