Template talk:Citation Style documentation

ASINs

This edit looks ambiguous and may lead users to create bad references. ASINs refer to web pages at the Amazon.com web sites whereas ISBNs refers to books and other publications. An ASIN should be used in place of a URL that matches "//www.amazon." otherwise readers may become confused as to what reference is being cited when they click on the link. I will revert that edit and hope someone will come up with something better. – Allen4names 13:05, 27 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Lets say I have an ISBN and an ASIN. Why would I even use the ASIN? The ASIN leads me only to Amazon, whereas the ISBN will link me to a multitude of sources.

Amazon does sell unique products such as eBooks that are referenced by ASIN and don't have an ISBN or other identifiers. These should certainly use the ASIN.

Can you provide an example where there is an ASIN and an ISBN and the ASIN is preferred identifier? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 15:45, 27 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently this is such an instance. --Redrose64 (talk) 17:25, 27 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand why the Amazon page is referenced, but I'm not getting sucked into another anime discussion. I am dropping this, but I bet it will come up again. If someone wants to push this, then RfC. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:49, 27 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to replace a reference you should simply replace it. I consider the use of an ISBN or other non Amazon.com identifier in an Amazon.com citation to be in violation of WP:V. Also there is the fact that different sources show different dates of publication thus there is the need to show witch reference supports the date being used. If need be you can have more than one reference in the <ref> tags. I see no justification in corrupting a reference just so you can link "to a multitude of sources." – Allen4names 18:18, 27 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]