Wikimedia Bugzilla is closed!

Lists often use the same source a multitude of times. Named references allow reuse of a single reference and there are templates that allow insertion of page numbers. When a reference is used more than a handful of times, then the backlinks become ugly, unwieldy and useless.

Examples:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Eagle_Scouts_%28Boy_Scouts_of_America%29&oldid=86505036#References

* http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_allied_military_operations_of_the_Vietnam_War&oldid=361145646
you may have to log out to get this one to load; it was fixed by updating  MediaWiki:Cite references link many format backlink labels to handle 1065 backlinks

Such a reference can be added as a single general reference, but this does not allow the insertion of page numbers per cite. There are templates that simulate the cite.php reference system without backlinks, but these use HTML ids; the resulting duplication of ids invalidates the HTML.

I propose adding an optional parameter to the cite.php system that disables the backlink, leaving the inline link to jump to the cite. We can then lower the number of backlinks to a reasonable number after community discussion and change the error message to direct use of backlink suppression.