User:Lectrician1/Property proposal process

This page describes the process you should follow when wanting to propose a property.

Before proposing a property

1. Search if the property already exists.
2. Search if the property has already been proposed.
3. Check if you can give a similar label and definition as an existing Wikipedia infobox parameter, or if it can be matched to an infobox, to or from which data can be transferred automatically.
4. Select the right datatype for the property.

Follow the guidelines below depending on the datatype of your property.

External identifier properties

Please intend on creating a Mix'n'Match catalog or importing values after the property you are proposing is created so that your property is used beyond the examples you provided. If you can't create a Mix'n'match or import values, don't bother proposing the property as it will likely just sit unused. Using described at URL (P973) instead may be an alternative.

Entity properties

Determining the relationship direction

It has become a de-facto practice in Wikidata to have only a single property to describe a relationship in a one direction. For example, a musical release (Q2031291) is related to its release group (Q108346082) using release of (P9831) on the musical release (Q2031291) item. However, an inverse "has release" property does not exist to relate a release group (Q108346082) with its musical release (Q2031291). This is done so that:

1. Users don't have to add the inverse property
2. Space in the database does not need to be consumed for the inverse property
3. The property and its inverse do not need to be consistently checked to make sure they are present on both entities

However, this does have the downside that users do not see the inverse property on the other entity when they are viewing it on Wikidata or reading it from another data format (like RDF). So, users then have to query for it in order to find it which then may put more strain on the query service. Scripts like MediaWiki:Gadget-relateditems.js have helped solved this problem by allowing users to see inverse relationships.

Usually if a property expresses some parent->child relationship, the property usually points from the child to the parent (child->parent), as in the case of release of (P9831).

Specifying the domain and range

It is extremely important you specify the domain and range of your property, or at least have a strong and clear conveyance of them in the case that the Wikidata ontology or constraint system is not able to ensure the domain and range are always met. This is to make sure that your property isn't used outside of your original usage purpose, which may deteriorate data quality. Properties should aim to be as specific as possible in the type of relationship they are making so that users later don't have to move relationships a non-specific property makes to more-specific properties.

Creating the proposal

1. Go to Wikidata:Property proposal
2. Click the link to the category page of your property (e.g. Wikidata:Property proposal/Person)
3. Fill out the name to the property using the input box at the top of the page and click "Create request page".
4. You will be redirected to a page of the name you specified in the input box. If there is already content on this page from a prior proposal, make sure you are aware of this proposal and that yours will be different. If it is, then go back to the input box page and use another name for your proposal (e.g. "My proposal 2").
5. Select the template region on the page and click the "Edit" button in the upper right.
   
6. Fill out the as many proposal template fields as you can according to the instructions in their descriptions. Be sure to fill out the property description in your language and provide at least 3 example usages of your property.
   
7. Exit the property proposal template editor and replace the text below the Motivation heading with the motivation behind your property proposal and your signature: ~~~~
   
8. Click Publish changes... in the upper-right corner and then "Publish changes" again to publish the page. Do not worry about editing the ‎{{subst:SUBPAGENAME}} text at the top.
9. Finally, transclude your proposal by:
   1. Copying the name of the page of your proposal page at the top of the page (e.g. "Wikidata:Property proposal/example proposal")
   2. Clicking the "do it" link to the category page your proposal will be posted to.
   3. Transcluding your proposal page by pasting your page name surrounded by braces (e.g. {{Wikidata:Property proposal/example proposal}}) to the appropriate area of the page. Make sure it is placed below current proposals and in the right section of the page (some category pages might have additional headers to organize types of proposals).
   4. Then publish your changes. If you don't see your proposal after publishing it may be because the transclusion limit has been reached for the category page and there are too many proposals to show. You may have to wait until the other proposals are archived in order for yours to be shown.

Sharing the proposal

In addition to including the proposal on category page, you should notify users of in additional places so that users are aware of it and receive feedback about it.

• Make a post on related WikiProject talk pages
• Telegram
• Discord

Creating the property

1. Once consensus is reached, change status=ready on the template, to attract the attention of a property creator.
2. Creation can be done 1 week after the creation of the proposal, by a property creator or an administrator.
3. See property creation policy.