Freebase Contribution Guidelines : Help

Please do contribute to Freebase. You can upload data, add pieces of information ad hoc, edit entries that are inaccurate or incomplete and participate in discussions. Just bear in mind a few common-sense guidelines.

Data Guidelines

In general, any data that might be of interest to other people and that you have the right to use is appropriate for Freebase. Examples of the kind of data that’s great to upload or add include:

Information about people
Information about locations
Information about books, films, albums or video games (Freebase doesn’t have storage for the media files themselves; you can, however, add links to other sites that make them available)
Information about products
Information about organizations, including businesses, non-profits, political groups
Scientific data
Sports data
Financial data
Government data

For more ideas, check out the Freebase Domains & Types . In addition, if you see an error or an omission, feel free to rectify the data. If you think a piece of information is possibly open to debate (for example, James Bond’s birth date), start a discussion thread about it.

Of course, a few things aren’t cool. Mistakes are understood, but repeated violations can lead to having your account suspended. Examples of what not to add or upload include:

Data or images that are not in the public domain nor available under the Creative Commons Attribution license , or for which you do not have the rights. (As per our Terms of Service , anything you upload to Freebase becomes available to others under the CCA license.)
Data that you know is inaccurate or false.
Data that’s strictly personal. Everything in Freebase should have lasting value to a group of people who may not know one another. Collections like to-do lists or trip expenses aren’t appropriate.
Data that’s offensive. Freebase doesn’t censor content. The system does, however, provide tools to help Freebasers remove information that’s contextually inappropriate, including pornography (particularly in user photos), spam and other explicit content.

For more information on data rights, check out Licensing Explained .

Discussion Guidelines

All of the topic pages on Freebase and most of the other pages have a place for you to start or join a discussion with other users, including Metaweb staffers. That’s no accident! Comments and discussion are encouraged - particularly those relating to schemas or the data itself. You’re not limited to such specifics, however: if you want to talk about the awesomeness of Lauryn Hill or the history of the Washington Senators or the salinity of Red Sea, the topic pages are also the perfect place to do so.

No matter the discussion, please keep your comments respectful and thoughtful. In addition, in the discussions, a handful of the usual things are off-limits and may result in the removal of a comment or, for repeated offenses, the suspension of your account. Examples of what not to post include:

Attacks on other Freebasers. If you have an issue with something somebody said, keep the comments focused on the topic, not your fellow discusees.
Inflammatory comments intended to bait others. Heated exchanges are great; arguing for the sake of provoking others is not. Trolls won’t be tolerated.
Spam. A message filled with links and little comment tends to smell like spam—which will have a short shelf-life on Freebase.
Search-engine bait. Gratuitous external links often look like attempts to manipulate search engines. Link carefully and make sure your legitimate intent is clear.

If you have feedback for Metaweb that you don’t want to share with the general public, consider sending a message via the Feedback form . Those messages go directly to staffers.

Two Bonus Notes

First, if you want to test out contributions of any kind, consider making your experiment on Sandbox . Every Monday, we overwrite Sandbox with data from Freebase.com, so any changes you make there are temporary.

Second, as Freebase evolves, these guidelines probably will, too. We reserve the right to make them more specific if necessary. If you’d like to see a change, start a discussion thread here or send feedback .

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