[Data-modeling] Proposed changes to Deity properties

[Iain Sproat]

I love the folklore base!
but you are right, there are many issues with boundaries.
When typing Yeti and Bigfoot as Mythical creatures, I came across another
similar type in the Mystery base
http://mystery.freebase.com/view/base/mystery/cryptid_classification

Iain

On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 5:53 AM, Ed Laurent <spatial.db at gmail.com> wrote:

> While y'all are thinking about this topic of deities and religions, I
> thought I'd mention that Aztec mythology and Roman mythology topics are
> typed as fictional universes.
>
> http://www.freebase.com/view/en/roman_mythology
> http://www.freebase.com/view/en/aztec_mythology
>
> Although I belong to neither religion (not that there's anything wrong with
> that), to me this sets bad precedent. Maybe these topics just need to be
> retyped and/or renamed, but there was something about the combination of
> topic/type names/descriptions that led to this judgment.
>
> Equally judgmental, I created a Folklore base as a Sanctuary (pardon the
> geeky scifi pun) for holding "mythical creatures" that don't fit existing
> models. Some of these topics could probably be moved into various religion
> bases as they develop. To help this along, I added an "area of occurrence"
> property as a way of aggregating creatures spatially so that other
> commonalities might be easier to identify.
>
> http://folklore.freebase.com/
>
> Combined, this gets me wondering where the lines are drawn among religion,
> folklore, mysteries, and fictional universes in Freebase... Fictional
> universe seems the easiest for setting defined boundaries and perhaps those
> distinctions should be made clearer in its description.
>
> -Ed
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 7:38 PM, Jeff Fry <jfry at metaweb.com> wrote:
>
>> Kirrily Robert wrote:
>> > We could just change the display name, which isn't even a schema
>> > change.  I'd fully support this.  I prefer "Religion(s) that worship
>> > this deity".
>> >
>> > K.
>> >
>> Yes, the display name was all I was talking about changing here, and I'm
>> happy to go with "Religion(s) that worship this deity", unless someone
>> wants to discuss this further.
>>
>> What about a property for spheres of influence? This applies more to
>> polytheistic deities, but it looks like folks have been looking for a
>> place to enter this sort of info.
>>
>> > On Mar 5, 2009, at 4:01 PM, Jeff Fry wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >> I just noticed a pile of topics that had been mistyped as religions,
>> >> including: Fire, Commerce, Wine, and Spring. Looking at Fire
>> >> <http://www.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f800000000000ece0>I
>> >> couldn't understand why this happened  ...Until I drilled into Vulcan
>> >> <http://www.freebase.com/view/en/vulcan>. Asserting that he is a
>> >> "Deity
>> >> of" Fire is quite reasonable, and the fact that we expect a Religion
>> >> here isn't obvious.
>> >>
>> >> It seems like we need to (a) give the deity_of property a less
>> >> ambiguous
>> >> name, and possibly also (b) add a new property to capture things like
>> >> that Vulcan is a fire god -- possibly something like "Sphere(s)" or
>> >> "Domain(s)" with an ECT like "Religious Sphere".
>> >>
>> >> As far as (a) my first inclination is to name the property "Diety Of
>> >> (Religion)". Another option: "Religion(s) That Worship This Deity",
>> >> which follows the grammar of "People of this ethnicity:",
>> >> "Organizations
>> >> in this sector:", etc...though it's a longer name.
>> >>
>> >> For (b) I'll propose a new property named Sphere with an ECT of
>> >> Religious Sphere. This would enable, say, a view of fire gods across
>> >> religions.
>> >>
>> >> If this sounds good to folks I'll go ahead and make these changes.
>> >> Thoughts?
>> >>
>> >> Jeff
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
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