h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Using footnotes in an internet page is, quite frankly, stupid, for the reasons given in the article. It would be comparable to having some system where you'd have to 'turn a page' on the computer screen instead of scrolling. Just because they're appropriate for the printed media, it doesn't mean they're suitable for the internet.

An alternative is the use of popups. Although HTMl doesn't support them that well, you can enclose any part of text in , and a tooltip will appear when the mouse is hovered over the text. Of course this requires a means of informing the reader that there is a tooltip there. Consistant formatting helps here.
Otherwise there are several javascript utilities for providing pop-up information. One such is "overlib", although there are many more, and I'm sure those behing H2G2 could build something into GuideML to replace those ridiculous footnotes. I can't remember where I found this but you might be able to find it in a search engine or www.dynamicdrive.com or www.javascript.com

I've just noticed a major blunder above.
I meant. of course, , not . Perhaps I was subconsciously thinking of footnotes being an anachronym in an internet context!

Doh

Footnotes are largely stylistic nowadays. Terry Pratchett, Dave Barry, and Garrison Keillor have mined their comic potential.

Keillor, whose uses are less characteristic or frequent, wrote a fictional 95 theses in one of his Wobegon books, as one vast footnote throughout several pages. Can anyone fill in the title of said book?

All you have to do is click on the footnote and it will take you down the page to its reference automatically, click the footnote again, or use the back button on your mouse or browser and it will take you right back to where you were on the page before you read the footnote. Now what's stupid?