This topic comes up on and off here, just as the green box ‘Your topic is similar too…’ is reminding me now as I type.
But not for about 18 months.
Not until today when I saw very recent important reply to one of the ‘footnotes’ threads. It was about Ghost being a vital place to find evidence based blogging. It pointed out Ghost has no native method of setting out ‘evidence’ as footnotes.
Why is there is no way of having a single set of footnotes at the bottom of a page with several types of card (not just a single markdown card)?
(I know it’s difficult to code: again, not my point).
The lack of a professional facility actually discourages quoting evidence for statements in blogs. I do not believe that is an aim of Ghost. But it’s what it’s editing system encourages.
Even the generic advice from Ghost for Commenting which Ghost asks us to cut and paste as a page on every site with comments exhorts this principle in commenters (I understand footnotes in comments is a step too far just now, that’s not my point).
If more than one markdown card is used on a page - because a different type of card is might be required between markdown paragraphs and at least one might be after the last markdown card - then footnotes will appear twice in the middle of the page, each list starting again at ‘ [1] ’, and none at the bottom of the page where they belong (footnotes is the name for a reason).
It’s important because Ghost is a vital and increasingly important component of fact-based (evidence based) blogging on the internet.
So, this post is not about how to make footnotes, that’s easy with a markdown card.
It an attempt to get the provision of professional footnotes in Ghost being upvoted as a project because of the place Ghost is assuming in the world as a source of evidence based blogging.
As Ghost exhorts at the bottom of the Newsletter element (if you switch it on in settings), Ghost asks us to:
Promote independent publishing. Show you’re a part of the indie publishing movement with a small badge in the footer.
Well, Ghost, please help us to do that with a native “Footnotes”. It will be difficult boring coding, but it will enhance your platform’s reputation when bloggers start using the function.
