#Wikidata HOWTO - generated descriptions

#Disambiguation in Wikidata is typically done based on the descriptions of items. Most items do not have descriptions so it is typically a struggle to select the right items. Enter a nice little hack by Magnus called "autodesc"; it automagically creates descriptions on the fly based on existing statements.

It is one of the most valuable hacks I know off. All it takes to activate it is adding this one line to your common.js page.

• mw.loader.load('//tools.wmflabs.org/wikidata-todo/autodesc.js');

Many hardcore Wikidatians do not yet know about this little tool. Once they find out how useful this is, they will not go back to adding descriptions but they will add the missing statements that identify the items in any language. Like me they will consider this an obvious improvement in the Wikidata user experience.

Thanks,

       GerardM