VIAF cluster ID identifier for the Virtual International Authority File database [format: up to 22 digits]; please note: VIAF is a cluster, the ID can include multiple items
Please notify projects that use this property before big changes (renaming, deletion, merge with another property, etc.)
Error reports
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Seeen:Wikipedia:VIAF/errors. Please note that VIAF retrieves Wikidata mappings periodically and rebuilds their clusters based on that (at least for items about persons). VIAF identifiers can be merged based on that or component moved to other VIAF identifiers.
Ideally this information should be moved to the item for the reference and be transcluded from there.
The VIAF ID is linking to the wrong item, it's for something in a completely different country. VIAF originally had a different (probably correct) ID but changed it for some reason.
Latest comment:10 months ago3 comments2 people in discussion
VIAF consists of clusters that are continuously improved and reorganized. Imho we should change the name of this property from "VIAF ID" to "VIAF cluster ID" to clarify this. --Kolja21 (talk)19:18, 10 January 2025 (UTC)Reply
Support I don't know about "improved", but yes, each is an ID of an automated cluster it doesn't represent any "real" world entity, e.g. human, but just a cluster, as opposed to the items in the cluster which represent such things. So the relation between a real world entity and the VIAF cluster ID can change more often and does so.Heinrich Frankfurt (talk)20:23, 10 January 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment:10 months ago2 comments2 people in discussion
The search results no longer include the source indicator icons. This makes them considerably harder to assess. Has someone a contact there who could raise this? Another option would be that Wikimedia provide a search interface instead.e22:07, 12 January 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment:10 months ago3 comments3 people in discussion
So along the other changes, it seems now that IDs are completely retired and don't redirect to other clusters (example). I hope this is just temporary, otherwise it's a really bad idea. --Jahl de Vautban (talk)17:31, 18 January 2025 (UTC)Reply
Yes, both redirected and abandoned clusters seem to have been superseded by a generic "Page or resource not found!" i.e. error 404; the same error also happens when one searches for a VIAF ID which never existed. This is highly problematic as it doesn't ensure that the cluster IDs are permanent (they have never been, but at least with redirected and abandoned clusters it was easy to reconstruct the mutations ...).Epìdosis18:15, 18 January 2025 (UTC)Reply
I think P813 on deprecated clusters is very useful and in the last months I started using it systematically; for non-deprecated clusters I think it would be a good idea in principle, but I'm unsure about its feasibility, unless we decide e.g. that a bot passes and adds it on the basis of the page history (but would it be really worth?).Epìdosis10:26, 1 February 2025 (UTC)Reply
Notifiedparticipants of WikiProject Data Quality As many know, our coverage of VIAF on items that are notinstance of(P31)human(Q5) is very bad, both in terms of low coverage and of imprecise coverage; many "Geographic Names" and "Corporate Names" VIAF clusters are conflated and this doesn't help, but also in the case of good clusters, the Wikidata items linking to them are often plainly wrong, and this usually depends on a (present or past) wrong clusterization by VIAF itself. A good way to spot wrong matches is looking at some items which should never, or almost never, link to VIAF: I have cleaned in the last days more than 60 cases of P214 in items beinginstance of(P31)Mars crater(Q1475691), all completely wrong (some examples:Ome,Aki,Swanage,Maidstone), and I have moved them to the correct item if easily understandable (in most of the cases, fortunately, it was easy). I will report here other cleaned instances. --Epìdosis19:11, 8 February 2025 (UTC)Reply
Support I don't know about "improved", but yes, each is an ID of an automated cluster it doesn't represent any "real" world entity, e.g. human, but just a cluster, as opposed to the items in the cluster which represent such things. So the relation between a real world entity and the VIAF cluster ID can change more often and does so.Heinrich Frankfurt (talk)20:23, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
Notifiedparticipants of WikiProject Data Quality As many know, our coverage of VIAF on items that are notinstance of(P31)human(Q5) is very bad, both in terms of low coverage and of imprecise coverage; many "Geographic Names" and "Corporate Names" VIAF clusters are conflated and this doesn't help, but also in the case of good clusters, the Wikidata items linking to them are often plainly wrong, and this usually depends on a (present or past) wrong clusterization by VIAF itself. A good way to spot wrong matches is looking at some items which should never, or almost never, link to VIAF: I have cleaned in the last days more than 60 cases of P214 in items beinginstance of(P31)Mars crater(Q1475691), all completely wrong (some examples:Ome,Aki,Swanage,Maidstone), and I have moved them to the correct item if easily understandable (in most of the cases, fortunately, it was easy). I will report here other cleaned instances. --Epìdosis19:11, 8 February 2025 (UTC)