If there's some policy at work that allows you to know what kind of information might be in a footnote, fine, you can indeed eliminate clutter in this way. Only putting sources in footnotes works, for instance.
But authors who tend to put asides in footnotes sometimes put such crucial material as definitions in footnotes. Don't you ever find yourself switching from main text to footnote when rereading technical material?
But authors who tend to put asides in footnotes sometimes put such crucial material as definitions in footnotes. Don't you ever find yourself switching from main text to footnote when rereading technical material?