[WikiEN-l] Fwd: ASINs and ISBNs

[John Vandenberg]

On 3/20/07, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:06:36 +0000, "Andrew Gray" <shimgray at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >If anyone is interested, the current discussion is at
> >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard#Amazon
> >- basically, are Amazon internal catalogue IDs a useful and sensible
> >piece of data to give as a reference? As may be apparent I swing
> >towards HELL NO, but YMMV...
>
> +1 for HELL NO, especially since in the specific example cited Amazon
> turned out to be *wrong* (see above).

-1 for HELL NO.

There are many cases where the amazon (.com, .co.uk, .de and .fr are
different) contain metadata that simply is not available in other
accessible catalogs.  [[James Hanratty]] has an example.  People
understandably get a bit stroppy when you try to remove these amazon
links unless you can find a better catalogue to use for verification.

+1 for systematic and careful improvement of citation data.

IMO, that the amazon metadata can be wrong is all the more reason why
simply removing the amazon links / ASINs isnt the best way to address
this.  Incorrect citation data will be left behind unless they are
handled case by case.

Like many other commercial databases that are referenced in Wikipedia
content, Amazon is used because it is an accessible and extensive
catalogue.  If it goes down, we can deal with that then.  If an ASIN
disappears, we can deal with that like we deal with broken links.   In
the mean time, we can vet the use of amazon links to see if they can
be replaced with links to international catalogue numbers that are
built to be more stable, _where possible_.  It wont take long; a team
of about eight people fixed ~2500 articles with Invalid ISBNs in less
then two months. (see [[User:EdJohnston/ISBN_fixing]] ).  This ensures
a bit of care is taken to ensure that the resulting citation data is
100% accurate, and the original contributor is respectfully contacted
if the citation data cant be pinned down without guessing.

I am concerned that some people are foaming at the mouth to remove
them all instantly (like suggesting that the ASIN template be
deleted).  There are WikiProjects that can deal with this, as it
doesnt require admin privileges.  While AN/I may be a useful place
kick start a discussion, I dont think it is the appropriate platform
to make any final decision on how to tackle these links.

--
John