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Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
The purpose of footnotes is to allow content verification and to connect particular to a source. Note for that the footnotes are supposed to be placed next to the content they source, which can be next to a word, half sentence, sentence, several sentences or paragraph, a precision closer than a (short) paragraph is usually not required. This means for a very short article (few sentences or a paragraph) based on a very few sources, it is sufficient to list those sources in the end as there is no practical difference to adding the footnote with those sources at the end of the paragraph.
Tagging such articles for purely formal reasons (a la "I can't see a footnote/ref tagsref ") is counterproductive as it clogs (already long enough) maintenance queues with articles that don't really attention (at this point). In addition it insinuates to less WP savy or naive readers that there is an issue with content or sources, which is misleading.
Having said all that if the article gets extended by future editors by adding more content and/or sources then of course it will become necessary to introduce footnotes. If that isn't done, then tagging will be appropriate (at that point).--Kmhkmh (talk) 13:15, 26 August 2018 (UTC)Reply
