| alexhollender added a comment. |
I'm a bit confused because I see people expressing agreement with each other, however it is not clear to me what we're agreeing on. So here is another attempt to clarify things:
Clear
- Capitalization does not make sense in certain languages (e.g. Georgian). We should never force capitalization of Wikidata descriptions on the front-end in such languages.
- This requires a change to the current functionality (which incidentally, and accidentally, slipped through recently but is not live yet).
- Any remaining, or new, code that modifies the capitalization of Wikidata descriptions should be language specific (i.e. no more global rules).
Confusing
- We want consistency in how we display Wikidata descriptions. Specifically, we want Wikidata descriptions to be displayed with the first letter capitalized in Latin languages.
- The guidelines for Wikidata descriptions in English specify that Wikidata descriptions should start with a lowercase letter — "Descriptions begin with a lowercase letter except when uppercase would normally be required or expected". So in other words, what Wikipedia wants (in Latin languages) is inconsistent with what Wikidata recommends.
- Even if the Wikidata guideline was changed, it seems fair to assume that there would never be perfect consistency among Wikidata descriptions (which is probably okay, but worth noting).
Open questions
- Assuming we fix the issue with languages that are being incorrectly capitalized, does anyone have an issue with capitalizing Wikidata descriptions in Latin languages on the front-end of Wikipedia?
- Is anyone familiar with Wikidata's general policy in terms of opinionated vs. unopinionated data? Or, said another way, how do we resolve the tension between:
@Jdlrobson T131013#3544541
editors expect how descriptions display to match case when they edit them and this can cause edit confusion
and
@Jdlrobson T131013#3544541
Wikidata is a data store. Just as we wouldn't expect clients to have to render dates mm/dd/yy we shouldn't expect them to have to use case. We should be caring about the content not how it's used.
I am either misunderstanding this, or there is a tension/contradiction. If an editor expects their Wikidata input to match the output/display on Wikipedia, then the "data store" would indeed be opinionated, specifically towards what Wikipedia wants. This seems like a larger conversation. It also seems like one that is probably ongoing somewhere.
In conclusion
It seems like we then have two options (I'm assuming we fix the obvious issue discussed above with languages like Georgian):
- Continue formatting Wikidata descriptions on the front-end of Wikipedia for Latin languages. The benefit of this option is that we retain the level of consistency we have now. The drawback is that Wikipedia does not mirror what is on Wikidata (although it's unclear that this is even desirable).
- Start a conversation with Wikidata to see if they are willing to update their guidelines for item descriptions. If they are willing, we can drop the code that forces capitalization in Latin languages. The benefit of this option is that Wikipedia mirrors exactly what is in Wikidata (again, unclear that this is actually desirable). The drawback is for an indeterminate amount of time where we'd have inconsistency in how Wikidata descriptions look on Wikipedia, however theoretically this would eventually sort itself out.
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