<commit_before>I’m a huge fan of footnotes, both in print and on the web. I use them all the
time on this blog, and I have a ton of opinions about how to do them right,
though I don’t think I’ve ever spoken about them, let alone justified them.
This blog post intends to do just that.

I’m not a professional writer, typesetter, or designer, though, and while I do
think that I’m okay at stringing words together, I don’t intend to present this
as anything more than my own private opinions. If you have great points that
speak for or against anything I say in this post, please reach out!

## Why Footnotes?

<commit_msg>wip: work some more on footnotes<commit_after>I’m a huge fan of footnotes, both in print and on the web. I use them all the
time on this blog, and I have a ton of opinions about how to do them right,
though I don’t think I’ve ever spoken about them, let alone justified them.
This blog post intends to do just that.

I’m not a professional writer, typesetter, or designer, though, and while I do
think that I’m okay at stringing words together, I don’t intend to present this
as anything more than my own private opinions. If you have great points that
speak for or against anything I say in this post, please reach out!

## Why Footnotes?

The obvious use for footnotes in more or less academic—or, at least,
well-researched—writing is to create a place where the authors can put their
references without cluttering the flow of the text. While this is a perfect
use case for footnotes, it’s not what I’m concerned with primarily: I don’t
write papers, and my work is of the more light-hearted
variety<sup><a href="#1">1</a></sup>.

I personally use footnotes primarily to neatly tuck away nota benes, quips,
jokes, tangentially related thoughts, and anything that would otherwise
distract from the idea at hand. My prose isn’t usually very focused to begin
with, and if I feel like something I’m thinking of while writing is worth
sharing, but maybe not quite in scope, I will write a footnote and get it out
of my system to achieve maximum mental cleanliness.

As such, I don’t expect anyone to read my footnotes. I’m usually the kind of
person that flips to the back of the book or clicks on the link to read through
the footnote, but I know that this is more due to my somewhat obsessive
reading—I’m very much a completionist in that regard.

#### Footnotes

<span id="1">1.</span> If you’re the kind of person that believes toying with
                       occult technicalities is light-hearted, which I happen
                       to be.
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