| Revision as of 00:15, 11 October 2017 editMike Peel (talk | contribs)Administrators74,768 edits →If there is data in an infobox from Wikidata, can it be edited?: correction← Previous edit | Revision as of 00:23, 11 October 2017 edit undoMike Peel (talk | contribs)Administrators74,768 edits →Why do we need to have an RfC now?: 'enthusiastic about wikidata' and 'concerned about problems' are not mutually exclusive...Next edit → | ||
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| === Why do we need to have an RfC now? === | === Why do we need to have an RfC now? === | ||
| Wikidata infoboxes have gone from the concept stage to the implementation stage. During this, strengths and weaknesses have emerged. There are ongoing discussions and disputes that would be better held on the general concept rather than on specific instances. | |||
| ] was held in 2013, and ] in 2016. | ] was held in 2013, and ] in 2016. | ||
Revision as of 00:23, 11 October 2017
 | This is a draft of a possible 2017 RfC on the use of Wikidata in infoboxes. Please WP:BEBOLD and edit this page. Please make sure that any additions are from a neutral point of view, are focused on providing factual information, and do not try to unduly bias the RfC one way or the other. Please post comments at Wikipedia_talk:Wikidata/2017_State_of_affairs#Draft_RfC_for_Wikidata_in_infoboxes. |
Background information
What's Wikidata again?
Wikidata is a Wikimedia project that "acts as central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects including Misplaced Pages, Wikivoyage, Wikisource, and others." In the same way that Wikimedia Commons hosts media files, Wikidata hosts factual information. Most of the information is stored in a language-neutral format, using Q-codes in place of words, so that it can be used across the different language Wikimedia projects (with exceptions for things like media captions).
For more information on Wikidata, see Wikidata.
How are we currently using it?
- Most interwiki links are now provided through Wikidata (although a small number of custom interwiki links remain locally).
- It is used in {{Authority control}}
- A limited number of infoboxes currently use it following Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Wikidata Phase 2 (2013)
How can we use Wikidata in infoboxes?
- Templates providing wrappers for Wikidata info
- Examples of current Wikidata infoboxes
If there is data in an infobox from Wikidata, can it be edited?
- Depending on the coding used to build the infobox, there are several options:
- In some versions of infoboxes, the data resides solely in Wikidata and is just displayed in the infobox in the article; the data itself is not in Misplaced Pages. If you look at wikitext in the edit window, you will see only a short template for the infobox like {{infobox_gene}}. The infobox will change whenever Wikidata is changed (it is rendered anew each time the Misplaced Pages page is displayed). These infoboxes have a link that sends you to Wikidata to change the data there. You cannot edit the data from within Misplaced Pages. The coding used for these templates generally uses modules such as Module:WikidataIB (which in turn use Lua), and can be configured in the templates. This coding can determine what fields to pull and how to label the fields, and can also evaluate the data and only pull data with certain qualities. For example, you can set the code so that only data that is referenced can be pulled, and unreferenced data will not be pulled.
- In other versions, the infobox pulls data from Wikidata one time, and the data resides here in Misplaced Pages. If you look in the edit window you will see the full infobox template with all the fields. For these templates the data is fully editable here in Misplaced Pages.
- Some infobox templates have hybrids of these two models.
Is it possible to make changes of Wikidata content visible on Misplaced Pages watchlists?
Currently, no: the feature has been disabled because too many calls to Wikidata from infoboxes in other WikiMedia projects clogged the system (see Phabricator ticket).
Where does Wikidata information come from?
- Data is entered by editors and bots. Some bots extract data from Misplaced Pages infoboxes, categories and articles. Each article ("item" in Wikidata terminology) has a corresponding page on Wikidata, where the data resides.
- People also run bots to import data from other databases; the people running these bots select what field in Wikidata the data is entered into.
What about references?
- Statement references
- "Stated in"
- "Imported from X Misplaced Pages"
- d:Wikidata:Verifiability has been a proposed policy or guideline since January 2015. It is less developed than on Misplaced Pages.
- d:Wikidata:Living people (draft) has been a proposed policy or guideline since April 2013. d:Wikidata:Living people, created September 2017 and not tagged as a policy or guideline (as of 8 October), consists of the Board of Trustees' 2009 resolution on living people.
- WP:NPOV, which for instance proposes solutions when different references have contradicting content, is implemented on Wikidata by recording all of the content that can be referenced, along with the references, and where applicable selecting a preferred value.
- Misplaced Pages prefers references to secondary sources to references to primary sources, on Wikidata both sources can be used.
- Misplaced Pages has a lot of guidance on reference formatting (e.g. WP:CITEVAR). This is not relevant for Wikidata information, where the raw values are stored and can then be displayed in different formats as needed, depending on the code used to process the values.
- Various Misplaced Pages reference-related procedures, e.g. requesting a page number with {{page needed}}, indicating a failed verification with {{failed verification}}, defunct weblinks rescued by InternetArchiveBot, implementing the outcome of a WP:RSN discussion, etc, need to be adapted for Wikidata, and may need the editor to fix things immediately rather than adding them to backlogs.
Do we have to use Wikidata infoboxes?
No. No Misplaced Pages project is required to use data from Wikidata anywhere in their project. It is a decision to be made by each editing community. Wikis that decide to use Wikidata can determine how they want to use it. The decision is ours to make. Different options are discussed below.
Why do we need to have an RfC now?
Wikidata infoboxes have gone from the concept stage to the implementation stage. During this, strengths and weaknesses have emerged. There are ongoing discussions and disputes that would be better held on the general concept rather than on specific instances.
Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Wikidata Phase 2 was held in 2013, and RfC: Wikidata in infoboxes, opt-in or opt-out? in 2016.
See also
- Misplaced Pages:Wikidata/Workflow
- Wikidata Phase 2 with additional links
- Wikidata Data model
- Wikidata Timeplan
- Phase 2 technical proposal at Meta
- Wikidata deployment Q&A at Meta
- Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Wikidata Phase 2
Options for using Wikidata in infoboxes
What to display
| Option # | Short name | Option Description | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | None | Wikidata is not used in infoboxes. | Wikidata is not used in any infoboxes, even if individual editors or Wikiprojects would like to use it. |
| 1B | By-consensus | Only allow Wikidata for approved types of information or approved boxes. | Only use Wikidata with consensus for specific purposes. Possible examples: coordinates, ID numbers, or a chemical-property box. A future Village Pump RFC will be needed to evaluate consensus on specific usages, or to establish another location or process for approval. |
| 1C | Opt-in | Infoboxes may be modified to show Wikidata values when an article-page requests information from Wikidata. | Wikidata information only appears when the article requests wikidata. For example |Year=wikidata , a list of fields to retrieve |fetchwikidata=year; country; population; , or |fetchwikidata=ALL.
|
| 1D | Opt-out1 | Infoboxes may be modified to show Wikidata values when a field is absent. | Removing a "year=" field from the wikitext will default to Wikidata.
|
| 1E | Opt-out2 | Infoboxes may be modified to display wikidata values by default. | Wikidata values may be displayed if a field is blank or absent.
Removing wikidata from the infobox (without inserting a replacement value) requires |
| 1F | Wikidata-only | Infoboxes are not required to support local values. Infoboxes may be modified to accept information from Wikidata only. | There may be no way alter or delete information by editing the article's wikitext. Editors may be required to edit fields on Wikidata itself. |
| 1G | Case-by-case | which of the above applies is decided on an article-by-article basis (so doesn't depend on the topic of the infobox, but on which model the editors of the article choose to adopt) | More compliant to the general infobox-related principle that decisions about an infobox are to be taken on the level of the individual article where the infobox may be applied, and not on a level that affects the infoboxes of multiple articles at once. |
Reference requirements
| Option # | Short name | Option Description | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2A | None | Values are not required to be referenced on Wikidata at all | |
| 2B | Challenge | Unsourced Wikidata values may be displayed. If challenged and removed, it should not be restored until a reference is supplied. | Needs manual enforcement. A challenged field must be removed from |fetchwikidata= or added to |suppressfields=.
|
| 2C | BLPs-sourced | If the infobox is used in a biography of a living person, only display Wikidata values which claim a source (excluding things like images). Sourcing is subject to Wikidata policies. | Wikidata lacks policies such as Reliable Sources, Verifiability, and Biography of Living Persons |
| 2D | Require-source | Same as option 2C, but all articles require Wikidata to claim a source. | |
| 2E | Policy-compliant | Each statement imported from Wikidata must comply with Misplaced Pages policies, including but not limited to Verifiability, Biographies of living persons, and the Reliable sources guideline. A statement that is not contentious and is well-referenced in the body of the article may be summarized in the infobox. Contentious statements about living persons must have an inline citation every time they are mentioned, including within the infobox. | Requires OPT-IN level of infobox design. Editors are responsible for examining Wikidata's information and sourcing before activating OPT-IN. OPT-IN should not be applied where Wikidata has no information for that field.
There is no software support to review or regulate the import of changes from Wikidata. Once OPT-IN has been applied to a field, any changes at Wikidata will be imported automatically. |
| 2F | Two-tier policy compliance | Same as option 2E, but all statement in the infobox must include a reference, even if it repeats a statement that is referenced in the body of the article. | |
| 2G | Case-by-case | Which one of the above applies is decided in a case-by-case scenario, for each mainspace page where the values are imported | Needs flexible infoboxes, or a variety of infoboxes on the same topic to choose from |
Note: Wikidata references of the type "Imported from: English Misplaced Pages" are specifically excluded from all options here to avoid circular references.
What to do with local data
| Option # | Short name | Option Description |
|---|---|---|
| 3A | Keep-local | Information may be filled or edited locally, even if the result is equivalent to Wikidata values.
Local values should not be removed merely to display equivalent Wikidata values. |
| 3B | Migrate | Use Wikidata in preference to local values. Local values should be removed when inferior or identical to Wikidata.
Local values should not be filled in simply to display identical values. |
| 3C | Case-by-case | No general rule: sometimes equivalent data are kept in both projects, sometimes only in Wikidata, which is decided individually for each Misplaced Pages page that may contain a double of the data.
E.g. on one page one may want to keep to the local system of references while for another page it may be more advantageous to import values and references from Wikidata |
New or improved information may be contributed locally or at Wikidata. Under 3A that improvement may be copied to Wikidata, under 3B that improvement may be transferred to Wikidata and deleted locally. 3C allows that the editors of a Misplaced Pages page decide for that page which of the two systems is applied.
Discussion
!votes
- Option N because ...
| Any attempt to vote will be reverted. This is a draft. Options and information may change. |
General discussion
- I think ...
| Please comment on the talk page rather than here until the RfC starts |