Forum:Reference list

I think it would be a good idea to incorporate Wikipedia's referencing style onto Memory Alpha. The references on Wikipedia make the articles easier to read, in addition to making them look better. Plus, we will be able to avoid repeated links, and we will have a nice, organized list at the bottom of the page. Compare: Star Trek (film) to. In particular, check out the references section here. When you click a reference link in the text, it automatically takes you to the bottom of the page and highlights the selected reference. I think this would be a handy tool to have on MA, rather than just having readers click links without knowing what the links contain. We would need to find a way to incorporate this template, though. What do you guys think? --From Andoria with Love 21:48, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Might be useful for background sections and realworld articles. Should definitely not be used for episode citations, though. -- Michael Warren | Talk 09:59, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Out of curiosity, why not for episode citations? Other wikis, like Wikipedia and especially Wookieepedia get along just fine using them for that. --OuroborosCobra talk 17:11, 19 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Among other things, it would be a frakking nightmare to change episode citations in about 30,000 articles, while in the process losing the automatic validation offered by e as well as the immediate connection between information and source.
 * As Michael said, it might be useful for non-episode/film resources (which basically is what realworld/background boils down to) - and I believe some of our articles already make use of that? -- Cid Highwind 17:36, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, not for episode citations. :) If we agree to do this, though, do any of you know how to implement it? I tried before, but, um... it didn't work out well. :-P --From Andoria with Love 17:49, 19 April 2009 (UTC)


 * A couple of reasons, mainly personal preference:
 * I feel that the episode citations are more intimately tied to the information they cite than the ones for the background - isolating them from their citing paragraphs (even if you can jump back and forth) reduces their connection somewhat.
 * Using it for episode citations and external links would result in a mixture of the two at the bottom of the page, resulting in a measure of muddle in our POV arrangment. Separating them in this way actually allows us to more clearly delineate the two - in-universe information gets an immediate citation, franchise stuff gets a separate section.
 * Episode citations are already spelled out as they stand, franchise stuff gets a [1] link that doesn't tell you anything about the source. Using the reference format to expand that will be good. I've used the reference format occasionally, for footnotes on data in tables, where there isn't the space to add the detail without overshadowing the data. I see the same concept as applying here - allowing more detail about the source to be added without overloading the text. -- Michael Warren | Talk 18:00, 19 April 2009 (UTC)