On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 2:10 PM, Ryan Kaldari rkaldari@wikimedia.org wrote:
The problem with infoboxes is that they are inherently unencyclopedic. Infoboxes are for viewing data, not for giving a nuanced and comprehensive overview of a subject.
Don't underestimate how much readers love infoboxes. We did a mobile UX test a while ago, and it turned out that infoboxes were accidentally broken on mobile at that specific time. Some testers pointed this out quickly as a bug, along the lines of "Where's the little table which gives you all the useful info at a glance". It's not an accident that Google has integrated infobox-style information into search results. Highly scannable info can be of great value to readers.
So I'm not sure moving all this stuff outside of the article is ever a good idea. But I agree there's a fair bit of cruft there as well, and Wikidata could help separate key at-a-glance facts from details.