Template talk:Persondata

 

February 2011

I am still rather confused by the template and probably some examples would be useful. But I have few observations/suggestions

1. DEFAULTSORT call should be removed. Most uses so far end up in Category:Pages with DEFAULTSORT conflicts. template:creator added DEFAULTSORT to categories at some point and it was quite a disaster. In general any template adding DEFAULTSORT is a problem since my bot and some other bots occasionally add DEFAULTSORTs to all category:people by name subcats that do not have it.
2. I would remove autocategorization to category:people by name. It is easy to find all the cases where the template is used which are not in category:people by name. The template might be also used to write biography of a famous race-horse, dog, or ape and it would be hard to remove autocategory.
3. I think the field names should be the same as the ones used in {{Creator}} so it is easy to move them back and forth at the moment this template uses lowercase and {{Creator}} uses upper-case. I personally prefer lowercase but it is hard to change all the creator templates.
4. I was thinking about displaying {{Creator}} content using this template when used in categories and galleries but that might interfere with your "style" mechanism. I think it can be done but than some categories can be transcluded (ones using {{Persondata}} directly) and some would not (ones using {{Creator}}).

--Jarekt (talk) 15:55, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

I think the most useful use would be that of File:Xiao-jingguang.jpg (clearly not a very exciting description but still better than what we currently have in many files and with many more translations). However the idea was to keep the use as open as possible for different uses

1. DEFAULTSORT: okay I'll remove it.
2. People by name. I don't know. The first time I saw "category: people by name in a page code, I wondered who was lunatic enough to add such absurd categories. I now realize that it is useful but I think it would be much better if it was an automaticc category, like other flat, large, hidden categories such as those added by source templates.
   Beside I am not sure to be confortable with using this template for horse. What should we have for Tuan Tuan, {{name=Tuan Tuan|occupation=panda|nationality=CN/TW}} ? At least I think we should have a special way to deal with animals, and probably with fictional characters - and thus we could avoid categorizing them in people by name.
3. I'll rename the fields. But if the become widely used, wouldn't it make sense to make it case insensitive like {{Information}} and {{Artwork}} ?
4. I am not sure to see what you mean with point four. If we use the infobox format in files using creator it has to be done through a template, or something akin to my "style" mechanism", because there are artwork and boook templates transcluded in the category namespace, and would clearly can't use infoboxes inside them.--Zolo (talk) 20:00, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

About #3: I prefer lower case letters and we can propose to change them in ALL creator pages, or allow both styles and change recomendation to the lower case. All of this should be discussed at creator talk page if we want to go this way.

About #4: Creator templates or any other template can display different thing based on namespace. I was thinking about displaying Creator templates context using Persondata /main style when used in categories and galleries, and keep on using current style in Files. But than I was thinking that even if if the look will be the same the behavior will differ. But I might be thinking too many steps ahead. --Jarekt (talk) 21:43, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

About #4: I don't think you could do it for Category:Geheimes Kinder-Spiel-Buch.--Zolo (talk) 06:01, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

I have creator Template:Persondata/testcases. Not really testcases as the template probably needs some changes, rather a reminder of what I think the template should be able to give.--Zolo (talk) 12:32, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Thinking a bit more about it:

• Using something similar to the innercollapse outercollapse, it may be possible to have a persondata look outside an information template and a creator look inside
• in the file nameespace, the most useful formatting styles in files seem to be :
  • simple name (in the user's language)
  • something similar to {{Person description}}

The most maintainable way to get the first format would probably be through an interwiki repository that would not be restricted to people. It may be simpler then o remove the style option, and to automatically format according to namespace and in/outside ~table status.--Zolo (talk) 12:25, 27 February 2011 (UTC)

de.wiki

I don't know if it can be of any use here but people pages seem to be well thought out in de.wiki and there is a tool that makes use of persondata de en--Zolo (talk) 06:47, 13 June 2011 (UTC)