This is an archive of past discussions with User:James Allison. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
The Wikimedia Hackathon will take place online on May 20–22, 2022. If you’re interested in presenting something around Wikidata and Wikibase during the hackathon, don’t wait too long to book a slot: Wikimedia Hackathon 2022/Schedule.
MapComplete is an OpenStreetMap viewer and editor that searches Wikidata for species - which means that it is super-easy to link the Wikidata item to a tree one sees!
REST API: We are continuing to implement the REST routes to get all statements of an Item and retrieve a single statement from an Item (phab:T305988, phab:T307087, phab:T307088)
Lexicographical data: We are finishing the version of the page for browsers without JavaScript support (phab:T298160). We started working on the feature to pre-fill the input fields by URL parameter (phab:T298154). And we started working on better suggestions for lexical categories so commonly-used ones can more easily be added to avoid mistakes (phab:T298150).
We fixed an issue with recently added new language codes not being usable for Lexemes and not being sorted correctly on Special:NewItem (phab:T277836).
The Wikimedia Hackathon will take place online on May 20–22, 2022. Are you interested in presenting something around Wikidata and Wikibase during the hackathon? Book a slot in the Wikidata+Wikibase room: Wikimedia Hackathon 2022/Schedule.
Next Linked Data for Libraries LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group call May 17, 2022: Anson Parker and Lucy Carr-Jones (University of Virigina Claude Moore Health Sciences Library) will be talking about their Open Data Dashboard for analyzing University of Virginia Health publications using EuropePMC publication data as well as work to group publications based on institutional departments in Wikidata and how much of their content is "open." Agenda
LIVE Wikidata editing #80 - YouTube, Facebook, May 21 at 18:00 UTC
REST API: We continued implementing the REST routes to get all statements of an Item and retrieve a single statement from an Item (phab:T305988, phab:T307087, phab:T307088)
At the time of the last newsletter (No.26, September 2021), the backlog was 'only' just over 6,000 articles. In the past six months, the backlog has reached nearly 16,000, a staggering level not seen in several years. A very small number of users had been doing the vast majority of the reviews. Due to "burn-out", we have recently lost most of this effort. Furthermore, several reviewers have been stripped of the user right for abuse of privilege and the articles they patrolled were put back in the queue.
Several discussions on the state of the process have taken place on the talk page, but there has been no action to make any changes. The project also lacks coordination since the "position" is vacant.
In the last 30 days, only 100 reviewers have made more than 8 patrols and only 50 have averaged one review a day. There are currently 823 New Page Reviewers, but about a third have not had any activity in the past month. All 849 administrators have this permission, but only about a dozen significantly contribute to NPP.
This means we have an active pool of about 450 to address the backlog. We cannot rely on a few to do most of the work as that inevitably leads to burnout. A fairly experienced reviewer can usually do a review in a few minutes. If every active reviewer would patrol just one article per day, the backlog would very quickly disappear.
If you have noticed a user with a good understanding of Wikipedia notability and deletion, do suggest they help the effort by placing {{subst:NPR invite}} on their talk page.
If you are no longer very active on Wikipedia or you no longer wish to be part of the New Page Reviewer user group, please consider asking any admin to remove you from the list. This will enable NPP to have a better overview of its performance and what improvements need to be made to the process and its software.
To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here. Sent 05:17, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
Wikidata weekly summary #521
Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.
6 and 8 June: Scholia hackathon with focus on software-related visualizations and curation workflows
29 July 2022: The submission deadline for the Wikidata Workshop 2022 that will be co-located with the 21st International Conference on Semantic Web (ISWC 2022).
Interrogating linked open data and Wikidata with SPARQL Lorenzo Losa - YouTube
Tool of the week
LOD4Culture is a web application for exploring world-wide cultural heritage.
Other Noteworthy Stuff
UNLOCK, a Wikimedia Deutschland program, is looking for your project ideas. These could be the development of tools building on top of Wikidata's data, of applications for social and public good or related to civic tech. Apply until May 29th, 2022!
Wikibase REST API: Initial implementation of a route providing all statements of an item (phab:T305988), an a route to retrieve a single statement (phab:T307087) completed.
First batch of WBstack.com accounts successfully migrated to Wikibase.cloud. You can keep track of our progress on this phabricator ticket phab:T303852.
Lexicographical data: We updated the input placeholders on the new version of the NewLexeme special page (T302877, T307443). We finished the feature to prefill the inputs from URL parameters if present (T298154) and to suggest common lexical category items (T298150). We are working on some accessibility improvements (T303806, T290733, T305359) and improving validation / error messages (T305854).
Next Linked Data for Libraries LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group call May 31, 2022: Felicia Smith, Nicole Coleman, and Akosua Kissi on the Know Systemic Racism Project Agenda
Want to know more about Abstract Wikipedia & Wikifunctions? You can now subscribe to the weekly newsletter and get a friendly reminder every time a new issue is published!
Radioactivity map: Mind map about radioactive radiation built by importing from Wikidata with InfoRapid KnowledgeBase Builder
Wikibase REST API: Expanding statement reading routes (a single statement specified by ID (phab:T307087), all statements of an item (phab:T305988), a single statement for a specific item (phab:T307088))
Fetch revision metadata and entity data separately in all use cases (phab:T307915, decision)
Update installation instructions in WikibaseLexeme.git readme file (phab:T306008)
Lexicographical data: We finished work on input validation and displaying errors for faulty input (phab:T305854) and are continuing work on accessibility improvements such as screen reader support and keyboard navigation (phab:T290733, phab:T30535).
REST API: We finished implementation of conditional statement requests (phab:T307031, phab:T307032) and published the OpenAPI specification document (still subject to change as the API develops). We started working on the write part of the API with adding statements to an Item (phab:T306667).
Next Linked Data for Libraries LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group call June 14, 2022: Will Kent (Wikidata Program Manager at Wiki Education) and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (Wikimedia Foundation Trustee; Visiting Scholar at Northeastern University; co-founder of Wiki Women in Red) will present on Leveraging Wikidata for Wikipedia – running a multi-language wiki project and the role of Wikidata in improving Wikipedia's content gender gap. Agenda
ExtraInterwiki. Some language links will never show up in your favorite Wikipedia, those who don’t have a corresponding article in this Wikipedia. This new tool aims to give them more visibility by searching topics closed to the one on an article with no article on your wiki.
Fixed a bug where Item IDs where shown instead of the label after selecting an Item in an Item selector (phab:T306214)
Lexicographical data: finished accessibility improvement for the new Special:New Lexeme page (phab:T290733), improving error messages for the new page (phab:T310134) and worked on a new search profile to make selecting languages easier (phab:T307869)
REST API: continued work on creating statements (phab:T306667)
Next installment of the LD4 Wikibase Working Hour: Featuring speaker Barbara Fischer, Liaison Counsel at the German National Library’s Agency for Standardization (DNB). On behalf of the DNB, Fischer initiated the WikiLibrary Manifesto. Fischer works to increase the quality of metadata through Authority Control to foster retrieval and linked data. Where: Zoom (Registration link). When: 30 June 2022, 11AM-12PM Eastern US (Time zone converter)
Wikidata:Wiki Mentor Africa 3rd edition - Creating tools on Wikimedia Toolforge using Python and Flask. Friday 24th June and Sunday 26th June 2022 - 16:00 - 17:00 (UTC)
At the time of the last newsletter (No.27, May 2022), the backlog was approaching 16,000, having shot up rapidly from 6,000 over the prior two months. The attention the newsletter brought to the backlog sparked a flurry of activity. There was new discussion on process improvements, efforts to invite new editors to participate in NPP increased and more editors requested the NPP user right so they could help, and most importantly, the number of reviews picked up and the backlog decreased, dipping below 14,000[a] at the end of May.
Since then, the news has not been so good. The backlog is basically flat, hovering around 14,200. I wish I could report the number of reviews done and the number of new articles added to the queue. But the available statistics we have are woefully inadequate. The only real number we have is the net queue size.[b]
In the last 30 days, the top 100 reviewers have all made more than 16 patrols (up from 8 last month), and about 70 have averaged one review a day (up from 50 last month).
While there are more people doing more reviews, many of the ~730 with the NPP right are doing little. Most of the reviews are being done by the top 50 or 100 reviewers. They need your help. We appreciate every review done, but please aim to do one a day (on average, or 30 a month).
Backlog drive
A backlog reduction drive, coordinated by buidhe and Zippybonzo, will be held from July 1 to July 31. Sign up here. Barnstars will be awarded.
TIP – New school articles
Many new articles on schools are being created by new users in developing and/or non-English-speaking countries. The authors are probably not even aware of Wikipedia's projects and policy pages. WP:WPSCH/AG has some excellent advice and resources specifically written for these users. Reviewers could consider providing such first-time article creators with a link to it while also mentioning that not all schools pass the GNG and that elementary schools are almost certainly not notable.
Misc
There is a new template available, {{NPP backlog}}, to show the current backlog. You can place it on your user or talk page as a reminder:
Very high unreviewed pages backlog: 11255 articles, as of 10:00, 27 January 2025 (UTC), according to DatBot
There has been significant discussion at WP:VPP recently on NPP-related matters (Draftification, Deletion, Notability, Verifiability, Burden). Proposals that would somewhat ease the burden on NPP aren't gaining much traction, although there are suggestions that the role of NPP be fundamentally changed to focus only on major CSD-type issues.
If you have noticed a user with a good understanding of Wikipedia notability and deletion, suggest they help the effort by placing {{subst:NPR invite}} on their talk page.
If you are no longer very active on Wikipedia or you no longer wish to be part of the New Page Reviewer user group, please consider asking any admin to remove you from the list. This will enable NPP to have a better overview of its performance and what improvements need to be made to the process and its software.
To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.
The next Wikibase live session is 15:00 UTC on Thursday 30th June 2022 (17:00 Berlin time). What are you working on around Wikibase? You're welcome to come and share your project with the community.
Next Linked Data for Libraries LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group call June 28, 2022: Andrew McAllister will introduce us to Scribe, an app that provides keyboards for second-language learners, and its use of Wikidata. This presentation should appeal to anyone who has worked on or is interested in learning more about the applications of lexicographical data in Wikidata as well as anyone who has an interest in language, open information, data and programming. Agenda
IsisCB Explore - is a research tool for the history of science whose books and subjects use imagery from Wikidata.
Other Noteworthy Stuff
Template Item documentation now includes a query to the corresponding lexemes. This is an attempt to make navigation between lexemes and items easier. For the record, Item documentation is available in the header of the talk page for each item.
Lexicographical data: We are wrapping up the coding on the new Special:NewLexeme page. Testing and rolll-out will follow soon. We are still working on making it easier to find languages in the language selector on the Special:NewLexeme page. (phab:T307869)
REST API: We are continuing to code on the ability to create statements on an Item (phab:T306667)
Investigating an issue with labels not being shown after merges (phab:T309445)
Preparation for upcoming work: We are planning the next work on the Mismatch Finder to address feedback we have received so far as well as EntitySchemas to make them more integrated with other areas of Wikidata.
