User:BanyanTree/Work/Image links
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The fact that it is so difficult to make clicking on images do something by send you to the image description page is not an accident. If the Wikimedia Foundation wanted to encourage image linking, the Mediawiki software would simply allow the <a href="LINK"> markup to work.
This is an attempt to record limitations and prohibitions on Wikipedia (and Wikimedia Foundation projects in general) of link-wrapped images. It is not a policy proposal, but an attempt to write down implications from licensing, as well as some of the arguments made about accessibility and use.
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[edit] Sources
- Bug 539: Allow images that link somewhere other than the image page, Bugzilla
- Template talk:Click
- Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/2006 December 17#Template:Click
- Bug 1227: Image map support, Bugzilla
[edit] The GFDL prohibition
The GNU Free Documentation License, under which Wikipedia runs, requires that contributions be attributed to the contributor. A link taking the user who clicks on an image anywhere besides the image description, where the uploader, licensing, source, etc are available, is a violation of the GFDL. The same for turning image description pages into redirects. Don't do it. End of story.
[edit] Exceptions
- Clear exception: The GFDL does not prohibit image linking in cases of images that are in the public domain or when their license has expired.
- Less clear exception: Image linking of Wikimedia copyrighted images to Wikimedia projects is not controversial as permission is implicit. For example, the Wikipedia globe in the upper left corner goes to Main Page, while the logos of the other projects on the Main Page also go the Main Pages of those projects.
- Arguable: Linking an image that goes to a page where that image is present, and through which the image description page is available, is OK, as the attribution trail is still fairly obvious. For example, linking the image used in the featured article of the day blurb on the Main Page to that featured article is OK, as long as the exact same image is used in the article itself.
[edit] Breaks user expectations
The default for images is "when you click on an image, you go to its description page". An image link breaks that expectation, creating confusion as to when clicking on an image will take you to its description and when it will take you somewhere else. Linking images is bad design on Wikipedia.
[edit] Hack solutions break accessibility
It is possible to work around the lack of Mediawiki support with CSS coding. (See Template:Click.) However, the CSS hack does not work in the Safari browser, in text-only browsers, and in screen readers for the disabled. A page using this hack breaks Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines.
[edit] What to do?
Go to Bugzilla's post Bug 539: Allow images that link somewhere other than the image page and let the developers know that you feel that a solution is important and what sort of solution you want. (Note that the devs cannot change the GFDL.)
