MacphersonWiki:WikiProject Short descriptions
Plantilla:Wikiproject status Plantilla:Infobox WikiProject This is a project to populate all Wikipedia mainspace articles with a suitable short description that will help a reader to identify which search result is most likely to suit their needs.
State of the project[editar código]
There are a total of 1271 articles, of which 2 disambiguation pages are not counted for this project.
Out of 1269 articles, 199 have a short description and 1070 articles do not have a short description.
This is 15.682 % complete – Help make this bar green!
Why have short descriptions?[editar código]
- It helps readers find the article they need from a list of articles produced by a search engine. It could save a lot of people a lot of time.
- It concentrates the mind on what the article should actually be about. Particularly when creating a new article or patrolling a new page.
- It will prevent the use of inappropriate short descriptions from Wikidata being used as the first contact for our articles. Wikidata vandalism does not show on Wikipedia, and slips by our defenses.
- It will reduce the temptation for vandals to try to attack Wikipedia through Wikidata. This does not help Wikipedia directly, but it is a serendipitous side effect.
- There are other places where a short description of a Wikipedia article is useful, inside Wikipedia. It is possible to display the short description as an annotation after an internal link by using the template
{{annotated link}}
, although this displays only those short descriptions added within Wikipedia or imported from Wikidata by a Wikipedia editor. "See also" sections, Outline lists, Index lists, and any other place where a list of plain Wikilinks would be improved by a short description of the target article can make use of this to advantage, and it is possible for Category lists to also use the short description annotation (available using a script). It may also become possible at some stage for the page display to be toggled to display or not display the short description, making them visible only when wanted. (Disambiguation pages are not an appropriate place for annotated links. The reasons are explained on the template documentation page.)
How to write a short description[editar código]
See Wikipedia:Short_description#Writing_a_short_description for details.
To add a short description manually, add the short description template to the very top of the page, above all other article headers and templates. The format to use is {{Short description|Your short description here}}. Alternatively, install and make use of Shortdesc helper.
What if a short description is redundant?[editar código]
To start off, WMF plans to display a short description from Wikidata if the magic word has no short description. If the Wikidata short description is objectionable, we will have to put something in to take its place. If it is wrong on Wikidata you could delete it there, but only do that if you are confident that it is not appropriate for Wikidata. Eventually the Wikidata descriptions will be turned off and if there is no short description nothing will be displayed. One way to deal with this is to do nothing, but if someone adds a template with a blank short description, or with the word blank
, or a non-breaking space, just leave it like that, as it shows that someone has checked and decided that a description is not necessary. If you find a blank and think a description would be better, put it in.
- Redirects – could be left as a blank or use "Redirect page". For redirects which have the potential to be expanded into full articles, a short description which would be appropriate for the full article can be helpful, and might encourage someone to start that article.
- Disambiguation pages – can be "Disambiguation page" Where a more specific category is available, a more informative short description can be used, for example, in Category:Bird common name disambiguation pages, a more informative description
Bird common name disambiguation page
could be used, but be sure to check that the name covers all the articles it disambiguates. - (Add other page types that can be treated similarly here)
Adding and editing short descriptions[editar código]
Short descriptions can be added and edited using the standard Wikimarkup editor (edit source), but for most cases it is convenient to use the short description helper gadget.
The Wikidata description viewing script is useful to show what is available at Wikidata (see below)
See the short description in desktop view[editar código]
The short description is normally hidden on the desktop version of Wikipedia but it is identified by the class shortdescription
.
This allows anybody to add CSS display rules to their Special:MyPage/common.css to control the short description appearance.
This is the least needed to show the short description:
.shortdescription { display:block !important; }
The text will be the same as the rest of the article, so this adds a bright yellow background:
.shortdescription { display:block !important; background-color: #FFFF80; }
This is a bit softer with a thin red border:
.shortdescription { display: inline-block !important; background-color: cornsilk; padding: 5px; border: red solid 1px; }
Editing the short description[editar código]
There is a gadget which can be enabled in your Preferences. It is in the Gadgets tab, under Editing: Shortdesc helper: easily add and edit page short descriptions.
- The gadget shows the short description if it exists, allows editing of only the short description, shows the Wikidata description and allows it to be imported and if desired, edited.
- See Wikipedia:Shortdesc helper for more details.
The gadget identifies the short description with the class mw-page-description
which can be highlighted by a line of CSS like:
.mw-page-description { background-color: #FF80FF; }
or a bit softer with:
.mw-page-description { background-color: cornsilk; }
The input box can be a bit small, so the following may also help:
#sdh-inputbox { font-size: 150%; }
This moves the input box down a little (which helps if you have other gadgets enabled):
#sdh { padding-top: 10px; }
How can I see the short description on Wikidata[editar código]
- You can click on the Wikidata link in the sidebar to go to the record, where you can read or edit it, or
- You can enable a view of the Q-code, short description and alias, complete with links, at the top of every article just below the title by installing User Yair Rand's script.
Editing using Shortdesc helper gadget[editar código]
The Wikidata description, Q-number and aliases can be displayed by another gadget, that should be installable through mw.loader.load("//www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=User:Yair rand/WikidataInfo.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript");
This is useful to allow you to check what is available at Wikidata, and provides links to Wikidata in case you want to edit there.
For example, at Plebeian Council these gadgets display:
Wikidata: plebeian council (Q15056619), Ancient Roman assemby
Aliases: Comitia Plebis Tributa, Concilium Plebis, Plebian Assembly
The principal assembly of the ancient Roman Republic (Edit)
Another example, at Political institutions of ancient Rome:
Wikidata: political institutions of ancient Rome (Q2915100), no description given
Aliases: None
Missing article description (Add)
A third example at Roman consul:
Wikidata: Roman consul (Q40779), political office in ancient Rome
Alias: consul
political office in ancient Rome (Wikidata · Import · Edit and Import)
The first two lines are the item, description, and aliases at Wikidata, complete with link to the item at Wikidata. displayed by User:Yair rand's gadget. The third line is the current short description on Wikipedia, if it exists, a notice that the article description is missing, or the Wikidata item displayed for possible use, displayed by User:Galobtter's Shortdesc helper gadget.
If you click on (Edit), (Add), (Import), or (Edit and Import), it should open a small editing window in the third line with the current short description and give the options (Save) and (Cancel). Edit will import the description from Wikidata and allow you to change it before saving, while Import will import the Wikidata description as is and save. It can be edited later. Edit and Import will open the edit window with the Wikidata description and allow you to edit it before clicking on (Save) or (Cancel).
If adding a new short description, either type it in from the keyboard, or drag and drop from the article text and edit as appropriate.
By default, adding short descriptions to an article also adds the description to Wikidata if Wikidata has no description. This can be changed in the settings. To edit a short description that is already on Wikidata, click on one of the links (not shown in this example) in the Wikidata item description or Q-number to open the item at Wikidata.
The Shortdesc helper will provide a standardised edit summary describing the edit.
Tools, gadgets and scripts[editar código]
- The opt-in gadget - Shortdesc helper (described above)
- The script User:SD0001/shortdescs-in-category shows the short descriptions of pages while viewing a category
- The script User:GhostInTheMachine/SDlinkBuilder helps you build a TODO list - taking all of the article links in a page and showing their current short descriptions
Which articles have a short description on Wikipedia?[editar código]
- All articles in Category:Articles with short description have a short description - either directly or indirectly
- There are 199 of them so far
- There are 1070 still to be done
- This Search finds all articles that have had the
{{Short description}}
template added manually (including imports from Wikidata using the Shortdesc helper).- This was about 1,100,000 articles on 8 July 2020
- This was about 1,210,000 articles on 31 August 2020
- This was about 1,440,000 articles on 29 December 2020
- The bot shorty will find articles which include the SHORTDESC magic word and will convert them to use the
{{Short description}}
template instead - The remaining short descriptions have been generated from other page content (see next section).
Auto-generated and bot-generated descriptions[editar código]
- Keep in mind that we are working on making infoboxes generate descriptions automatically, so it may not be necessary to add descriptions manually or semi-automatically for certain groups of articles; though improving those automatic descriptions is always welcome. Also, bots may or likely will be used in areas where descriptions are possible to be obtained from the lead automatically due to similar format, such as for sportspersons.
- Automated addition would be subject to the usual conditions for bot runs. Automation would be complicated by the need to produce accurate, concise and policy-compliant short descriptions. This may not be possible, but if you have a plan, and it works, that would be very helpful.
- Semi-automated tools would be extremely helpful. If you can produce a script that is easy to use, checks through a category for the presence of short descriptions, and when absent checks for a Wikidata description and opens the page to allow the editor to check if it is suitable, then adds the description or allows manual addition and saves on a click before going on to the next article, it would accelerate the work by orders of magnitude.
- The SDlinkBuilder user script creates a list of links, each with their short description, and so simplifies the task of adding any that are missing.
Auto-generated from infoboxes and other templates[editar código]
Already done[editar código]
Work in progress[editar código]
{{Infobox video game}}
{{Infobox NFL biography}}
(players in the American football league) – approx. 21,000 articles{{Infobox religious building}}
{{Infobox film}}
{{Infobox river}}
approx. 14,000 articles{{Infobox book}}
{{Infobox military installation}}
Bot-generated[editar código]
- User:DannyS712 bot Task 4 – Short descriptions for articles about bilateral relations (approx. 3,000 articles)
- User:DannyS712 bot Task 20 – Short descriptions for outlines (approx. 400 articles)
Templates and modules[editar código]
Templates and modules that are useful for this/created for helping with short descriptions:
- Module:Plain text, for removing extraneous markup
- Module:Type in location, for formatting input from
|location=
and getting shorter location - Module:Is infobox in lead, for checking if the infobox is the lead infobox and the only lead infobox
- Template:Auto short description, for tagging templates that have code that automatically generates a short description.
- See also Category:Modules that create a short description
Can we use the Wikidata description if it is good?[editar código]
Yes, but check that it really is good, and don't hesitate to improve it. Wikidata short descriptions are public domain and can simply be copied, but mentioning the source in the edit summary would be preferable. The helper gadget handles this for you when you click "Import", and you can also choose to edit the summary beforehand.
Can I copy the Wikidata short descriptions with a bot?[editar código]
You need to check each one to be sure it is appropriate. This is content you will be adding, and you are just as responsible for it as for any other content. Semi-automated copying should not be a problem as long as it is done properly, which means at least checking that the short description agrees with the lead section. If you come up with a good way to do this, please mention it here. There is enough for everyone. We have about 5.5 million articles to do. It will not happen overnight.
Which articles can I work on?[editar código]
- Start with topics where you are sufficiently familiar to be able to write a good short description. If you run out, do anything that you are confident you can handle. If in doubt, leave it out.
- Follow BLP policy scrupulously. Avoid areas if you are topic banned.
- Consider working though your watchlist (or part of it), or a WikiProject's articles, or a category
- add the User:SD0001/shortdescs-in-category user script to help working on categories
- If you like Outlines, work through one, they may be a good source of short descriptions if well annotated, and if not, you can annotate with the short descriptions as you create them.
- All articles need a short description, Featured, Good, A and B class could be prioritised, but at this stage numbers are important, to get WMF to stop displaying dubious Wikidata descriptions.
- If you are a bot operator, there are bot tasks to be done.
- If you don't have the time or inclination to work on this systematically:
- consider just checking and adding a short description on articles that you will be editing anyway.
- search for
-incategory:"Articles with short description"
What can we do about bad short descriptions?[editar código]
- Fix them, this is Wikipedia.
- Follow Bold - Revert - Discuss, or you can start with discuss in uncertain cases. The short description is just another piece of content.
- In the case of a content dispute, get talk page consensus.
- For a BLP violation, blank or preferably replace, and provide an edit summary to explain.
Join the project[editar código]
Add your signature to the bottom of the list of project members.
Userbox[editar código]
Add Plantilla:Tl2 to your user page to be included in Category:WikiProject Short descriptions participants. The userbox looks like this: Plantilla:User Short descriptions
Maybe display a top icon as well — add Plantilla:Tl2 anywhere in your user page.
Suggestions[editar código]
- We could add initial ones by bot such as "is a medical condition" to all articles that have "infobox medical condition" in the lead and "is a drug" to all that have the "drugbox" in the lead. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 04:02, 20 February 2018 (UTC) (copied from WikiProject Medicine talk page)
- Pages with a bot-generated short description following a formula like this should be added to Category:Bot-generated short descriptions so that Wikignomes can follow up and improve them. · · · Peter (Southwood) (talk): 08:32, 20 February 2018 (UTC)
- Add tracking categories for when a template-generated (not bot-generated!) short description is overridden. While overwriting them isn't a bad thing, it may be useful to catch instances where the short descriptions were written before the template's short description was finished and implemented. -BRAINULATOR9 (TALK) 21:04, 20 February 2019 (UTC)
- We might have a bot do fill redirect pages with {{short description|redirects to (page that the redirect redirects to)} AltoStev Talk 20:58, 6 April 2019 (UTC)
- It's a nice idea, AltoStev, but unfortunately I don't think it will help anyone. Let me give an example of why not. There's a redirect called French Federation of Undersea Studies and Sports which points to our article at Fédération Française d'Études et de Sports Sous-Marins. If you go to mobile view and start searching for
french federation of un
, the only suggestion you get is 'Fédération Française d'Études et de Sports Sous-Marins' with a line underneath stating 'French diver training and certification agency'. The redirect and its short description ('Redirect page') don't show up in the search, but the target and its short description do. --RexxS (talk) 22:32, 6 April 2019 (UTC)
- It's a nice idea, AltoStev, but unfortunately I don't think it will help anyone. Let me give an example of why not. There's a redirect called French Federation of Undersea Studies and Sports which points to our article at Fédération Française d'Études et de Sports Sous-Marins. If you go to mobile view and start searching for
- To promote consistency it may be worth providing some suggested templates for various types of articles, e.g. for Biography:
- "Nationality | description/roles | (YoB–YoD)" as in "English coal mining magnate (1846–1936)".
- Members of different WikiProjects could suggest templates for their areas. No desire to be prescriptive here, just to provide possible options to improve quality and consistency across all areas. Thoughts? ~ RLO1729💬 06:12, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
Categories[editar código]
Counts of different types of pages having short descriptions
- Category:Articles with short description (199)
- Category:Books with short description (0)
- Category:Categories with short description (0)
- Category:Disambiguation pages with short description (0)
- Category:Drafts with short description (0)
- Category:Files with short description (0)
- Category:Help pages with short description (0)
- Category:Modules with short description (0)
- Category:Portals with short description (0)
- Category:Project pages with short description (0)
- Category:Redirects with short description (0)
- Category:Templates with short description (0)
- Category:User pages with short description (0)
- Category:Pages with short description (0) — These should instead be in one of the above categories
Categories for this project
- Category:WikiProject Short descriptions (1)
- Category:WikiProject Short descriptions participants (0)
Counts of Short description vs. Wikidata
- Category:Short description matches Wikidata (0)
- Category:Short description is different from Wikidata (0)
- Category:Short description with empty Wikidata description (0)
Counts of modules/templates that create short descriptions
- Category:Modules that create a short description (0)
- Category:Templates that generate short descriptions (4)
Maintenance category to identify problems with the template parameters
Maintenance categories to list pages with descriptions over 100 characters
- Category:Articles with long short description (1)
- Category:Books with long short description (0)
- Category:Drafts with long short description (0)
- Category:Files with long short description (0)
- Category:Help pages with long short description (0)
- Category:Modules with long short description (0)
- Category:Portals with long short description (0)
- Category:Project pages with long short description (0)
- Category:Redirects with long short description (0)
- Category:Templates with long short description (0)
- Category:User pages with long short description (0)
Full category tree Plantilla:Category tree all
Monthly checks[editar código]
- Review Category:Wikipedia pages with long short description (0)
- This TemplateParam report lists articles where the SD template has a missing or blank description.
- The main TemplateParam report can also highlight cases where the template has too many parameters.
- Also Template:Short description#Maintenance categories
Discussions[editar código]
Previous and current discussions on English WP short description and WikiData descriptions
Note: Template talk:Short description redirects to Wikipedia talk:Short description