Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Moving free images to Wikimedia Commons

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This article is part of WikiProject Moving free images to Wikimedia Commons, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed set of images on the Commons. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.

Contents 1 Some images not to be moved to commons 2 Project directory 3 Why not a simple image URL redirect? 4 Wikipedia Day Awards 5 Barnstar discussion 6 CommonsHelper Helper

[edit] Some images not to be moved to commons

I believe that some free images, those used just for a userpage, aren't meant to be moved to the Commons. If this is correct, we should mention it on the project page.--Commander Keane 19:44, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Why not? If they're on a userpage, it's even more reason to move to Commons, since it's still a free image, but it's wasting space on Wikipedia (and people with images only on their userpage will get their RfA opposed by Masssiveego for having orphan images). There's no real reason I can think of not to have it accessible from all projects instead of just this one.

Yep, ok, all free images are should be moved to the Commons.--Commander Keane 20:34, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Really? Even something like a boring self-portrait? Phr 12:19, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Thinking about this a little further, I agree with Commander Keane's original post that a userpage photo (I'm thinking of a self-portrait of the user) should not be moved to Commons even if it's GFDL. See model release for the issues. Basically, the photographer's copyright is just one issue in deciding when it's legal to use a picture. The other is privacy-related. Basically it's ok to use a photo of John editorially in an article about John (John's userpage would qualify), but not in some other context like an advertisement. Commons is basically a big gallery and might not qualify as editorial use. There has been some discussion of this over at Village Pump on Commons in the past few months. Phr 12:38, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

I agree also that we should move all free images to commons, except the unencloypedic orphans images like personal photos not used anywhere, they should go to WP:IFD , most other wikis does that, moving all free images to commons --Jaranda ^{wat's sup} 20:53, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

Hello, just a note to please apply an extremely critical eye to allegedly "free" images here before uploading them at the Commons. This project is a good chance to catch many of the dodgily sourced and licensed images here (I have noticed there are a very good many). If you have any doubts please don't upload to the Commons (send to IfD) because it will just create unnecessary duplication for Commons admins.

Also check out the Commons Helper. And pleeeeeeease add categories to your uploads. :) Thanks -- pfctdayelise (translate?) 05:28, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 13:59, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why not a simple image URL redirect?

--Timeshifter 00:08, 3 December 2006 (UTC). It would be so much easier if there was a single link on any wikipedia image page that would transfer the image to the wikimedia commons. Even easier, why isn't a bot doing this now? I find all the scattered instructions for transferring images from wikipedia storage to wikimedia storage to be mind-boggling in difficulty. Aren't we mainly talking about changing, and/or copying, the image URL from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:filename.png

to

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:filename.png

All the work for most of the images has already been done. I mean the work of getting the author permissions (or public domain, etc.), uploading various versions of the image, providing details of the image and the camera, etc., etc.. Sounds like a simple redirect to me.

Instead of a redirect, another possibility is for a simple bot that would go through certain approved wikipedia image categories and create another copy of the image on wikimedia. The bot could leave a notice on the old wikipedia image page with the URL for the image copy on wikimedia commons. If the commons image has the same filename, then when the wikipedia image is deleted, the wikimedia commons image automatically replaces it.

The only reason to keep the wikipedia image is if the bot didn't also copy all the revision history and image description info, along with the permissions info. So the key to make this work in a big way is for the bot to copy all the info, too. Not just the image.

If the wikimedia image copy has a different filename, then by the bot leaving the new URL, people would know that they could manually replace the image URLs on wikipedia pages if they so chose. Or... A different bot could be sent around to replace all the old wikipedia image URLs with the new wikimedia image URLS. In the Frontpage website editor I can change image URLs in many web pages all at once on my websites, and then upload the changed pages. Why can't this be done for Wikipedia pages? It should be easy in wikipedia pages since the wikipedia image page lists all the pages using that particular image. The bot could be sent to just those pages needing the image URL changed.

Why are people allowed to load images to wikipedia at all anymore? Why not block that, and only allow future image uploading to the wikimedia commons? --Timeshifter 00:08, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

There are several reasons:

• Wikipedia allows fair use images, while Commons does not.
• the Single User Login (SUL) is still awaiting implementation, which means that currently Wikipedia users have to sign up separately to Commons. If there was an automatic redirect this would be confusing and unexpected.
• Wikipedia contains many images that have poor or weak licensing claims. Transferring them to Commons is an ideal time to review their claims and turf (delete) the ones that don't hold up (of which there are many).
• Instructions are all over the place because that seems to be what happens when you write instructions on a wiki. Help on every single topic is like this - scattered. cheers, pfctdayelise (talk) 05:13, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. I did not know about fair-use images being allowed on Wikipedia only. Maybe only fair-use images should be allowed into wikipedia anymore. When people try to upload other images maybe they should get a message telling them they have to use the commons? Because people are uploading images to wikipedia with public domain (or similar) permissions but the robots are not correctly identifying them when others like me upload the same images to the commons. Even though I fully explained the source of the image as coming from wikipedia where the public-domain permission was clear. Since it came from the author of the image there. --Timeshifter 05:47, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

I explain the specifics here in the section titled "Bot incorrect in failing set of images for commons." --Timeshifter 06:36, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 19:00, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Barnstar discussion

Please see this discussion about possibly adding a Barnstar for people who make simultaneous contributions to Wikipedia and Commons. We welcome your thoughts. Johntex\^talk 15:21, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

• I second this. --evrik ^(talk) 15:51, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] CommonsHelper Helper

I have created a user script called CommonsHelper Helper to speed up the process of moving images with CommonsHelper by doing everything inline on the image edit page. It's personally helped me out a lot in my own image moving endeavors and I would like to invite others to try it out! — Krimpet (talk/review) 23:00, 17 March 2007 (UTC)