Last modified: 2007-05-08 16:17:05 UTC
I've seen cite.php and it looks promising, but it remains just a formating tool, not something that will provide functionality to manage references. What we need, IMO, is a Reference: or Ref: namespace, which would be used to indirectly cite sources. The [[Ref:Darwin 1859]] page would thus contain something along the lines of "Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 1859", some ISBNs and/or internal and external links. Any page that wanted to reference that book would simply say [[Ref:Darwin 1859]] where needed, and the description of the book would be added to an automatically generated list of references at the bottom of the page. The advantages this would give us: * Standardized display of references on all articles. * A better working environment for reference checkers. * Consistent treatment sources used in more than one article. * The exact format of the listed references could be controlled by user settings. * A better data model for an encyclopedia.
I personal think this is a good idea. This will allow Commonly used references be placed in one page and it can be used throughout. I can imagine widely cited books, like the CIA World Factbook, being quite useful in this new namespace. [[User:Zscout370]]
This is very much needed! Currently referencing is an inconsistant jumble hard to work with. I strongly support Zocky. [[User:NickDupree]]
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 1199 ***
