User:Pigsonthewing/A Modest Proposal for Storing Data

The scene: an IT start-up office


 * IT geek
 * Hey boss! I finished that new database you wanted me to work on. Sorry it's a bit late, but there was an awful lot to do.


 * Powerful Boss
 * No worries, at least it's here now. Show me how it works.


 * ITG
 * Just enter your username and password in these two boxes


 * PB
 * OK, that was easy. Looks good, too. What now.


 * ITG
 * Let's think of a scenario...


 * PB
 * I know, let's assume one of our clients has just got a Twitter account


 * ITG
 * OK. Call up their page, and simply enter their account name here...


 * PB
 * Like this?


 * ITG
 * Yes, then hit save...


 * PB
 * OK, that was easy.


 * ITG
 * Hang on you're not done yet. Click this tab...


 * PB
 * Er, OK


 * ITG
 * And enter it again here, and save.


 * PB
 * Really? OK...


 * ITG
 * And on this tab...


 * PB
 * Er...


 * ITG
 * and on this tab. And this one.


 * PB
 * What?!?


 * ITG
 * And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And this one. And...


 * PB
 * For goodness sake! How many times do I have to enter this?


 * ITG
 * Depends (mumble)


 * PB
 * Speak up!


 * ITG
 * Up to...


 * PB
 * Yes?


 * ITG
 * Up to three hundred.


 * PB
 * You are kidding me!


 * ITG
 * Don't forget to check that they're all holding the same value...


 * PB
 * *splutter*


 * ITG
 * ...and to update all of them if the value changes.


 * PB
 * YOU'RE FIRED

And that, folks, is why we need to store things on Wikidata. Not just people's Twitter accounts, but official website URLs, identifiers, dates, etc. And not type them in three hundred times, once or each Wikipedia. And Wikisource, And Wikispecies. And...

And why we need to store citation metadata once, instead of hundreds of times in each Wikipedia. For 300 Wikipedias..

Just like we store images once, on Wikimedia Commons, and not on every Wikipedia.

See also: Do not repeat yourself.