Talk:Wikidata For Wikimedia Projects/Clearer Wikidata Edit Summaries

Looking for feedback on Wikidata-inclusion in Wikipedia Watchlist and Recent Changes

Hi everyone,

We are looking for a few Wikipedians to speak with us about their experiences looking at Wikipedia Watchlist and Recent Changes lists. We are especially interested in your interpretation and understanding of information provided when the edits are caused by Wikidata.

We'd like to invite volunteers to a 1-hour long interview with our UX researcher. The interview will be conducted in English and compensation is available.

If you would like to participate, please register your interest as a reply to this post.

Thank you, -Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 11:55, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Happy to participate (as someone who edits across both projects). AllyD (talk) 13:03, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

It is always good to talk — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 21:53, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Wikidata edits in your Watchlist/RC: How to display P- and Q-numbers?

Hi everyone, I am wondering what your take on the P- and Q-numbers in an edit summary when the edit is from Wikidata (but added here on Wikipedia/Watchlist or Recent Changes. Currently, the edit summary will look like:

Is it important for you to see the Property:P161 or the value Q112562404? Would you prefer to see the label, e.g. cast member and Kris Hitchen respectively.

Or maybe a combination of both: cast member (P161) and Kris Hitchen (Q112562404) which is how the edit summary appears on Wikidata:

Another alternative is to provide more information on a hover/mouse-over tooltip, like the concept below:

What are your thoughts on these options? What route is the best for making the information clear without cluttering, or perhaps you have a different idea, please let me know below. Thanks, - Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 12:54, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

At the moment, the Wikipedia Watchlist reporting of a Wikidata change is so abstract as to serve only as a something-happened flag. If one investigates, it is sometimes useful, such as vandalism that can be reverted. Filling out the summary with the labels in the Wikipedia language would certainly be clearer and could assist.

(There is also "noise" which might be lessened. From memory, I get alerted about a particular village on my Watchlist whenever someone adds to Q532.) AllyD (talk) 15:48, 15 April 2025 (UTC)

Thank you @AllyD! We certainly hope it can be a positive improvement, a first of many.

Also, I haven't forgotten about the invite to a User interview, we're just waiting on the 'go ahead' from our UX Research team. - Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 14:34, 22 April 2025 (UTC)

Yes, clear presentation is required. On en.wiki, hovering shows the entire change; having to hover on first one item then another makes it less likely that edits of interest or concern will be spotted. Only seeing one of either the property code's meaning or the value is also insufficient. As both are brief, showing both does not create clutter; for anyone not deeply habituated to wikidata, it's "P161" and "Q112562404" which are clutter. NebY (talk) 14:03, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

Hello @NebY, thanks for writing! So you want to see a hover/mouse-over tooltip that displays both the label of the Property, and the value (possibly an item label) together, to reduce confusion on the nature of the edit? Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 16:03, 22 April 2025 (UTC)

No, I hadn't considered that. I'm saying that we need full information in the watchlist entry, in part because hovering is less use (requiring two hovers) than it is in normal en.wiki watchlists. True, a single hover would be good, but as both labels are usually brief, displaying them in the watchlist entry as proposed would be better. NebY (talk) 16:37, 22 April 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification @NebY.

We will be asking Wikimedians for their insights during a 45 minute ~ 1-hour chat with one of our UX researchers and designers, who would show you various examples of how the Wikidata edits on a Wikipedia watchlist could look, and would ask your thoughts and opinions.

Would you be interested in such a chat? Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 07:32, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

I tend to think that the label should be first displayed and the Q or P number could be in the hover. I almost never want the reverse. Andre (talk) 21:31, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

Thank you @Andrevan for the comment! Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 07:37, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

Pilot Wikis: To help test changes in Watchlists/Recent Changes

Hello, it is important to us to ensure any changes remain accessible for all Wikimedians, regardless of language. For this reason, we are keen to include Right-to-Left script direction and non-Latin languages in our testing pool of Wikipedias to test and observe our planned changes to Wikipedia Watchlists / Recent Changes lists, when the changelog is generated from a Wikidata-edit.

If you would like us to approach your Wiki-community, please leave your Name and Wikipedia below and we will get in touch, thank you! - Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 14:38, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

Removing the word Property: from the changelog

In the proposed changes of resolving PID's into natural language labels in the Watchlist/Recent Changes list, the information presented in the changelog line would change.

The proposed change is to remove the word 'Property:' from the changelog, replacing it with the Wikidata properties Label in the matching language, or a fallback language, or English (if any are available).

Example: Property:P18 would be changed to image (P18)

In-situ, this would look like:
Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (Created claim: Property:P18: house-cat.jpg)

becomes:
Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (Created claim: image(P18): house-cat.jpg).

Your thoughts on this proposed change?

• How would this change affect your ability to understand what information is being presented or your workflow?
• Do you feel the changelog has been improved or suffered from such a change?

Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 12:57, 4 June 2025 (UTC)