Template:Inote/doc

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This is the inote template, standing for invisible note. It has no content and this is deliberate. The aim is to provide a way to make notes in the source text which will show nothing in the final visible text, but which can be tracked using "what links here" from the inote template. Also, in future, it should be possible to convert these invisible notes into whatever note/reference system gets developed for wikimedia. This system has been created due to the fact that certain Wikipedia editors find current solutions too ugly and/or inflexible to use in articles they edit.

Contents

[edit] Usage

It is important that the template is used correctly so that later we can recover data from it. Correct usage means that the first argument is the text of a note and the second, optional, argument is a suggested label for the note

{{inote|see Jordan page 25|Jordan-25}}

Put references proper in a separate references section which is at the end of your article. It's definitely worth considering making some of your inline references proper footnotes which will then be usable to the reader (see below)

Please note that there seems to be a consensus that footnotes (and so inotes) shouldn't be used for digressions. That should also apply to inote. Normally, if they are worth saying, they can at least form a section of some other article and be linked normally instead.

[edit] Conversion

Citations using the inote convention may be converted to the ref/note convention using a Perl script called inote.pl. The script is in the public domain and improvements by other users are welcome.

[edit] Reasons not to use inote

There are some special circumstances where {{inote}} might be a good idea (extreme referencing, with a reference for every single fact). However it has serious disadvantages. Here are some reasons to consider other methods such as footnotes.

  • footnotes won't be available for all other users (see below for more effects)
    • not everybody knows how to edit yet
    • not everybody will think about editing (although if you add {{explain-inote}} in the References section, that will help)
    • not everybody is reading Wikipedia; many clones don't support editing
  • those who don't know about the footnotes won't be able to verify
  • you lose a chance to encourage further reading and to help people learn more themselves
  • fewer people are likely to read your references and so spot errors in them

Again, if you mix in a tasteful number of footnotes for your most important interesting and strange facts, with your invisible notes, most of these problems go away.

[edit] See also