The reference list in both read modes (legacy and Parsoid) currently renders footnote item numbers in the reflist using built-in browser <li>. This is fragile but works in most simple cases. Replacing with explicit text numbers is analogous to {T369614} but for the reference list. Only this will guarantee accurate numbering—thereby solving this list of known issues:
* [ ] Reference list numbers are not localized in read mode for some languages, so don't match footnote markers in the article.
* [ ] Reference list numbers aren't included in copy-paste text.
* [ ] Can't search for reference list numbers in some browsers.
== Wrong symbols in reflist when the browser lacks explicit language numbering support ==
For example, with firefox 133.0 on linux, the footnote markers for [[ https://kn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B2%B8%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%B6%E0%B3%80%E0%B2%B2%E0%B3%8D_%E0%B2%A6%E0%B3%8B%E0%B2%B7%E0%B2%BF | knwiki articles ]] are written in Kannada script,
{F58185480}
while the reference list incorrectly shows fallback numbers,
{F58185487}
== Numbers aren't included when copy-pasting from the reference list ==
Select any number of reference list items from [[ https://my.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%80%80%E1%80%94%E1%80%85%E1%80%AD%E1%80%AF%E1%80%B8%E1%80%9B%E1%80%BD%E1%80%AC%E1%81%8A_%E1%80%99%E1%80%AD%E1%80%AF%E1%80%B8%E1%80%8A%E1%80%AD%E1%80%AF%E1%80%99%E1%80%BC%E1%80%AD%E1%80%AF%E1%80%B7%E1%80%94%E1%80%9A%E1%80%BA | any article ]] and copy.
{F58185516}
When pasting as plaintext, there is no number or even indication of list item start:
{F58185526}
When pasting as HTML results vary, you may see an `<ul>` item or various English numbers with interesting formatting,
{F58185554}
== Some browsers can't search for a reflist number ==
For example, go [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Castle&oldid=1268726548 | this revision ]] and search for footnote number "186". Firefox 133.0 correctly finds the footnote number "[186]" in article text, and reflist item number "186",
{F58185647}
but Chrome only finds the footnote marker,
{F58185656}
== Follow-up ==
Gotcha: Be aware that the numbering style includes some decoration around the number, which is specific by language, eg. "1)", "1.", "(1)" and so on.
The visual editor numbering also needs some CSS touch-up to style explicit text but this is strictly a refactor to remove the unnecessary CSS var and li::marker content, and is functionally equivalent to explicit numbering from the user perspective.
Screenshot of VE showing correctly localized reflist numbering,
{F58185683}
Source editor preview is currently not localized but this is probably fixed with Parsoid?