Is it okay to hide the Wikidata template?

Question

Following up on the discussion on WikiData suggestions I've been adding a few WikiData templates to profiles.

One thing I'm not crazy about is that if the person does not have a Wikipedia entry, the template displays what looks to be a dead link. I'm concerned a) that this just looks a little strange under sources b) people will want to delete it because it doesn't look useful.

Is it okay to add the template, but hide it in comment tags (<!-- -->)? I can add comments explaining what it is and it would hide the dead link.  Or is there a trick to the template to suppress the Wikipedia link?

See the attached Thomas Jones profile for an example of the dead Wikipedia link.

Comments

Add a tag for Ales, if possible.

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Yeah, moving the WikiData identifier to a database field could solve this easily.

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Michel, I had the same thought.

Answer 1

When template https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Template:Wikidata was created, almost all items had wikipedia article at least in some languages. 

Since then the things changed. Wikidata alloves items, that don-t have a wikipedia page are part of a short relation path between notables or are the nuclear family of a notable. 

So I guess correcting the template to allow no link to wikipedia is reasonable. I will change it so it displays wikipedia link only if the 2 wikipedia language parameter is entered. 

According to the template usage, https://www.softdata.si/wt/Templ_20200809/Template_Wikidata_Param2.htm we have 3,886 profiles without that parameter. The default is english so I can check those profiles and in case english page exists, I will correct the profile. And from now on, wikipedia link will be displayed only if you will specify the language.

I will need a day or two to do that.

Answer 2

I'm not sure I would add anything related to WikiData if there's no Wikipedia article.

Comments

I suggest reading the discussion I linked to.

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I read through the G2G entries, and looked through the Help pages.

From this help page:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Wikidata

It says:

Wikidata hosts a variety of data, including data on historical figures and other people who fit Wikipedia's definition of notability.

So I still stand by not using this on anyone who isn't in Wikipedia. Not sure if I missed something pointing to using this for non-Notables.

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It also says the following, without qualifying that you should only do that if there is a Wikipedia article.  If you take issue with that, then I'd suggest you start a new g2g thread because my question is specifically about hiding the link.

Simply linking WikiTree profiles with corresponding Wikidata pages has powerful benefits. It enables WikiTree+ to:

• improve its suggestions,
• share correct data on WikiTree with Wikidata, and
• bring WikiTree to a wider audience.

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My apologies - I wasn't intending to derail your thread. My suggestion was just to either not use it or "hide" it if you prefer when no Wikipedia article exists. I'll be quiet now.

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That's okay.  I think it may be a legitimate issue worthy of another post!

Answer 3

Hi M,

Can you give us an example profile?

Azure Rae

Comments

An example of a hidden comment, or the template showing the blank Wikipedia link.  If its the second, an example profile is attached to the question.

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Sorry about that, I missed seeing the profile on your question! 

It looks like Thomas was created in Wikidata because he has an entry in ThePeerage.

https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Q75764019&oldid=1056654925

Perhaps the template can have a parameter to exclude the link to Wikipedia when there is no corresponding article. This is the first one I've seen like this.

I don't believe the template would work if it's commented out.

Added his WikiTree profile id to his Wikidata page.

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Thanks Azure. I edited the original message to point out the profile...

Okay, I was afraid that hiding might not work.  I'm fine with editing the WikiData instead. I was partly trying to test-drive the instructions for handling these suggestions...

If there's no Wikipedia article, its not really being added to the profile because its a source, so I'd rather edit the wikidata. Most of the PGM suggestions are coming from ThePeerage or Genealogics (another user created site), and I think the majority of those don't have Wikipedia articles.

Do you know, is it enough to add the WikiTree ID or do you have to add the reference for the Parent-child relationship? I'm finding a large number of these suggestions where both parent and child already have WikiTree IDs (but I can see that the WikiTree wikidata doesn't reference the relationship).

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You can just add the statement of the "WikiTree person ID". 

If there were a Wikipedia article, I'd suggest adding to External Links or See also sections with a link back to WikiTree. See Dewsbury-65 as an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dewsbury

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If it's from the Peerage, why are we adding it at all? Isn't that a unreliable source?

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Hi Jillaine!

Yes, it is an unreliable source. However, the addition of the link to Wikidata has the following benefits (from Help:Wikidata):

Simply linking WikiTree profiles with corresponding Wikidata pages has powerful benefits. It enables WikiTree+ to:

• improve its suggestions,
• share correct data on WikiTree with Wikidata, and
• bring WikiTree to a wider audience.

Hope this helps  Az 

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Jillaine, I think what I'm going to do is do the linkage through Wikidata, unless there's an actual Wikipedia article.  That way we don't have to add the Wikidata link under sources on the WikiTree page. Accomplishes the same purpose (I think), but without the downside.