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Originally Posted by Deskisamess
Wow, that's quite a claim. How are they bad in ebooks? When properly formatted, they are fine, and work well. Tap the little number, the footnote opens, you read it, or make a note of it, tap the X, and continue reading.
When reading non-fiction, like the book I named in my earlier post, footnotes can add a lot of information for the reader who is trying to learn something.
I've no experience with "academic papers" as I only went to school thru High School, but I do enjoy well written, well researched non-fiction on a number of subjects. I can't imagine getting as much out of some of the books I've read if they lacked footnotes. Sometimes they simply offer clarity, sometimes they offer a new source of info to pursue, etc.
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My arguments against them is that that tapping breaks the flow of concentration. If their words are there in parentheses then you just keep reading. Similar to having to jump down to the bottom of the page to read them in a printed book, then afterwards find your place up above. If you're formatting an ebook there's way too much boilerplate; the link to the footnote, then in the footnote a link back to the original place, making sure the numbers match, and all the crud that goes around those. And if the author decides to add a new footnote before any others, those following have to be renumbered.