Forum:Adding a "chapter" parameter to book citations

"I'm not a fan of references in the indexes for these sources. These are all referenced inherently by virtue of appearing in the index for the source. Though I can see the benefit in being able to locate the page, it's not a major factor to my mind. Novels with multiple editions will make these page numbers meaningless. And the superscripted numbers just make the list look untidy, not as clean."

- — BadCatMan (talk) 02:48, April 28, 2015 (UTC)

"Not wanting to be the ugly duckling, we could use chapters instead of page numbers for referencing novels... easier for different editions of novels and still allows for referencing, such as Faceless One "Homeland" Chapter 1, instead of page 9... just a thought"

- - Darkwynters (talk) 18:39, April 28, 2015 (UTC)

"I like that idea, DW, but do our citation templates handle that?"

- ~ Lhynard (talk) 18:59, April 28, 2015 (UTC)

"Movie could figure out whether or not... such as the references for Daenerys_Targaryen on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire."

- - Darkwynters (talk) 22:37, April 28, 2015 (UTC)

"Darkwynters I'm not too sure if we would need chapter refs if Moviesign's template is implemented. We don't use chapter-based citations elsewhere and we can simply create Indexes for different editions, if needed. If people are interested in changing from page numbers to chapter references, perhaps we could have a separate chat about that as I think that would have much wider implications for the wiki than this topic."

- --Eli the Tanner (talk) 12:45, April 30, 2015 (UTC)

"I like the idea of using chapters for referencing novels; I thought of it a while ago. It can't be hard to add a new entry to the templates that won't affect existing sub-templates. It'll be damn easier for general wiki work, using one broad chapter instead of a lot of different page ranges."

- — BadCatMan (talk) 13:34, April 30, 2015 (UTC)

"As for using chapters in book citations, I think I can add a parameter that, if set, will replace the page number field. Instead of "p." or "pp.", would you like it to say "ch." or "chapter:" or what? Note that some books do not number their chapters, but instead use titles. (I am not aware of any specific examples because I haven't read the novels, but I've seen it done in other fantasy books.) The point is, anything specified as a chapter will be passed through without modification. Will this meet the need?"

- &mdash;Moviesign (talk) 12:55, May 1, 2015 (UTC)

"Wonderful work, Movie... I vote "CH" for novel citations... shorter and easier to write :)"

- - Darkwynters (talk) 22:12, May 1, 2015 (UTC)

{{Forum post
 * How widespread exactly is this problem? I'm not sure we need to remove numbered citations from articles, I've rarely come across cases where the page numbers are particularly different and they are, after all, more accurate. In cases where we have multiple editions(and they are notably different) or broad topics I can understand it, but other than that we should strive for the most accurate citations we can. Other than that, I think chapters are a useful option in general; for example, I listen to a lot of audiobooks because I rarely have the time to sit and read a book properly (currently working through the Sundering) and being able to cite chapters would let me or others add info more easily.--Eli the Tanner (talk) 12:52, May 8, 2015 (UTC)