"I strongly disagree with the demand to make this the only choice." -

Gregor, I'm a bit confused -- are you talking about the transclusion design approach in this statement? because, if so, I'd think there'd be a number of infobox "styles" that can be selected by an author on the wikidata platform when 'building' the infobox page. The author can transclude any number/any specific infobox(es) on their wikipedia page, eg

{{wikidata:en:Infobox:Some topic/some custom imfobox}}

On 14.06.2012 03:11, Gregor Hagedorn wrote:

While I agree that it is desirable to support simple, preformatted
Infoboxes that can, with minimal effort be re-used in a large number
of language versions of Wikipedia, I strongly disagree with the demand
to make this the only choice.

I think the present Wikidata approach to allow local Wikipedias to
customize their infoboxes by accessing wikidata properties
property-by-property is the right path.

The large Wikipedias with many editors have invested considerable
creative energy into making quite a large number of infoboxes
elaborate information containers. That includes formatting, images and
hand-crafted links in both the "field name" and the "field value"
side. Some values are expressed through svg graphics, other values
expressed through background color coding, etc.

Limiting the usability of Wikidata to plain vanilla infox boxes could
cause considerable resistance in these communities. And although small
Wikipedia will profit a lot from Wikidata, without the engagement of
editors from the large Wikipedias into curating Wikidata content, the
increased synergies will not happen.

Another issue is that (I believe that) Wikidata does not have a notion
of ordering properties. Correct? This is no issue for the present
Wikidata approach because infoboxes remain curated in each local
Wikipedia. However, in a centralized "one size fits all" approach,
replacing existing infoboxes where information is presented in a
logical order with an alphabetical property order would create huge
resistance (and would be a complex issue that Wikidata would have to
deal with, allowing property ordering and filtering).

I believe that Wikidata correctly aims to provide a smooth transition
path, where it is possible to obtain only part of an infobox from
wikidata and inject wikidata content into existing infobox layouts.

That said: I would encourage a third party contributor to try to
create a default Wikidata infobox generator in a way (extension
installable in multiple Wikipedias) that enables a wikipedia to
autocreate a good looking, plain vanilla infobox with minimal effort.

Gregor

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