Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Infoboxes

Request for comments - Nick Drake

Hello,

you are invited to participate at this discussion. Regards.--Tomcat (7) 13:25, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Style guidance

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As the addition has been in the MOS for a while with no objections I have removed the 'proposed' tag from the main page diff .Oranjblud (talk) 12:08, 20 October 2012 (UTC)

Parameter names normally use underscores, not spaces

At MOS:INFOBOX#Consistency between infoboxes, bullet 8 says "Multi-word parameter names should be separated with spaces, thus: |first second=". I looked at the popular templates {{Infobox person}}, {{Infobox country}}, {{Infobox city}}, {{Infobox football team}} and each has two (or more) word parameters that are sep'd by underscores, not spaces. Should this point be changed or removed? —[AlanM1(talk)]— 05:05, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

I'd say so. I raised this point here in October 2011, in conjunction with discussion at Parameter naming standards for Infobox person. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:35, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

Metadata explanation

The text:

Using an infobox also makes the data within it available to third party re-users such as DBpedia in a granular, machine readable format, often using microformats.

has been removed, because:

it's not the infobox that facilitates this, it's the classes within the infobox

This is ridiculous; the text should be restored. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:31, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

so explain how an infobox generates metadata without any additional microformat classes, and explain how a navbox or table with microformat classes does not generate metadata. it seems as though the microformat classes are the distinguishing characteristic here, not the fact that it is an infobox. Frietjes (talk) 19:28, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

DBpedia doesn't rely on the classes (though it may use them) for the extraction of metadata from infoboxes. An infobox, including the classes that are part of it can generate metadata available to other re-users. That's why the wording says "often", not "always". Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:59, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

so, DBpedia doesn't parse {{persondata}} or any other part of the article? again, it appears that the fact that it is an infobox isn't what makes it able to be parsed, it is the use of a common structured presentation of data. Frietjes (talk) 20:06, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Where did I say anything about Persondata? Again: DBpedia parses infoboxes. It may or may not make use of microformat classes when it does so, but it does not rely solely on them. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 20:43, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

again, I do not believe the statement, "using an infobox also makes the data within it available to third party re-users such as DBpedia", is entirely true. it is not the fact that the data is in an infobox that makes it available to DBpedia. if you look at the DBpedia content you will see that it has plenty of data that does not come from the infobox. so the infobox is not the reason why the information is available. Frietjes (talk) 22:10, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

The statement does not say that the infobox is the only place from which DBpedia extracts data. The presence on DBpedia of some data that is not from an en.Wikipedia infobox does not mean that DBpedia does not use our infoboxes; it does. Note also "such as". Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:42, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

the statement is misleading, and should be either reworded or removed as off-topic. Frietjes (talk) 00:06, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

The statement does not mislead. It is entirely factual and accurate. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 00:12, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

I have to say I agree with IllaZilla and Frietjes that this doesn't belong in the purpose section. Thanks! Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 23:37, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Why, when it is one of the purposes of infoboxes? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 00:03, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I disagree that it is one of the purposes. Clearly third-party databases can harvest information from articles without infoboxes, so this is not really the purpose of an infobox. Any undergraduate computer science student familiar with natural language processing could write a program to parse prose. Most of the information is in the article in multiple places. For example, for people, we have birth/death information in the infobox, in the prose, in the persondata, and in the categories. All of these sources can be parsed by a computer, so if we are worried about making our content machine readable, we shouldn't be overly concerned about infoboxes. There are very good reasons for infoboxes, but this is not the real purpose. The real purpose is to present information in a concise format for our readers. Thanks! Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 00:28, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

What third-party databases can do is immaterial; that they do use infoboxes is irrefutable; as is that many of our infoboxes do emit metadata via microformats. That infoboxes are useful to humans in the way that they present information is not disputed; that is one of their purposes, but it is not the only one. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:01, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

they use the entire article, not just the infobox. hence, this is not a purpose of the infobox. Frietjes (talk) 16:39, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

They may use other things also; but they specifically use our infoboxes. I'm not sure why this is unclear to you: our article says so, as does their documentation. Nor are they the only users of the metadata emitted by our infoboxes. You've again removed the section under discussion, while noting that it is being discussed. Why could you not wait until we have consensus? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:10, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

you appear to be the only one arguing for the addition of this statement. and no, most third party sites don't specifically use our infoboxes, they specifically use the entire article which includes the infobox, the categories, any other tables, and the prose. Frietjes (talk) 17:45, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

And there s only you and one other arguing against it. Wikipedia is not, as I'm sure you're aware, a democracy. Where did I say anything about "most third party sites"? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:55, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

Hidden infoboxes

A small number of editors insist on hiding infoboxes inside collapsed sections; or moving them to the foot of articles. Recent examples include:

• Peter Planyavsky
• Little Moreton Hall
• Renaissance Theatre Company
• Montacute House
• Cathedral of Blessed Mother Teresa in Pristina

Is this acceptable? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 18:15, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

I think this is a not a good idea. Jweiss11 (talk) 18:17, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

It can be a good idea, where there is objection to a conventional infobox, and is likely to become increasingly useful, as infoboxes are loaded up with less important data that is excessive at the top of the page. Johnbod (talk) 18:22, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

It sounds to me like you might have a misconception about Wikidata does or will do. --Izno (talk) 18:28, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

the way to do this would be to add the option to add 'collapsible collapsed' to the class in {{infobox person}}, {{Infobox historic site}}, etc., not use some hack of div tags and html tables. Frietjes (talk) 18:22, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

Where there is consensus to allow that option at the template page itself, yes. Such exists at Template:Infobox video game (though I don't agree with it). Otherwise, no. --Izno (talk) 18:26, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

• If there is no consensus either way for including an infobox, it seems like a reasonable compromise to me. If people want to see it they can click it; if javascript is turned off it expands by default anyway. Betty Logan (talk) 19:00, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
• I am completely against info boxes, except on pages requiring statistics (sports people who have done little else but get laid and kick/hit a ball) and mathematical, chemical and scientific type pages. On historical pages, especially buildings, info-boxes either over simplify or give false information. This is the best compromise that there's going to be and the only one that I will agree to.  Giano  19:20, 6 March 2013 (UTC)