This is an archive of past discussions with User:Mike Peel. 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.
Hey, I reverted you on one article but then I noticed you seem to be doing this same edit on hundreds of articles, so I thought I'd come ask. (They're all deletions of commons links). I'm just a regular editor creating articles, and I don't understand your edit comment that a commons link in an EL section is "misplaced"?
I've looked at the help for the commons templates themselves, and the help pages on what's allowed in an EL section, and EVERYTHING says using commons links like that is just fine. Has there been some policy change that I'm not finding? Wouldn't it be a good idea to update the MOS and help documents before we go ripping these out everywhere? (Just a thought).
Also, a bunch of the edits you are doing are leaving articles with empty "external links" sections, which IMHO looks poor. I'm guessing some robot will come along and clean those up, but...
@Krelnik and Philafrenzy: They are 'misplaced' as the commons category doesn't match the article. In Dr. Mary B. Moody House, commons:Category:Mary Blair Moody was linked, but that link belongs at Mary Blair Moody as the category is about the person - the correct link for the house needed to be created, which I did, and now the article links to commons:Category:Dr. Mary B. Moody House. I generally don't think that the links are 'external', but that's a separate point - I'm fairly sure they shouldn't be the only link in 'external links' though!
In this run I'm only removing links that are clearly misplaced, I'm skipping over cases where it's less clear to look at them more closely in the future. I'm also generally correcting as many links as I can (look for edits with summaries starting 'Changing the Commons category'). It's part of the cross-wiki cleanup work of Category:Commons category Wikidata tracking categories - all links should ideally be in the '... from Wikidata' or '... on Wikidata' categories, the others have something wrong here, on Wikidata, or on Commons.
Personally I think the links from Wikipedia to Commons don't need to be bijective. If the result of these edits is to reduce the number of English Wikipedia articles with a link to Commons, we're making things worse and not better. Nemo10:58, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
@Nemo bis: It's only affecting a small percentage of the links, most of them are fine. Think of it as pruning back dead growth to make way for new. I'm thinking of proposing a bot that would add more uses of {{Commons category}} in the future, but I want the backlog of bad links to be sorted out first, to see if we can then sustain maintenance of the links. I've also been adding a huge number of new links to Commons in the sidebar, but that's not so easy to see here - it's clearer on Commons where the new links mean that more infoboxes can be added to categories. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 11:11, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
please stop removing those links from Scouting related articles. Those are there as part of a plan. Thanks. --evrik(talk)13:45, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
Many of the council level articles do not have corresponding categories on the commons, so instead, we point them to the state level category. --evrik(talk)16:11, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Is there actually media on Commons about those councils, though? If there is, can you create commons categories for them? If not, are the links actually useful? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 17:11, 21 July 2020 (UTC)
Mike, take this one: Neil Ross McKinnon where you removed the link to Commons category "Stamps of British Guiana". Clearly it's not a category about McKinnon but it seems like a good link as McKinnon was known for his collection of stamps of that colony which is referred to throughout the article. Philafrenzy (talk) 13:50, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
A little but not enough to justify a category for him which is why I didn't create it at the time. But did you consider these points before removing the link? I don't think you did. It's not good enough to make a large number of changes like this on the basis that you will look again if someone complains as you said above. Not every article is watched closely.
The relevant guidance appears to be here which merely states that such links need to be "likely to be useful to our readers". They don't have to exactly match the article's stated subject. So stamps of BG is useful in McKinnon and Scouting in Tennessee is useful in an article closely related to that subject. I think you should stop these mass changes as they don't appear to have a sound rationale. Philafrenzy (talk) 18:50, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
I don't think the links I've been removing are "likely to be useful to our reader", which is why I removed them. That includes the cases we're discussing here, for the reasons I've already given. I haven't been blanket-removing all commons category links that don't 100% match the article topic that I come across - only those where it is clear that they are misplaced. I have other things that I can get on with, so I'll leave this for now and see if there is any more feedback. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 07:07, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
@Evrik: That's ... deliberately misleading? Injecting politics into a non-political topic? I see you silently reverted me as part of another edit, and I don't want to edit war, but I can't see how that is at all useful? Mike Peel (talk) 16:20, 20 July 2020 (UTC)
Silent reversion? No. Besides, I referred to the article here, so I am sure you saw it. I don't want to get lost in the weeds here. I think the bigger point i that oftens, commonscat links are part of the external links, and may not always be the same as the article name. --evrik(talk)00:07, 21 July 2020 (UTC)
I mean you didn't use the 'undo' link, so I didn't get a notice that the edit had been undone. Agreed that the links may not always be the same as the article name, but they should always be related to the topic - otherwise they are misplaced. (And also, they aren't external links, they're sister project links). Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 17:10, 21 July 2020 (UTC)
@Evrik: Any news? I'll probably restart this work this evening (focusing on individual article changes, not a lot of misplaced category edits). Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 07:26, 31 July 2020 (UTC)
I'm not sure what the question is either. In a nutshell, I disagree with your removal of commons and commonscat templates that do not match the page. How does that fit with what is above? --evrik(talk)22:03, 6 August 2020 (UTC)
Synchronising short descriptions and Wikidata descriptions
Mike Peel, there are a few things still needed before the nomination can be approved, and it appears you're the only person who has offered to handle issues who is available to do so. We hope you'll be able to stop by the nomination and take care of what's remaining in the article. Thank you so much for your offer to assist! BlueMoonset (talk) 04:36, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
Wikidata weekly summary #428
Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.
Upcoming: Next Linked Data for Libraries LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group call: Daniel Mietchen and Lane Rasberry about Scholia, a project to present bibliographic information and scholarly profiles of authors and institutions, 11 August. [Agenda]
Video: Wikipedia Weekly Network - QuickStatements and Distributed Wikidata games Facebook, YouTube
Video: Collaboration, contribution and use of Wikidata and Wikipedia by academic libraries (in Greek). YouTube
Librarians work to broaden Vanderbilt’s research reputation with Wikidata tools. "To speed up the creation of metadata about faculty and their publications, Steven Baskauf, data science and data curation specialist for libraries, developed “VanderBot,” a set of scripts that can read and write to Wikidata, greatly improving the efficiency by which Vanderbilt’s faculty are discoverable through Wikidata".
On 14 August 2020, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Dona Joaninha, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Dona Joaninha(pictured), which had hauled sugar cane across Brazil since 1940, was sold to a scrap dealer and then became a monument? You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Dona Joaninha), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.
Video: Editing Wikidata with information from Son jarocho (in Spanish). YouTube
Tool of the week
Entity Explosion: a new multilingual Chrome browser extension. "Taking the power of Wikidata with me wherever I go across the web!". Uses API calls to the Wikidata Query Service to match the URL you are browsing on to a Wikidata item, and then displays data and links to other sites about the same entity. (Video)
Fixed a bug where a length limit for strings seems to have reverted itself back from 1500 to its default 400 (phabricator:T259440)
Fixed a bug that Wikibase is not always adding &redirect=no in situations when MediaWiki usually does (phabricator:T255387)
Wrapping up the initial work on the design system so it is ready for use in the first new feature (Query Builder)
Fixed the serialization of statements on Forms and Senses not containing the datatype (phabricator:T249206)
Wrapping up work on the first version of Federated Properties so that other Wikibase installations can use Wikidata's Properties instead of having to maintain their own
Worked on ensuring the data from the linked data interface at Special:EntityData is always up to date after an edit has been made (phabricator:T128486)
Enabling clients to use Lua to request labels, descriptions and aliases in some (often minority) languages even when they are not content languages (phabricator:T259340, phabricator:T260118)
Sarasua, Cristina, & Mietchen, Daniel. (2020, August). Multilingual Structured Climate Research Data in Wikidata - The Community Perspective. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3994272
Mietchen, Daniel, & Sarasua, Cristina. (2020, August). Multilingual Structured Climate Research Data in Wikidata - The Data Perspective. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3994266 (also on YouTube)
Video: How to add missing descriptions to Wikidata using QuickStatments tool (in Arabic) - YouTube
Video: Wikipedia Weekly Network - LIVE Wikidata editing #16 Facebook, YouTube
Video: Introduction to Wikidata (in Malayalam) - YouTube
Video: Wikidata editing basics (in Chinese) - YouTube
Tool of the week
Sophox allows for SPARQL querying of Wikidata and OpenStreetMap in a single query
Other Noteworthy Stuff
Two new grant programs from WikiCite, in support of open citations and linked bibliographic data.
Full documentation, eligibility requirements, selection criteria, program design principles, and contacts at the links. Apply by 1 October.
e-Scholarships [per-diem calculated on your city; 1-5 people (single, or as a 'remote group') for 2-4 days, for COVID-era "stay at home" projects. Paid in advance living allowance, no expense report required.]
Finished working on ensuring Labels of Items in some unusual, often minority, languages are still available on Wikipedia and other clients (phabricator: T259340)
Fixed error messages for API modules that will not work with the first version of Federated Properties (phabricator:T258558)
Working on improving how ORES judges the quality of an Item to make it more accurate
Started coding on Automated Configuration Discovery to make it easier for tool builders to make their tools work for other Wikibase instances as well
Upcoming: live SPARQL queries on Twitch and in French by Vigneron, September 1 at 18:00 CEST
Upcoming: WMF search platform team office hour, September 2nd at 17:00 CEST (15:00 GMT). Etherpad, Google Meet. You can come and chat about the Wikidata & Commons Query Service.
Upcoming video: Wikipedia Weekly Network - LIVE Wikidata editing #18 Facebook, YouTube, September 5 at 19.00 UTC
Upcoming: Onam label-a-thon (September 1st and 2nd): Online label-a-thon to improve Wikidata items related to Kerala and Malayalam on this Onam holidays.
Wikidata for Firefox is a browser extension that displays Wikidata items while browsing the web, adds missing IDs and extracts information from websites to Wikidata.
On 1 September 2020, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Casa Fuerte de Adeje, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the Casa Fuerte de Adeje was built in Tenerife in the 1550s to protect a sugar mill against pirates, but the complex was destroyed by fire in 1902 and has yet to be rebuilt? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Casa Fuerte de Adeje. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Casa Fuerte de Adeje), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.
Upcoming: Next Linked Data for Libraries LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group call: Rob Fernandez (Wikimedia District of Columbia) on Listeria, a tool that uses SPARQL queries to define a list, and provides a bot that will update a wiki page containing that list if the results of that SPARQL query change, all based on Wikidata, 08 September. Agenda
Upcoming: live SPARQL queries on Twitch and in French by Vigneron, September 8 at 18:00 CEST
Upcoming video: Wikipedia Weekly Network - LIVE Wikidata editing #19 Facebook, YouTube, September 10
Added Wikidata support to Japanese Wikivoyage. phab:T261451
Investigating the nature of our training outliers to improve the way ORES automatically scores the quality of an Item.
Working on error that sometimes causes Wikidata UI to report 2 error messages when saving a sitelink in an item. phab:T260869
Completed various investigations to make an informed decision on the output format of WikibaseManifest files (automated configuration detection for toolbuilders) phab:T261285
Completed various bug fixes and wrap-up tasks to conclude the major engineering work on the Federated Properties project
More work on Item Quality Scoring and Federated Properties
Estonia report: Virtual exhibition about Polish-Estonian relations. Rephotography and cultural heritage
Germany report: KulTour in Swabia and 8000 documents new online
India report: Utilising Occasion for Content donation: A story
Netherlands report: WMIN & WMNL collaboration & Japanese propaganda films
Serbia report: Enriching Wiki projects in different ways
Sweden report: Free music and new recordings of songs in the public domain; Autumn in the libraries; Yes, you can hack the heritage this year – online!
Uganda report: Participating in the African Librarians Week (24-30 May 2020)