Forum:Shorten reference line lengths

Forums: Helping Hand > Shorten reference line lengths

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I'd like to suggest we shorten the line length of the references at the bottom of articles. On articles such as History of Shadowdale for example, using Wikia's default skin (which I think the vast majority of users will be using), each reference wraps to two lines which looks ugly.

I would propose that we change from:

Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), Shadowdale, p. 5. TSR, Inc. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.

...to:

Greenwood, Martin, Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), Shadowdale, p. 5.

The publisher and ISBN can be acquired from the book's own article, which is linked from the reference itself.

If there are between 1 and 3 authors, the surnames can be listed. If there are 4 or more authors, the first two should be displayed, and "et al." should be added, such as "Greenwood, Martin, et al.".

This will be a big change so will need to take place over a period of time, but it won't need every reference template changing all at once, it can simply be done when there is time.

Any thoughts?

User:Fw190a8 23:48, January 10, 2012 (UTC)