Wikidata:Property proposal/Physically interacts with
Physically interacts with edit
Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Generic
| Description | Item with which the subject has a physical interaction |
|---|---|
| Data type | Item |
| Domain | Physical objects |
| Example | track shoe (Q5611339) → soil (Q36133) waveguide (Q11233438) → wave (Q37172) trailer skirt (Q18353865) → semi-trailer (Q944315) |
| See also | physically interacts with (P129) |
- Motivation
An obvious, basic property that many people believed already existed, thanks to the mess made of physically interacts with (P129). A brief historyː
- February 20, 2013ː P129 created with English label "Physically Interacts With (molecular biology)". Several other language labels are subsequently added, some referring to molecular biology, and some not.
- May 11, 2013ː English label of P129 changed to remove reference to molecular biology; other languages do not get the memo.
- Presentː The labels for P129 are completely inconsistent, with some referring to molecular biology, and some only to generic physical interaction. English label and description were recently returned to molecular biology, and at least some claims not relating to biology have been removed
Clearly, there is a need for a generic "physical interaction" property, which many people were and are using P129 for. There are two possible solutionsː
- Turn P129 into a consistent "physical interaction in molecular biology" property, and create a new generic "physically interacts with" parent property.
- Turn P129 into a consistent generic "physically interacts with" property, and, if necessary, create a new "molecular biology" sub-property.
I don't know which solution is the easier path, but it's clear one or the other needs to happen. Swpb (talk) 14:44, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
- Discussion
- Hi @Swpb: can you explain in what way the molecular biology meaning for this property would be different from other meanings? Otherwise I feel your second option is best and I don't really see the need for a separate sub-property. ArthurPSmith (talk) 16:36, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
- I don't know why the m.b. meaning would deserve a separate property, but I was leaving room for biology-minded editors to justify it. If no one can, then I agreeː option 2, no sub-property. Swpb (talk) 16:40, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
- @Andrew Su, Joshbaumgartner, 2015.ww: who created the property and made the edits to the description described above. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:30, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
@Swpb, Succu, Pigsonthewing: Basically all usages of this property are by me/my bots, and these usages are currently for molecular biology only. But I agree that a generic property for 'physically interacts with' is required. I also do not see why P129 should not be used for other domains as well. So you could just cancel this property proposal and use P129. Furthermore, we (Andrew Su, I9606) came to the conclusion that P129 is not granular enough to properly describe many molecular biology interactions (you would need to use many qualifiers which make queries with the SPARQL endpoint more painful). So we came up with a larger list of sub-properties for molecular biology and (bio)chemistry which I will put to community discussion in the coming days. Sebotic (talk) 00:33, 7 January 2017 (UTC)
- After ten days with no opposition, I'm going to implement option 2 (converting P129 into a generic property). I'm withdrawing this proposal for a new property; any new property needed for molecular biology-specific purposes should be proposed separately. Swpb (talk) 21:53, 16 January 2017 (UTC)