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View Poll Results: The Artist Biography Field - Should we permit borrowing from other public sources?
Yes 4 50.00%
No 4 50.00%
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  #1  
Old Feb 18, 2013, 07:51 AM
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Default The Artist Biography Field - Should we permit borrowing from other public sources?

So our artist pages have a biography field which was provided so that editors could write a short paragraph containing some basic biographical information. At times, editors have posted biographies that were lifted from other sites. We have been able to figure out when this happens and reject the edit.

However, recently there were some "sourced" edits. For example:

http://vgmdb.net/artist/9797

Here, the text is clearly marked as coming from Wikipedia (EN), and the link is provided in the references.

My question is, how would you feel about allowing this kind of sourced information in the bio field? It is clear that we are probably never going to write biographies for the majority of these entries, so opening it up a little might be an option. Obviously we would need to set some stricter guidelines. Also, we need to keep in mind that this goes both ways, and I would want any editor who takes text from en.wikipedia to make sure that it's accurate and properly sourced according to their guidelines, and fix it there if it is not.
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  #2  
Old Feb 18, 2013, 07:59 AM
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Yes. Though instead of simply marking where it came from there should be a way to link to the source.

By the way, you could add a poll to this thread too.
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  #3  
Old Feb 18, 2013, 08:05 AM
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I'd remove or merge it with the Note field, if we have to copy and paste stuff from Wikipedia. I like and respect them Wikipedia, and occasionally refer to them even during my submission, but for whatever reason I don't like a complete outsourcing to other websites. Just my opinion. If it's SEMO or such I'd say otherwise.

The biography fields are definitely underused, and perhaps we don't need them that much, in the first place - with little submission in 7 years, it's apparent. My opinion remain the same.
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  #4  
Old Feb 18, 2013, 08:10 AM
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Remove the bio field (if it wasn't empty, the text could be migrated to the notes).
Who wants to read bio, there are always wiki, artist's own page and other links provided.
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  #5  
Old Feb 18, 2013, 08:15 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille View Post
I'd remove or merge it with the Note field
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille View Post
The biography fields are definitely underused, and perhaps we don't need them that much, in the first place - with little submission in 7 years, it's apparent
+1

If there's anything that needs removal, it's this, not the related albums panel.
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  #6  
Old Feb 18, 2013, 08:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille
Or we could merge the note and biography, since the biography field has been (and will be) basically underused. I myself often am less than sure where to put some trivial information.
I agree, why having two fields that could give any artist info when you can have only one

edit: same remark for label and product
however, I wonder if keeping description won't be better than keeping info

Last edited by Phonograph; Feb 18, 2013 at 08:34 AM.
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  #7  
Old Feb 18, 2013, 08:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cedille
with little submission in 7 years, it's apparent
No, there's been little submission in 7 years because outsourcing is not allowed. Because outsourcing is not allowed it became normal not to bother submitting a bio. When I first started submitting artists I just ignored it because that's what everyone else did. If outsourcing had been allowed from the start, I'm sure there would a greater number of bios.

Oh, and I agree with merging with the notes field.
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  #8  
Old Feb 18, 2013, 07:15 PM
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+1 to removing the biography field and merging it with the note field. The biography is like a more strict note field, anyway. Besides, what exactly constitutes and meets the criteria for posting biographical information if not from other website sources? It's not like we can Q&A every artist or every artist has a biography written about them, or even an official website, which tends to changes as the years go by anyway. The biographical information in inserts is constantly changing, too, if they're even available.
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  #9  
Old Feb 19, 2013, 07:18 AM
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Relying on Wikipedia, where many more obscure artists get removed for being not notable enough, is no good idea.

I think the question should rather be: What kind of information should the biography/notes field contain? Plenty information is already covered by other fields, the involvement in works without releases is essentially lists war stuff that doesn't fit in there. If there are enough read worthy biographical articles elsewhere, maybe that should be added as links as an own section in the Websites box instead?
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  #10  
Old Feb 19, 2013, 07:40 AM
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"Submitting" a bio would be just a copy & paste 95% of the time. Is that really needed? Even modyfing... slight retelling, so to speak, would be also a waste of time. Next, many of the biographies present on the artists' own websites are more or less subjective, have maybe too much praising, lack neutral view etc. and that is completely understandable. But it isn't quite acceptable even as straight quoting for this database (always had a problem with advertising style).

So really why all the copy & paste when you have a link to the external sites for those who are interested to find out more.
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  #11  
Old Feb 23, 2013, 07:46 AM
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So, it looks like we don't have overwhelming support for outsourcing biography information. Furthermore, most people want the biography removed, and the information merged with the Notes field.

Do you want the notes field to stay on the bottom? If so, we will remove the bio box and the discography box will slide up.
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  #12  
Old Feb 23, 2013, 08:32 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel View Post
...

Do you want the notes field to stay on the bottom? If so, we will remove the bio box and the discography box will slide up.
actually, the right question could be: if you're an artist page with a lot of albums listed, where do you want to have description/notes?

better on top, better on bottom or other choice?
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  #13  
Old Feb 23, 2013, 09:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel View Post
Do you want the notes field to stay on the bottom? If so, we will remove the bio box and the discography box will slide up.
To be honest, I never even knew about the notes field at the bottom of the page after all these years until reading this thread. Probably because I rarely scroll past the "Featured On" section.
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  #14  
Old Feb 23, 2013, 09:14 AM
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Definitely would rather have it at the top. I had a feeling people did overlook it currently (^). I'd change the label, though - maybe to "biography / notes" or something, since it probably won't always be just notes.
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  #15  
Old Feb 23, 2013, 09:20 AM
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Only "Notes" would be fine, just not the biography thing again lol
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  #16  
Old Feb 23, 2013, 09:25 AM
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or a plain "Information", huh maybe too plain
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  #17  
Old Mar 3, 2013, 04:08 PM
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It is done. The Biographies and Notes have been combined into one field at the top. Let me know what you think before it becomes an irreversible change.
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