Commons talk:Picture of the Year/2006/Archived preparatory discussion

POTY implementation

•  Info I believe a concensus for the implementation of the POTY contest is already taking form. Please see the stub of the new page here: Picture of the Year 2006 -- Alvesgaspar 13:38, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • The nominations should also be signed to make clear they are not selfnoms and that everybody nominates only one pic. --Dschwen 13:49, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
    • About the name of the page, go ahead, you are much more knowledgeable about this place than me. As for the nominations, there is no harm in puting pictures in the gallery even if they have zero votes. We can't insert all the FP because they are too many! - Alvesgaspar 13:55, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

•  Comment regarding the rules, it says no anonymous or self nominations. Is it assumed that this also means no self votes? Just want to make it clear as it doesn't clarify if an image you created/uploaded gets nominated by someone else, you can then vote for it yourself. I would assume that no self nomination also means no self voting, but perhaps that needs to be made clear. Looks great by the way! Jnpet 01:30, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
• You are quite right, no self voting it's what I meant. By the way please feel free to improve the page, that is only a sketch. Alvesgaspar 09:12, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
• I started a list of suggestions at Commons:Picture of the Year/2006 for honoring the winners of the POTY contest - Alvesgaspar 11:51, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

POTY - List of things to do (please comment and add new items)

• Complete and improve introductory text on page. Need someone with a much better English than mine;

I've done some work on this. Happy to do more if there's anything else needed. --MichaelMaggs 09:54, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

• Decide on the honours to grant to winner. Here is a preliminary list of possibilities:
  • Picture posted at the begining of the Featured pictures page for one year.
  • Picture posted at Commons Main Page and at some Wikipedia Main Pages during an agreed period, depending on future negotiations with the administrators of those pages.
  • Publication of a short article about the author's work.
  • Grant of a specially designed barnstar to the author.
    • Our "official graphic designer", LadyofHats is already taking care of this - Alvesgaspar 15:05, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
• Decide on the announcements to make (How, where, when, how long?) and prepare the templates.
• Decide on the date of the event -- Alvesgaspar 13:10, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
  • What about 1-15 February (thank you Andy, Fir0002 and MichaelMaggs)? This should be enough to publicize the event and get more people involved. - Alvesgaspar 11:28, 14 January 2007 (UTC)- Alvesgaspar 11:28, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
• Decide on the type of election. Two possibilities
  • One single phase, the picture(s) with more votes wins;
  • Two phases: in the first the 10 pictures with more votes are nominated for the 2nd phase; in the second, the winner(s) is (are) elected among the 10 nominees. - Alvesgaspar 12:09, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
    • I would prefer two phases. Simonizer 12:27, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
    • Me too, it's more exciting - Alvesgaspar 13:02, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
    • Agreed. --MichaelMaggs 13:04, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
    • Two phases sounds good. --71.112.154.172 15:30, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Just one big winner?

• What about electing also 2 runners-up? - Alvesgaspar 12:09, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I Think, it would be nice to mention the second and the third place, too -- Simonizer 12:23, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Agreed. --MichaelMaggs 13:04, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Agree, what about awarding some barnstar to the 10 best (in the case we have a 2 phases election)?
    • Our "official graphic designer", LadyofHats is already taking care of this - Alvesgaspar 15:06, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I would support the idea of having mulitiple prizes. Instead of giving a ranking from 1 to 10 I suggest to make 4 to 5 categories with one or two prizes. Reason: It's easier to judge if pictures are somewhat similar. Suggested Categories could be (see german contest):

1. 'People (Portraits, Dance, Culture ...)
2. Nature (Landscapes, Animals, Flowers, Landmarks, ...)
3. Technics (Machines,
4. Architecture (Buildings, Bridges, )
5. Non photographic media (Maps, Coat of arms, ... )

• What do you think? --Ikiwaner 19:00, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
• I had the same idea last week (here) but later realized that it would be quite difficult to make the election fair. For example, it would be much easier to win in the category of Technics than in the category of Nature because there are much more Nature FP than Technics FP. The solution, joining different categories in groups with approximately the same mumber of pictures, would ruin the "thematic" nature of the competition. On the other hand, I like Simonizer's idea of organizing various thematic contests during the year: flowers, mountains, sea,... Alvesgaspar 23:37, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Great Idea Alvesgaspar. Arjun 22:57, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Criteria

• Limited to FP images from previous 12 months(ie 2006), are there any other limitations ie Self published, Photos only etc. Gnangarra 14:20, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
• IMO we should accept all FP - Alvesgaspar 19:47, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
  • But whats the point in awarding a barnstar to NASA? :-) --Dschwen 07:19, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Counting of votes

I've just done a test vote to see how it will work. Is it possible, I wonder, for a bot to add up the votes so that the thumbnails automatically have the correct number next to them? If this has to be done manually you can be sure it will get out of sync with the actual votes placed pretty quickly. --MichaelMaggs 17:21, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

• Yes, it would be nice but I haven't the slightest idea how to do it. Do you know any expert in html programming? - Alvesgaspar 17:39, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

User:Pfctdayelise seems pretty knowlegeable around here and might be a good port of first call.--MichaelMaggs 18:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

• Votes being placed pretty quickly is something I'm not expecting, but I hope to be wrong. I sent messages through the mailing lists of Commons, en:WP and pt:WP asking for comments and the result was nul. If the (lack of) reaction is the same with the election we'll have little more than our "regulars" voting. Any ideas for an effective publicity campaign? Alvesgaspar 20:10, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm certainly hoping for quite a few votes, especially once our publicity gets going. That's what we're aimng for isn't it? A bot would make voting significantly easier, and hence will increase the numbers. --MichaelMaggs 07:38, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

If you really want a bot, you need a bot writer. Try contacting w:User:Dragons flight, he has a bot that makes summaries of RfAs in progress. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 11:33, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, he seems to have just gone on an extended Wikibreak. --MichaelMaggs 18:20, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

• Assuming we have to work without a bot for the moment, is the voter expected not only to add the voting line but also to update the number of votes next to the relevant picture? That's not clear from the draft instructions. --MichaelMaggs 18:22, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
• I'm not sure. The fact is neither we can prevent nor obliging the voters to do it. The question is: should we have the vote counting for each picture visible or not? If we chose yes, we have to accept that it won't be always correct. Another problem is what to do with multiple votes. Should we strike those votes as soon as they are detected? And, in the case of having two votes by the same user, which one should we strike, the first or the second? - Alvesgaspar 00:10, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
• I think it's useful to have the votes showing next to each picture. If anyone votes twice, I'd strike the second vote as soon as we see it (and if we feel kind, let that person know via his or her talk page). --MichaelMaggs 07:54, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

  I see that showing the number of votes beside image numbers will be very confusive for voters, as they may take it easily by error as the number to use for their own vote. Make things simple: show only one number! Also, this would influence votes too much. Most probably, the vote numbers should be shown only in a separate page for results, where images could also be sorted by votes count.

  Personnally, I would have prefered a non-numeric designation (AA, AB, AC, ... AZ, BA, BB, ...) to avoid mixing vote numbers, ranks, ...Verdy p 14:15, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

  • I would leave the vote counting in the captions, even if it is a bit confusing and difficult to maintain up-to-date. This information, coupled with the possibility of changing the initial vote, might help avoiding dispersion of votes and arriving faster at a clear consensus. Remember that deciding by consensus (rather than by normal "democratic" voting) is typical of Wikipedia. - Alvesgaspar 19:46, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
  • PS - A separate list with the counting would also do. Once or twice a day one of us would go there and update the counting, leaving a note with the time it was done. Any other suggestions? - Alvesgaspar 20:44, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Voting System

If the sytem for voting is still up for consideration, this may be more effective if done as an approval vote and that votes not be started until a period for candiate nomination is complete. The existing proposal may lead to late entered candiates not getting re-reviewed by eariler voters. BTW, I'm rarely on commons, but very active on en: so thanks for the note of the mailing list(s). Xaosflux 05:52, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Note, I cross linked this to en:Wikipedia talk:Picture of the day, and it may help generate more traffic. Xaosflux 05:53, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm wary of making things too complex. Putting out an initial call for candidates before the main voting starts, and then expecting people to return later may be to much for some. I'd rather make all 2006 FPs automatic candidates. --MichaelMaggs 07:43, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I also rather see some other form of voting. I think we have way too few active users for the number of candidates. I believe approval voting, or multiple votes per user are a better idea. -- Bryan (talk to me) 19:34, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree we are likely to have too few votes. An initial approval vote would mean voters having to return three times (approval, stage 1, stage 2), which is asking too much. Would we get a better spread if we were to allow voters 3 votes each, either all of the same weight or even the ability to award 3 points for their most preferred image, 2 for the second and 1 for the third. Was that the sort of thing you had in mind?--MichaelMaggs 22:46, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Here's a better idea: in stage 1, voters can vote for up to 5 pictures they would like to see in the final. In the final, everyone gets one vote only. That would not only mean more votes to spread around, it would mean we can do away with the initial 'dummy' postings which, as Alvesgaspar says, might introduce some initial bias. --MichaelMaggs 09:04, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

 Support -- Bryan (talk to me) 09:55, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

 Support - A possible variation: each user has exactly 5 votes, which he can distribute any way he likes (including puting them all in one pic) - Alvesgaspar 10:19, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Possible, but allowing one vote only per image, max 5, means we get more images put up for consideration, so I prefer that. --MichaelMaggs 10:59, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Barnstars, medallions & etc

• [barnstar] sketches (you can click for a bigger view). remember you can exchange the elements, so if you like the first star with the green leaves. just say it.i will work on the second and third place medallions on the next days.-LadyofHats 04:40, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I moved your message with the barnstars to Commons talk:Picture of the Year/2006 for other people to comment. I think the barnstar should have a tag with something like "POTY 2006" - Alvesgaspar 09:09, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
• A tough job to decide; they are all very good. My favourite is probably the second row, second from right (yellow star with green wreath). --MichaelMaggs 14:22, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
• That's my favourit too. And there is a space, at the top, to put a ribbon with the lettering. - Alvesgaspar 14:48, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • well normally barnstars have no tag on the image, but in the text of the template. look at the gallery of Barnstar on commons-LadyofHats 17:16, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • And what if the barnstar is used without any template, like in the begining of featured articles? - Alvesgaspar 18:11, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
• [2nd place Barnstar/medallion] it would easier for me that you chose wichone you like before i do the third place, since it has to go on the same line. meanwhile i will do the rest "best 10"-LadyofHats 23:48, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I like the the first from the left on the 2nd row here. If the first place has a wreath, the 2nd and 3rd, probably should too. Uniform style so to speak. They all look good otherwise. Jnpet 06:00, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I also prefer the 1st from left, in the second row. But IMO the 2 stripes below should be green, not blue. And the "2" seems too big and too dark. LadyofHats, could you please prepare the 3 "final" versions so that we can use them in the publicity campaign? Alvesgaspar 13:24, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree with Alvesgaspar about all that. I also think that the text '2006' should appear somewhere, perhaps in quite small print, above or below the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place stars. --MichaelMaggs 15:48, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

• [here] are the last sketchs, from top to bottom they are first , second third place and the ribbon for the rest 7 -LadyofHats 02:59, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
• Nice work! For the 3 big prices I prefer the 2nd form left (but maybe with smaller numbers). For the 7 remaining (last row), I prefer the 3rd form left.- Alvesgaspar 10:05, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• • Here you got it :D-LadyofHats 14:03, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Excellent, I think it is OK. Please change "PODY" to "POTY". Also, don't you prefer a font a little fancier, like this one? - Alvesgaspar 14:11, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
    • Pictcha of da Yeah! Great design. How does a curved text below the logo look? --Dschwen 14:20, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
  • when using the kind of typo u used. it is not easy to read at the size you took, on example the top of the page. i can change it to any form you may like. -LadyofHats 14:33, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
• Excellent pictures! I would however prefer one with a transparent background; or at least for the template. -- Bryan (talk to me) 22:31, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

• 
• 
• 
• 

• I have prepared transparent versions of LadyfHeats barnstars and ribbon, with the tag "POTY 2006". Alvesgaspar 16:19, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Publicity campaign (how to attract the voters)

Can I suggest we collect ideas below? Volunteers for each task can then step forward.

• Post on Commons Main page. I have requested permission to do that on the Village Pump. --MichaelMaggs 12:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC) Done for the pages we have languages for. --MichaelMaggs 06:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
• Post on Commons Village Pump. Volunteer:-- --MichaelMaggs 12:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC) Done --MichaelMaggs 06:46, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
• Post on en:W Village Pump. Volunteer:--MichaelMaggs 18:40, 17 January 2007 (UTC) Done --MichaelMaggs 06:58, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
• Post on other language Village Pumps (please list individual names)
  • de: The templates are translated in German. I put information on Commons:Forum and asked for help to translate the voting pages --wau 13:21, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
  • es:
  • fr: I have translated the vote page and its templates. Verdy p 14:17, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
  • it:
  • ja:
  • nl: I can, if necessary also make up a message in French and German -- Bryan (talk to me) 19:38, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
  • pl:
  • pt: I will do that - Alvesgaspar 21:51, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
  • sv: I will do it - Fred Chess 11:46, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
• Post on interested user talk pages (eg Common FP voters over the last few months). Volunteer:--MichaelMaggs 18:40, 17 January 2007 (UTC) Invited virtually all the FP contributors over last couple of months --MichaelMaggs 23:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
• Invitations sent to the creators of 2006 FP - Alvesgaspar 18:10, 31 January 2007 (UTC) Done by Alvesgaspar
• Post on en:W Community Bulletin Board. Volunteer:--MichaelMaggs 18:40, 17 January 2007 (UTC) Done --MichaelMaggs 07:02, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
• Notify members and contributors to Wikipedia:WikiProject Photography. Volunteer:--MichaelMaggs 18:40, 17 January 2007 (UTC) Done --MichaelMaggs 07:16, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
• Contact external press outlets.
• Post on Commons POTD, FP and QI talk pages. Volunteer: >> Alvesgaspar 09:57, 24 January 2007 (UTC) done
• and on corresponding en:W talk pages and pt:W. Volunteer: >> Alvesgaspar 09:57, 24 January 2007 (UTC) done
• Message on en:MediaWiki:Watchdetails. Please drop me a line on my en: talk when ready for this, probally 1-3 days during each of the voting phases. Xaosflux 04:30, 23 January 2007 (UTC) Requested --MichaelMaggs 18:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
• Post on maillists foundation-l and commons-l -- Bryan (talk to me) 19:39, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
• Post on W:pt mailing list done Alvesgaspar 08:33, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
• MediaWiki:Sitenotice -- Bryan (talk to me) 09:28, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
• WikiZine -- Bryan (talk to me) 20:20, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Is anyone else prepared to help with some publicity? Please indicate above! --MichaelMaggs 14:18, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

• Till now, we have been just asking for opinions and help. But we also need to think of publicizing the event, i.e. to draw the attention of voters. For that, we need something more fancy than just posting a message. What about a nice template? Is there any expert among us? - Alvesgaspar 23:53, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
• What I meant by 'publicity campaign' was how to bring in voters once the poll opens, not how to attract more volunteers to help set it up. I've clarified the heading, and to avoid confusion removed your comments about asking for help setting this up. Hope that's OK.. --MichaelMaggs 07:51, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
• I will post the message to the mailinglists tomorrow. -- Bryan (talk to me) 20:20, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
• When the contest opens I will post about it in the commons sitenotice. We should also ask the larger wikipedias to put it up for a day or two on the watchlist-only site notice. --Gmaxwell 21:02, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I see Bryan mentioned the site notice above. If he doesn't then.. I will. :) --Gmaxwell 21:03, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
    • If you are online on 00:00 UTC, please do not hesitate to put it up :) -- Bryan (talk to me) 22:34, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
• I don't know where to put this, but I've posted at the Swedish Wikipedia village pump. / Fred Chess 11:59, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Picture of the Year - still on?

There has been little traffic on Commons:Picture of the Year/2006 recently. Are we still going to do this? If so, we need to decide the dates of the first and second rounds of voting, and make sure everything is ready to go (by 1st Feb?) I'm happy to help, but wouldn't want to do this on my own if no-one else has much interest. --MichaelMaggs 12:33, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Of course it is still on! The reason for my silence is that I don't like to impose my own ideas. But everyone seems to be waiting for others's initiative. So, I agree with you, lets go ahead and schedule the event. The 1st of February (at 0000 UTC) seems all right for starting the first round. But I'm not sure about the second, there is the possibilty of having too few votes at the end of the first phase. Maybe we should assign a period of n days (10, 15?), which could be extended if some minimal number of total votes is not reached (but how many: 50, 100?). (we need to make some clear rules on this and post them at the page of the election)

I'm also willing to collaborate in the preparation of the advertizing templates but there should be people more knowledgeable than me. About the barnstars: don't you think they should show the year? - Alvesgaspar 13:03, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Timing and procedure for the 'final'

I'm concerned we may not get enough votes to have a 'top-10' list, or that the top 10 may have only a couple of votes each. The rules ought to allow for that possibility.

Here's what I suggest. Do others agree?

• Stage 1 voting open from 1 Feb to 14 Feb (inclusive)
• Stage 2 voting open from 15 Feb to 28 Feb (inclusive)

At the end of stage 1, the top 10 images by number of votes will go forward to stage 2. Only images with 3 or more votes are eligible to go forward, and in the event that there are fewer than four eligible candidates, first, second and third places will be awarded based on the first stage voting alone .

I have added this to the project page, but am happy to change it if anyone has a better plan --MichaelMaggs 16:19, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree with everything except the last point. I think the 2nd phase should never be cancelled even if there were only 2 candidates Alvesgaspar 17:30, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, then. Let's go with that. I have changed the project page.--MichaelMaggs 22:42, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Adding some initial pictures

I think that to get voters going, we (ie anyone interested) should each select our top 5 or 10 and add them to the voting gallery. We can expect that some voters won't bother to go off and find an image of their own but will simply vote for an image that's there already. If we could start off with, say, 25-30 initial pictures, that should encourage voters to add more. --MichaelMaggs 16:34, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

But that inserts a (relevant) initial bias into the system. On the other hand, the first pictures added to the gallery by the voters have exactly the same effect. I'm not sure ... Alvesgaspar 16:47, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Not much bias if several of us do it, as all the top photos are likely to be put up by at least one of us. --MichaelMaggs 16:54, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, but I changed the selection a bit to represent all cathegories in the FP archive. - Alvesgaspar 21:37, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I had in mind all putting in our own top 5-10 so we end up with a fair number of the obvious candidates. Instead, most have mine have been overwritten! I'll add them back, as the more we have the less the bias will be toward any individual image. --MichaelMaggs 21:51, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, I also made a mistake (putting other year's pics) but it is fixed now - Alvesgaspar 21:57, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

A suggestion. Please ask the Wikimedia community for nominations. There are some good reasons to do it:

1. When people are involved, they gain an interest in the outcome and success of the competition
2. People from other languages can make voting templates for their languages
3. This gives the competition more advance publicity rather than starting with a vote right away

Fg2 07:00, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Award?

To me it's important to have a real award for such a contest. We had that in german Wikipedia contest. If we go public with this contest it could seem strange if the winner of the best of the best images just wins a label on his images page. I think of something like a manfrotto tripod or a panoramic head, somthing that even a very skilled photographer could use. The problem would be what to do if the winner is not reachable or dead (i.e. Image:Caspar_David_Friedrich_032.jpg). Who has connections to get such a award sponsor? --Ikiwaner 18:46, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree that that would be good, but we now have only two weeks, so whoever has the contacts should seek sponsorship quickly! --MichaelMaggs 20:14, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

One week left. Forget it. I'd say a voting in April is realistic. Find sponsors, write a press release, generate publicity (Signposts, Mailinglists, etc.) --Dschwen 14:44, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

One week is enough for a first (and discrete) try. I wouldn't insist on difficult things, like sponshorship and tangible prices for the winners, without a garantee that the event will have some sucess. Because there is still the possibility of being a complete fiasco I would consider this first election as a test from which we can learn for the future. As for the "press release", I suppose you are talking about writing a couple of articles to be posted in some wikipedias. I'll be glad to participate and write the Portuguese one. Don't you want to write the article for the German page?

About the "honours" for the winners, let me copy the list from above. Please comment:

• • Picture posted at the begining of the Featured pictures page for one year.
  • Picture posted at Commons Main Page and at some Wikipedia Main Pages during an agreed period, depending on future negotiations with the administrators of those pages.
  • Publication of a short article about the author's work.
  • Grant of a specially designed barnstar to the author.
    • Our "official graphic designer", LadyofHats is already taking care of this
    • There will be awards for the first 3 and also for the remaining 7 finalists

Alvesgaspar 17:59, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I'd rather tend to do it differently. We are a quite big organization. I do not think it will be a fiasko if we do it right since the echo on the german "Bilderwettbewerb" was quite high. Let's take some more time and answer these questions and there will be a bigger echo. A press release is not a Wikipedia article. It's a text you publish to all the media people worrldwide in each language. We have a big database of press contacts.

For publicity we could ask for a link on top of each Commons page like ther was some days ago for funrdaising. I think the echo would be bigger if we could hold a media conference presenting the winning images and photographers. This would require that we only accept nominations where a contact to the photographer can be established. This event could be an occasion to present Wikimedia Commons as a own project. Today we're still in Wikipedias big shadow. --Ikiwaner 21:35, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Those are all very good ideas, but I think we have to be practical about what's actually possible this time. The idea was floated several weeks ago and, as you can see, the number of helpers volunteering to set it up has been pretty small and by and large have been the 'usual suspects'. The list above of things to be done to bring in the voters has had virtually no volunteers. Let's by all means try to make a bigger and better thing of it next time, but we should go ahead as planned now. Apart from anything else, once we get to April who's going to be bothered to vote for a 2006 award? --MichaelMaggs 07:10, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

• Agreed. Please see the barnstar projects above (in "Barnstars, medallions & etc") and comment (we need to hurry!) - Alvesgaspar 10:07, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
  • This is my choice: . The POTY2006 tag is not part of LadyofHeats project, it was inserted by me. I still think the numbers "2" and "3" should be smaller. Alvesgaspar 12:26, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

These look good to me. Perhaps the 2 and 3 could be a bit smaller, but I don't feel strongly about it. --MichaelMaggs 13:30, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Press release / advertisement of POTY

Ok, lets quickly draft up something. Just feel free to modify the two sections below at will. --Dschwen 12:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

• Once we have something decent we can get to the translations (yes, I can do the german version). --Dschwen 12:40, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I have made some changes. I also removed the part that every user can candidate one picture, since every FP is automatically a candidate for POTY. -- Bryan (talk to me) 19:50, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Long version

For mailinglists etc

The Commons Picture of the Year 2006 will be chosen in February. Participate by voting for a picture out of the featured pictures promoted in 2006. Every Wikimedian has the option to vote for one image.

The election has two phases. In the first phase, taking place from 1st to 14th February 2007, the ten best pictures will be chosen among all 2006 Featured Pictures.

At the end of phase 1, the top 10 images by number of votes will go to phase 2 (the final). Only images with 3 or more votes are eligible for phase 2.

In the final, to take place from 15th Feb to 28th Feb, the Commons Picture of the Year 2006, and the two runners-up, will be selected from the eligible images.

The three winning pictures will be displayed on the Main Page and enter the History Books of Wikimedia Commons forever :-)

Short version

As a banner to include on WP pages

Participate in selecting the Commons Picture of the Year 2006. The first voting round is opened from February 1st to February 14th. The finals will take place from February 15th to February 28th.

when ready replace with: is open now till ...

• What about this one (only a sketch)? - Alvesgaspar 12:45, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Participate in the election of Commons Picture of the Year 2006 First phase is open 1-15 February

• If this is to appear on top of each page I think it is a bit too obstrusuive. --Dschwen 13:02, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
• Ahh, that would be really nice to have a banner at the top of every (some?) W project page and language (even if it has to be much sober than this one). But how we get to it? - Alvesgaspar 13:07, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
• I would prefer a transparent version on this template. -- Bryan (talk to me) 19:40, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Can we make the text more enticing? What about this? --MichaelMaggs 09:22, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• Good :) Except that purple is not my favorite color, but I can live with it. -- Bryan (talk to me) 09:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Interested in honouring the best of the best? Vote now in the Commons Picture of the Year competition 2006 Voting to select the finalists is open until 14th February. (All established editors can vote; you don't need a username on Commons)

• Better now. I asked LadyofHeats to make transparent version of the barnstars, all of them with the tag "POTY 2006". The one on the template was edidted by me and it is not the final- Alvesgaspar 10:23, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Who can vote ?

There is the real possibility of sockpuppeteeing or meat puppeteeing in the election, i.e., of someone creating new Commons usernames for the only purpose of supporting a particular candidate (that happened very recently with a FP nomination). For that reason I don’t think it is very smart to force all electors to be Commons users. Many will create new usernames only for the election and will not be able to distinguish the legitimate users from the others.

I think it is much better to allow all Wikipedians to vote, provided they are logged in and they have a minimum of edits (50 or 100) at the moment of the vote. This is a general Wikipedia rule used in elections and sensitive decisions. The only problem is the validation of the votes (during or after the election?) but there should be some simple way of doing that --- help needed from an administrator

I have created a new section in the election page, Who can vote? where the proposed rules are explained. - Alvesgaspar 10:14, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I changes Wikipedians to Wikimedians. I suggest that non-Commons users add a note to their talkpage on their home wiki I voted ... in the Commons POTY election and should a link to the diff on their vote here. I think this is not very much a sockpuppet attracting vote, but in case of doubt, we can always request a CheckUser. -- Bryan (talk to me) 15:48, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

• I'm not sure I understand your proposal. Maybe the best way is to force everyone to be logged-in as a Commons user. If it is an old account with >100 edits, no problem; if not, the new Commons:User will have to leave a note on his new Commons page linking to his home wiki. There, we will verify if he has >100 edits or not. I think this is a better way than my previous suggestion. Comments? - Alvesgaspar 16:48, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Yep, fine. But to identify, people need to leave a message on their home user page, using their home account that they are the same as here on Commons, not the other way round. -- Bryan (talk to me) 19:42, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I think the existing instructions on what exactly you need to do if you don't have a Commons username, or if you have fewer than 100 edits here, are confusing, especially for new users. There is reference both to posting a diff and also to linking from your Commons home page. Which is it to be? --MichaelMaggs 09:56, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• • Hi, by posting a message on your Commons page, there is no way that we can verify the truth. I can for example say on my Commons home page "I am w:User:MichaelMaggs." but if I say on my English page "I am commons:User:Bryan", we can verify by clicking on the author link in the diff that this was really posted by the same person. It is the same system used when someone requests his selfdesysop on meta. I agree it is worded a little vague, so please improve it. -- Bryan (talk to me) 10:02, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I agree, but there must be some way of getting to the users home page. Also I'm not sure the explanation on the "diff" entry is clear enough. I didn't understand it myself... Alvesgaspar 11:06, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Other languages versions of the POTY/2006 page

• I have modified the structure of the voting page in order to allow other languages' versions. All we have to do to create a new version is to translate the first 4 sections and insert the following at the end: {{Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/Voting phase 1}}, plus the links to other languages versions. Here is a list of possible languages. Volunteers?

• • en: done:Commons:Picture of the Year/2006
  • pt: done: Commons:Imagem do Ano/2006 - Alvesgaspar
  • fr: done: Commons:Image de l'année/2006 - Verdy p 14:18, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
  • de: done: Commons:Bild_des_Jahres/2006 - Dschwen 20:22, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
  • es: done: Commons:Imagen del año/2006 - ???
  • pl:
  • it: done: Commons:Immagine dell'Anno/2006 - ???
  • nl: done: Commons:Afbeelding van het jaar/2006 - ???
  • sv: done: Commons:Årets bild/2006 - Fred Chess
  • zh-hans: done: Commons:年度图片/2006 - Kallgan
  • zh-hant: done: Commons:年度圖片/2006 - ???

....

Just before the election we'll have to put all pages up-to-date in relation with the en version. Alvesgaspar 16:02, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

We especially need some es users to translate to es, as it is a very big language. -- Bryan (talk to me) 15:29, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

I've asked a couple of people. --MichaelMaggs 20:51, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

The language bars for the main and the Final instruction pages don't yet have Spanish as an option. It needs a Spanish speaker to do that, as the page names should also be in Spanish. --MichaelMaggs 20:58, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Inviting the creators for the competition

I've started posting a message at the usertalk pages of the 2006 FP's creators, inviting them to participate in the election. I will start with the January 2006 pics. Help is welcome. Here is the text:

The arrangements for the Commons Picture of the Year 2006 competition are almost complete, and voting will take place between 1st and 28th Feb. All the featured pictures promoted last year are automatically nominated. As the creator of one or more images nominated for the election we invite you to participate in the event. Alvesgaspar 19:52, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good. Remember that some of the users will have uploaded the image from elsewhere, rather than creating it themselves. --MichaelMaggs 20:19, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I know that, hélas... That is a problem we may have to deal with, I mean, some outsider wining the election... Alvesgaspar 21:36, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually, it may be better to wait before posting too many of these. If you do it now, users will see only an incomplete series of pages in English only, and they may not remember to come back in a week's time to vote. Why not do the postings on 1st Feb, or shortly after? I'll help if you like. --MichaelMaggs 22:35, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

You are right, I've already posted the period Jan-Apr but stop for now. - Alvesgaspar 23:26, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• It's done. All Wikipedian creators of the 2006 FP's have been personally invited. - Alvesgaspar 17:44, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

• • I think you might have missed some, ... unless you intentionally skipped me because you knew I knew. :) --Gmaxwell 17:46, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

• Oops, I apologize. I'll fix it right now. What is your pic, by the way? - Alvesgaspar 18:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Oh, I don't mind.. I was just worried that you might have missed other people. Image [Image:Ferrofluid_large_spikes.jpg|194] is my work, there might be another.. but I'm not sure. :) --Gmaxwell 18:20, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Translation help needed

Bryan has kindly converted one of the above templates into a multi-lingual banner for us. Could users help where possible, please, with translations? I've also done a second one, for the final.

• {{Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/banner}}
• {{Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/banner1}}

These display as shown below. --MichaelMaggs 20:39, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Templates for first round

en	Interested in honouring the best of the best? Vote now in the Commons Picture of the Year competition 2006 Voting to select the finalists is open until 14th February. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
de	Möchtest du die Besten der Besten wählen? Gib jetzt deine Stimme ab im "Commons-Bild des Jahres 2006"-Wettbewerb Die Wahl der Finalisten geht bis zum 14. Februar. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
es	¿Interesado en elegir al mejor de los mejores? Vota ahora en Concurso Commons 2006: Mejor Imagen del Año La votación para selecionar a los finalistas estará abierta hasta el 14 de febrero. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
fr	Voulez-vous aider à récompenser le meilleur du meilleur ? Venez maintenant voter dans le Concours de l’image Commons de l’année 2006 Le vote de sélection des finalistes est ouvert jusqu’au 14 février. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
it	Sei interessato ad onorare il meglio del meglio? Vota ora nel Commons - Concorso dell'Immagine dell'Anno 2006 La votazione per nominare i finalisti è aperta fino al 14 febbraio. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
nl	Kies de allerbeste afbeelding van het jaar! Stem nu in de Commons Afbeelding van het jaar 2006 verkiezing Voorverkiezingen om kandidaten voor de finale te selecteren zijn open tot en met 14 februari. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
ja	ウィキメディアコモンズの優秀な作品をさらに輝かせませんか？ ウィキメディアコモンズ年間画像大賞 2006 予選ラウンドは2月14日まで投票を受け付けています！ Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
pl	Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/banner/pl
pt	Interessado em honrar a melhor entre as melhores? Vote já na Commons Eleição Imagem do Ano 2006 A votação para escolher os finalistas decorrerá até 14 de Fevereiro. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
sv	Intresserad av att vara med och utse Commons bästa bild? Rösta då på Årets bild på Commons 2006 Röstning pågår till och med den 14:e februari. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
zh (hans)	有兴趣选出优中之优吗？ 现在就来参加 维基共享资源2006年年度图片评选 选出您中意的决赛参选图片！提名截止日期至2007年2月14日 Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−
zh-hant	有興趣選出優中之優嗎？ 現在就來參加 維基共享資源2006年年度圖片評選 選出您中意的決賽參選圖片！提名截止日期至2007年2月14日 Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | português | svenska | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） | +/−

Templates for second round

en	What is the best picture of 2006? The candidates have been chosen. Vote for your choice now in the final of the Commons Picture of the Year competition 2006 Final voting to choose the 2006 Picture of the Year is open until 28th February. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
de	Welches ist das beste Bild des Jahres 2006? Die Kandidaten stehen fest. Stimme jetzt mit ab im Finale des "Commons-Bild des Jahres 2006"-Wettbewerbs Die Endabstimmung über das Bild des Jahres 2006 geht bis zum 28. Februar. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
es	¿Cual es la mejor imagen del 2006? Los candidatos han sido seleccionados. Vota por tu favorito ahora en la final del Concurso Commons 2006: Mejor Imagen del Año Votación final para elegir la Imagen del Año 2006 estará abierta hasta el 28 de febrero. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
fr	Quelle sera la meilleure image de 2006 ? Les candidats ont été sélectionnés. Participez maintenant en votant pour la finale du Concours de l’image Commons de l’année 2006 Le vote final pour désigner l’Image Commons de l’année 2006 est ouvert jusqu’au 28 février. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
it	Qual è la miglior immagine del 2006? Le candidate sono state scelte. Vota ora per la tua immagine preferita nella finale del Commons - Concorso dell'Immagine dell'Anno 2006 La votazione finale per scegliere l'Immagine dell'Anno 2006 è aperta fino al 28 febbraio. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
nl	Wat is de beste afbeelding van 2006? De kandidaten zijn gekozen. Stem nu in de finale van de Commons Afbeelding van het jaar 2006 Stemmen voor de Afbeelding van 2006 is open tot en met 28 februari. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
ja	2006年の最優秀作品はなんでしょう？ 予選ラウンドを突破した候補はたったの10枚の厳選された逸品ばかり… さぁ、あなたもウィキメディアコモンズ 年間画像大賞 2006決勝ラウンドで投票しましょう！ 2006年の年間画像大賞を選ぶ最終投票は2月28日まで Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
pl	Która grafika 2006 roku jest najlepsza? Kandydaci zostali już wybrani. Teraz Ty zagłosuj w wyborach na: Najlepszą grafikę na Commons w 2006 roku. Finałowe głosowanie na Najlepszą grafikę 2006 roku trwa do 28 lutego. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
pt	Qual a melhor imagem de 2006? As imagens candidatas foram escolhidas. Vote já na sua favorita em Commons Eleição Imagem do Ano 2006 A votação final para escolher a Imagem do Ano 2006 está aberta até 28 de Fevereiro. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
sv	Vilken bild är årets bild 2006? De nominerade bilderna har blivit framröstade. Rösta nu i slutstriden om Årets bild på Commons 2006 Röstningen är öppen till och med 28 februari. Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
zh (hans)	哪一幅图将被评为2006年年度图片？ 现在请您来投票选出 维基共享资源2006年年度图片 评选2006年年度图片的投票截止日期至2007年2月28日 Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−
zh-hant	哪一幅圖將被評為2006年年度圖片？ 現在請您來投票選出 維基共享資源2006年年度圖片 評選2006年年度圖片的投票截止日期至2007年2月28日 Deutsch | English | español | français | italiano | 日本語 | Nederlands | polski | português | русский | svenska | 粵語 | 中文（简体） | 中文（繁體） +/−

Changes

I suggest that we change the following in the project page:

1. We create a subpage Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/votes, where we put a gallery. Below that there is a list of votes for each image. No votecount will be shown below the image, for practical reasons.
2. We create a main page in English, which transcludes this vote page.
3. we then create pages in different languages, using some language selector like in the templates, which all transclude the same votes subpage

What I basically want is to seperate —language dependent— instructions from —language independent— votes. -- Bryan (talk to me) 22:22, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

That was already done. Please check above, Other languages versions of the POTY/2006 - Alvesgaspar 22:35, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes but what I want to change is not to have all languages on one page, but a seperate page for each language. -- Bryan (talk to me) 09:27, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

But you do have that (for the moment, only the english an portuguese versions:Commons:Imagem do Ano/2006)! Please check more carefully...Alvesgaspar 11:25, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh ok, I couldn't find it on the main page. I'll create a language bar to make it more clear :) -- Bryan (talk to me) 11:30, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Voting page for the final

I've made a start on some wording for the final, which can be found at Commons:Picture_of_the_Year/2006/final. The format may need to be changed to incorporate the suggestions about languages made above. --MichaelMaggs 22:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Need to translate the Final voting page as well

Could I also have help with translations of this page, please?

Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/final

--MichaelMaggs 20:42, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

• • en: done: Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/final
  • pt: done: Commons:Imagem do Ano/2006/final - Alvesgaspar
  • de: done: Commons:Bild_des_Jahres/2006/final - Dschwen 19:52, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
  • fr: done: Commons:Image de l'année/2006/finale - Verdy p 19:04, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
  • es: done: Commons:Imagen del año/2006/final - User:Ascánder
  • pl:
  • it: done: Commons:Immagine dell'Anno/2006/final
  • nl:
  • sv:
  • zh-hans: done: Commons:年度图片/2006/决赛 - Kallgan
  • zh-hant: done: Commons:年度圖片/2006/決賽 - ???

Alvesgaspar 17:58, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

concern about instructions

If voters want to vote for a picture that's not on the numbered gallery page, they have to find it in the A or B list, then add it to the gallery and give it a number first before they can vote for it. But the instructions don't say to do this. It just says to "Please choose up to 5 pictures from the gallery below or from the lists of Featured Pictures: list A and list B". I am concerned that this will be confusing. It seems that the instructions should have a second sentence: "If you choose a picture from the lists, please add it to the end of this gallery and assign it the next consecutive number before voting." What do you all think? — coelacan — 01:39, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, I've added this. --MichaelMaggs 07:38, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

POTY 2006 templates

Here is a skecth of the template to include into the POTY 2006 image file. We also need templates for the 2 runners-up and the remaining 7 finalists. Alvesgaspar 14:55, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Featured picture Picture of the Year 2006 This is the Picture of the Year 2006, selected by the Wiki community as the best Commons featured picture promoted in 2006.

Here is the sketch for the 1st runner-up (or 2nd prize?) - Alvesgaspar 16:23, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Picture of the Year 2006 Second prize

The rules are unfortunate:

For the Wikimania media contests we require that the media was authored by a Wikimedian. Here we are not requiring that. Because we do not have enough fantastic photographers inside our community, a great many of our featured pictures do not come from within our community. I fail to see how we will be encouraging greater contribution to our community by making our community members compete with a huge number of the best free images from the entire world. --Gmaxwell 16:18, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I cannot foresee the authorship of the ten finalists, but I suspect that most of them will come from inside the Wiki comunity. We do have very competent photographers and illustrators in Wikipedia, whose images are most capable of competeing with the best free images from the entire world. Also remember that the awards are granted to the pictures, not to the creators. I believe that this kind of competition can be very encouraging for regular wiki users and also might draw the attention of other excellent creators. Alvesgaspar 16:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, maybe that restriction is something we could discuss for next year's vote. But ultimately the need is to encourage members to upload top-quality content no matter what its source. You could argue that a user who seeks out and uploads wonderful picture from elsewhere is just as much to be encouraged as another user who takes the photographs or creates the images him or herself --MichaelMaggs 16:41, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

You could.. but you'd be doing a lot of disrespect to the amount of work put in by folks who are authoring new content for us... It would be a very mercenary position to take. We (as in Wikimedia) can't complete our mission without a substantial amount of new content, but we could complete our mission without images from flickr, etc. It's not even a question of skill, all of our featured images are good.. but to be the vote takes things like luck and popular appeal, the first of which the photographer can't control and the second of which we shouldn't want people trying for (because we care about the usefulness more than the popular appeal). For both those factors, quantity is one good way to improve your position... and even though I've created a lot of images for Wikimedia, people have uploaded a lot more from NASA. :) In any case, I would of course welcome such a limitation next year.--Gmaxwell 17:12, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I'd actually agree with you, and would support such a change for next year. --MichaelMaggs 17:50, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Votes to date?

I think we should have a 'votes to date' table at the bottom that we can use to keep track of ongoing voting. At the moment, it will be really hard to do that as the votes against each picture are hidden! A table separate from the images will allow interested users to update the votes quite quickly as more come in. What do you think? I'll transclude a suggested page for you to have a look at. --MichaelMaggs 17:26, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I did a small table and made a simulation in my head. The conclusion is that the solution is even more ackward than the previous one, both for the voters (who can't see the table at the same time they look at the thumbnails) and for the counting updaters. The syntax of the table is not obvious and even a small mistake, like deleting one of the vertical bars, is enough to ruin it all. In either case, it is necessary to have two windows opened at the same time to update the counting. I really think we should keep the initial solution, that is, writing the countings in the picture captions. Alvesgaspar 23:54, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I think it's fine as you've done it, except it should be on the transclused page Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/Voting phase 1/progress, rather than Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/Voting phase 1. I see what you mean about the care that has to be taken, but I expect that for the most part we'll be updating the table ourselves! We don't ask voters to do so, and anyone who does it is likely to underestand table syntax. Also it's much easier to keep a table updated when you can see that last update timestamp. Having the votes against the images means you never know when the last update was done, so there will be a lot of re-counting from scratch. --MichaelMaggs 07:52, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

• The table is done, but I still don't like it. I think we should facilitate the voters actions rather than the updater's. Alvesgaspar 10:51, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Did you try doing a list in columns, rather than as a table? --MichaelMaggs 13:03, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

That would be better, but I don't know how to do it - Alvesgaspar 13:10, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Who is keeping the table up to date? --Dschwen 07:31, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

PotY Gallery

• Why are there already some pictures in the gallery? Isn't that biased? They should be all in there, or none, before the voting starts. Lycaon 08:58, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

• I don't like it either. The gallery should be emptied just before the voting starts. Also, I don't agree with the possibility of users putting more pictures in the gallery during the election to call attention to them. Please see discussion above, in here - Alvesgaspar 10:42, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh dear, with the competition starting in two day's time we're getting a bit late to start making big changes to the rules, and I'm not able to do any editing this evening. If there is time, I'd suggest:

• removing the sentences about being able to add pictures to the gallery (in all languages), and
• putting all the 2006 FP's there before we start.

The second will be a lot of work, but maybe the only way to avoid at least the appearance of bias, which is pretty important. Would you, Lycaon, be able to spend some time helping Alvesgaspar and me to do that? And perhaps others could help as well. I'll do my bit tomorrow morning at about 6am, if one of you can leave me a note to tell me what my share is. --MichaelMaggs 12:45, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Putting ALL FPs into the gallery is a piece of cake. I could whip up a little script which extracts them from the two list pages and numbers them sequentially. Would take me maybe 10 minutes at most. --Dschwen 13:15, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Check out User:Dschwen/FP2006. I removed two deleted pictures and one double (the sand dunes, of which only one is actually FP). However, I did not specifically check for defeatured pictures. There should be a papertrail (i.e. defeature archives). Tell me which ones to remove and I will renumber the list. --Dschwen 13:47, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

There is only one way to avoid both the bias and the appearance of bias, which is to put all FP in the gallery. But that will ruin the voting page with 80 lines of pics and force us to modify all POTY language pages (I don't think we have time for that!). Keeping the present solution will cause for sure some users crying wolf on the unfairness of the contest. I think that the most reasonable solution, which will avoid the "appearance of bias", is to clean the gallery at the begining of the election but keep the possibility of any user adding new pictures, as a way of drawing the attention to them. This is already considered in the rules and we won't have to modify them. Alvesgaspar 14:26, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Just keep the list on a separate page and let the voters refer to the numbers on that list. --Dschwen 14:33, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I like that idea, and it will mean only small changes to the language pages. The only ones where I can't spot which text to chop out are the Chinese ones, and I'm sure we could get help on that.--MichaelMaggs 15:11, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm working on this plan, and to start have copied Dschwen's wonderful gallery to Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/gallery. As he says, this needs to be checked to make sure there are no de-featured images. I doubt if there are, though.

I have updated the English version of Commons:Picture of the Year/2006. Now moving on to other languages. --MichaelMaggs 15:42, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Done. Have asked for help with the Chinese. Others had better check the texts still read correctly. --MichaelMaggs 16:07, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

There are still 2 delisted pictures in the gallery: 77 (Image:Personal computer, exploded.svg and 133 (Image:Sandro Botticelli 046.jpg). Alvesgaspar 23:54, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Removed and renumbered. --Dschwen 00:10, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

The new method, Commons:Picture of the Year/2006/gallery, will probably turn out to be a much better choice. Thanks to those who came up with this. — coelacan — 04:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

Need to archive preparatory work to date

THis page needs to be archived up to here, to leave a free page for votes to comment as the competition gets going. --MichaelMaggs 23:08, 31 January 2007 (UTC)