Wikispooks:Semantic Properties

Properties are the units of the data held by Semantic Mediawiki. i.e. They are to the semantic data language what <B>,<i> etc are to HTML. Fortunately, their number is not limited so it is possible to define new properties as and when needed. Currently, 262 properties are in use on Wikispooks and one more is subject for discussion.

Stability

Wikispooks currently has 263 properties of 4 types:

13 Category:Special Properties	Built-in to Semantic Media Wiki. Cannot be changed.
114 Category:Stable Properties	Working as planned and will be permanent features of this wiki - though the names may yet change.
135 Category:Experimental Properties	In use but not necessarily working properly and subject to possible change.
1 Category:Mooted Properties	Not yet used, awaiting feedback before implementation.

New Properties

Be careful when creating new properties. They are easy to make, but annoying to remove. Having too many is in some ways worse than having too few, so before defining a new property you should first check that it is not a duplication of an existing property. If you believe that there is a real need for it, moot the idea by making a using template:property to make a property page explaining the idea. Then await feedback from others. See Special:Properties for an illustration of what can happen.

Naming Conventions

Naming conventions for new properties are still evolving as SMW has only been in use on Wikispooks since Autumn 2013. The general approach seems to adopt names of the form "VERB NOUN", where "VERB" is most commonly in the 3rd person of the present tense. e.g. "Has author". Currently, (apart from the special properties, which cannot be renamed) they are mostly of the form "Has_XXX". The exceptions are listed below as a precursor to their systematisation:

Born on Constitutes Description Died on End

Exposed Inspired Involves Is about Is draft

Has WS page Occurred on Sourced from Start Victim of

Suggestions for naming conventions are welcome on the talk page.

Display Properties

One shortcoming of Semantic Mediawiki is that while displaying semantic information in table form is very easy, processing it before displaying it is not so easy. This difficulty is circumvented by doing the processing beforehand and storing the result in semantic properties. These properties are called 'Display Properties'. They are easily distinguished from ordinary properties since they take the form "display_XXX".

Boolean Properties

A few of the properties can take boolean values. These are easily distinguished since they have names of the form "is_XXX".

Official Narrative Properties

These are for describing the official narrative where it diverges from the apparent evidence. They are all prefixed "ON_" and all have a counterpart without that prefix. Like the official narrative itself, their use is not necessarily clear cut. For example, if a False Flag Attack is admitted, the official narrative, by definition, changes. However, continuing to use the "ON_" property to describe the original official narrative is probably sensible, especially if the admission is not widely known.

Importing Vocabularies

Semantic MediaWiki does support the importing and reuse of vocabularies from elsewhere by associating the vocabulary's elements with wiki terms. This is a Good Thing and so once the technical hurdles are overcome, Wikispooks will try to match as many of its existing properties as possible with external vocabularies, particularly ones which are already widely used, such as FOAF and Dublin Core

• Semantic Mediawiki on importing vocabularies

See Also

• The SMW reference page on user-defined (i.e. non-special) properties

References

Semantic Mediawiki

Semantic Objects Semantic Templates SMW Best Practice Semantic Properties Semantic Forms SMW Known Issues