Template talk:Authority control

A more descriptive name?

I have little understanding of what the purpose of this template is, and seeing it at the bottom of a bunch of pages without any information or highlight descriptions is rather confusing. The name is especially confusing. The term "Authority control" implies that the template was added by some admin as a way to control the article in some sense. I suggest renaming it to something more descriptive that better illustrates what the use is. Looking at the talk history this has been suggested a number of times with no objections. Maybe something like "Wikipedia-external database links". Ergzay (talk) 12:13, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Yes, we have had a few discussions about this, but no agreement on what to change it to. Authority control is the correct term, and we added "databases" on to this recently. I think the word "identifiers" should be in there somewhere — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 18:48, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Name proposal: Authority control identifiers. Grimes2 (talk) 19:22, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

"Authoritative identifiers" might be more accurate as a description. It is unrelated to the use of authority to control anybody else and so it is natural that the correct term for this data confuses and alarms some readers. —David Eppstein (talk) 19:45, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Could support either of those — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:07, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

Data structure

The config data is currently structured like this:

{
	property = 227,
	section = 2,
	patterns = {'1[0123]?%d%d%d%d%d%d%d[0-9X]', '[47]%d%d%d%d%d%d%-%d', '[1-9]%d?%d?%d?%d?%d?%d?%d?%-[0-9X]', '3%d%d%d%d%d%d%d[0-9X]'},
	link = 'https://d-nb.info/gnd/$1',
	label = 'Germany',
	remark = 'Authority data on people, corporations and subjects from the [[German National Library]] (DNB)'
}

I am thinking that the following might be more logical:

[227] = {
	section = 2,
	patterns = {'1[0123]?%d%d%d%d%d%d%d[0-9X]', '[47]%d%d%d%d%d%d%-%d', '[1-9]%d?%d?%d?%d?%d?%d?%d?%-[0-9X]', '3%d%d%d%d%d%d%d[0-9X]'},
	link = 'https://d-nb.info/gnd/$1',
	label = 'Germany',
	remark = 'Authority data on people, corporations and subjects from the [[German National Library]] (DNB)'
}

This would allow direct access of the configuration of a particular property (i.e. 227 means GND ID (P227)) rather than iterating through the entire list — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:06, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

Open Sanctions

Is it possible to edit the Authority Control structure to display the "Open Sanctions ID". This solution is implemented in "вс" Template in Russian wikipedia (Шаблон:Внешние ссылки). It is missing in English version.[1]

The solution is to add "* OpenSanctions Entity "

Look here Template:International sanctions Nbarchaeo (talk) 18:57, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

I have added this to the sandbox and there is an example below. Can you explain what this identifier is, and why it would be useful for the English Wikipedia? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:56, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

@Nbarchaeo — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 19:31, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

"OpenSanctions is an international database of persons and companies of political, criminal, or economic interest." Given that it suggests a cloud of suspicion about its listed people which might not be supported by a conviction, wouldn't it violate WP:BLPCRIME to list it here? It says "editors must seriously consider not including material—in any article—that suggests the person has committed or is accused of having committed a crime, unless a conviction has been secured for that crime". —David Eppstein (talk) 19:43, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Hell no. Grossly contrary to WP:BLPCRIME policy. And even if it wasn't, it cites Wikipedia & Wikidata as a source.[1] AndyTheGrump (talk) 20:05, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

"OpenSanctions is a resource for journalists, activists, and financial service providers." https://demoweek.prototypefund.de/projects/23-open-sanctions.html Grimes2 (talk) 20:12, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

 Not done. Seems we should not add this — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:52, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

It's often worth looking a little deeper, so for example on Wikidata, Open Sanctions has this to say:

This dataset contains entities from a larger database that is used to enrich the data in OpenSanctions with additional details and connections. We only include entities from the source where there is a relevant connection to the entities in the main OpenSanctions database (e.g. to a sanctions target or a politician).

All the best: Rich Farmbrough 15:53, 7 October 2024 (UTC).

Pencil

@Rich Farmbrough: what are you trying to achieve on Module:Authority control/sandbox? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:48, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

Authority control or other text in the navbar in the AC template is not centred the same way as other text in navboxes. By having the pencil on the left (where "V.T.E." is on navboxes) this can be significantly ameliorated. It is also good from a usability point of view in that the interaction is in the same place. It does seem that the central text might be centred in the space available, rather than the navbar, in which case this is not a perfect fix. Please feel free to usurp the problem. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 15:46, 7 October 2024 (UTC).

This is the example I used above. Can you explain where it is not correctly centred? Or can you show what you mean by other navboxes doing it differently? I think the pencil absolutely needs to be next to André Viola because that is where it links to — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 17:31, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

This doesn't display as it does in the article:

In the article no subject name appears, and the text is misaligned because the pencil pushes it to the left. This is especially noticeable because the two lines of text are very similar lengths, but you can see it here too. The pencil thus appears next to "Authority control databases rather than the name of a Wikidata page. There is also nothing showing that Wikidata is involved. It might be better to stick to the V T E links with a Wikidata logo. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 07:14, 8 October 2024 (UTC).

VTE are internal links, while the pencil is cross-wiki, and AC cannot be edited like most navigation bars that use VTE, so I think it makes sense to keep VTE & pencil separate and to keep the pencil where it is.   ~ Tom.Reding (talk ⋅dgaf)  12:47, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

I think the reason we do not have the VTE links is that the bolded link at the top takes people to Help:Authority control which is a good landing page. A link to this page would be useful, but not sure how the "V" or "E" would work — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 14:04, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur

Apparently Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur ID (deprecated) (P2092) is now deprecated and we should instead use Bildindex der Kunst und Architektur PID (P12754) — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:50, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Before and after shown below — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 15:45, 9 October 2024 (UTC)