[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph

That combined with the magic of "Wow! Copies?!"

[2]: I just wanted to add the most unnecessary footnote formatting possible as a kindness, so yours would no longer hold the crown as worst

I've been called out previously here for having unknowingly introduced some undefined terms to readers, and which they found to be perplexing.

And I took that to heart, because I don't want my words to be perplexing. I instead want them to be clear and easily understood.

In my corner of the world, I haven't held a mimeographed document in my hands for ~35 years. I found it reasonable to assume that a non-zero amount of people here might find the term to be unfamiliar.

So I provided definition of the term on the basis that it may be unknown to some readers, and that more information is better than inadequate information.

In this instance I would have preferred to use hyperlinked text for visual brevity, but that's not a thing on HN. The normal and accepted style on HN consists instead of using footnotes.

And at this point, generating footnotes is nearly entirely muscle memory for me. So a footnote (with a URL) was included.

Thank you for your attention on this matter, fsckboy. I'm pleased to discover that you've found my footnote to be so unusually compelling.

i wasn't criticizing putting in a link; just put it in, it doesn't need layers of boiler plate [in this instance]

like, if i use the word sesquipedalian https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sesquipedalian

[in this instance] the square brackets add nothing but noise

However, I have noted that you do not pay me. It therefore does not behoove me to try to emulate your particular writing style.

Kindest regards.