User:Dan Polansky/Description

This page is about descriptions in Wikidata.

Policies and guideliness

• There is Help:Description.
• As per "Help:" namespace, it should be neither policy nor guideline.
• But it is a guideline, as formally marked: "This page documents a Wikidata guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should follow, though it should be treated with common sense, and occasional exceptions may apply. Changes made to it should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss your idea on the project chat."
• The statements on the page trace to no discussions and no rationale pages. Thereby, it fails the strength-of-the-argument principle.
• The page says "The concept represented by the item is defined by the statements not the description", which cannot be taken seriously, as per below.
• Conclusion: something is astray.

Definitions

• "The concept represented by the item is defined by the statements not the description", from Help:Description#Descriptions_are_not_definitions.
  • That is impractical, as per User:Dan Polansky/Definition via statements, especially since it has not been shown how to capture differentiae in definitions via statements in general.
  • It is also not a common practice.
• Tentative conclusions: descriptions should ideally feature textual definitions, complementary to definition via statements.

Comprehensiveness

• Case: Hitler
  • I entered the following to capture salient characteristics: "Austrian nationalized German politician, leader of the National Socialist party and dictator of Germany (1889-1945), noted for starting a war leading to death of millions and for driving an industrial systematic killing of an ethnic group, Jews"
  • This was opposed, as per Talk:Q352
  • I don't think it was genuinely problematic.
  • That said, the following is fine: "Austrian nationalized German politician, leader of the National Socialist party and dictator of Germany (1889-1945)".
  • From unique identification perspective, "Austria-born German politician (1889-1945)" is sufficient.
• I see placing a broader characterization in the definition field as worthwhile and usually harming nothing.

People

Examples of descriptions of people:

• Albert Einstein (Q937): German-born theoretical physicist; developer of the theory of relativity (1879–1955)

  I like this. It is short yet telling. It identifies via years.

• Karl Popper (Q81244): Austrian-British philosopher of science and social and political philosopher noted for falsificationism and for criticism of Plato, Hegel and Marx as totalitarian opponents of open society (1902-1994)

  Was made this long by me. I like it. A short version would be this: "Austrian-British philosopher of science and social and political philosopher (1902-1994)".

• Václav Havel (Q36233): Czech statesman, playwright, and former dissident, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic (1936–2011)

  Looks good.

• Miloš Jakeš (Q551665): Czechoslovak politician (1922-2020)
  • Fine for identification purposes, but could tell more, e.g. where he was born, which would reveal whether he was from Bohemia, Moravia or Slovakia. Looks unnecessary short.
• Miloš Čermák (Q12037625) Czech publicist
  • Should have dates, at a minimum: "Czech publicist (1968-)"