[Data-modeling] Domain/Type equivalent Topics

[Dan Milbrath]

Hi there Freebase modelers.

We've had this bizarre type in Freebase for a while: 
http://www.freebase.com/view/filter?id=/freebase/equivalent_topic
Which often generates the reaction: "Huh?"

The idea was to allows admins to link a domain and/or type to a topic. It was originally conceived for three purposes:
1) a way to link a topic to a domain or type
2) a way to help people understand the relationship between topics and domains and types in Freebase
3) a way to help improve the ranking of Domains and Types in search results 

At this point, we're not using it for reason #3, and I'm not sure its providing anymore clarity to address reason #2. So the question is whether its valuable at all?

Conceivably, the content of these topics could be used to document types or domains -- but there are as many cases where that probably wouldn't work so well. For instance, the text for the topic 'person' and the type 'person' probably shouldn't be combined. See: http://www.freebase.com/view/en/person versus http://www.freebase.com/view/people/person

So if we keep them separate, it is useful to link them? 

Does anyone find the relationship illuminating in this case? 
http://www.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000000016b94
http://www.freebase.com/view/film
http://www.freebase.com/view/film/film
http://www.freebase.com/search?limit=30&start=0&query=film

My guess is that we're still generating the reaction: "Huh?"
My inclination would be to do away with the type, but would definitely encourage feedback on the idea.


Thanks
Dan (danm)