Hi!
Would there be any drawback with the following steps
as way forward
and possibility to learn more as we go?
1. We return results for the Lexeme namespace only when people
explicitly select it
If you mean "it and only it" (as opposed to Lexemes + any other
namespace), then yes, this is doable and this is probably what I am
going to start with. However, a lot of people - as I observed with
several community members - tend to use "All" option and expect it to work.
2. We get feedback
3. We go the "Best possible query" route when people select all namespaces
4. We get feedback
5. We go the "Best possible query" route for all searches if feedback
indicates this is useful (I don't know at this point)
I am not sure which mode is best for Wikidata now, there are at least
several plausible ways do go by default for Special:Search:
1. Search in Items only
2. Search in Items + Properties
3. Search in Items + Properties + Lexemes
4. Search in Items + Lexemes
5. Any of the above plus some of the article spaces (i.e. Wikidata or Help)
This requires mixed search working (except for 1 and 2) but is a
separate decision from it.
--
Stas Malyshev
smalyshev(a)wikimedia.org