Commons talk:Upload/Archive 1

Comments

Hmmm.. Well people don't know what license applies to their own work, they need some help from us on that... but the current text makes it seem like that stuff at the bottom applies to all self-made too. --Gmaxwell 05:38, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, we still need a guide Commons:Contributing your own work with more detail about choosing a license.

Technically the stuff at the bottom does apply to self made stuff. But frankly 'own work' is the first link, and it's totally giant. We can add a line like Only the copyright-holder can choose which licenses (if any) apply to their work. Maybe that's clearer? --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 05:43, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

On the design side, using double size bold font is over the top, it even causes line breaks in the bullet lines. On the wording, the photo source is not "It is from..." but it is "own work" or "from Flickr" or "from another project". Comparing the current Upload page versions uselang=ownwork with uselang=fromwikimedia on the former I do not like that I need to scroll twice before reaching the business part of the page. To include the image in a page, not on the submissions page, maybe include a cut-n-paste template on the page appearing after the upload.--Klaus with K 12:37, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean, it even causes line breaks in the bullet lines? '(Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikinews, etc)' is intentionally on a second line.

This is how it displays on my screen (smaller than 3000 pixels wide ;-)

   * It is my own work
   * It is from Flickr
   * It is from another Wikimedia 
      project
     (Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikinews, etc)
   * It is from a US federal
     government source
   * It is from somewhere else
   * I don't know who the author is
   * I don't know what license applies

--Klaus with K 11:33, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

I see. The change you made is fine. Now I hope we are both happy. ;) --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 13:13, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

'fromwikimedia' has not been designed, so what it is showing is the default messages. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 06:04, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Andere Sprachen

• Gibt es denn auch eine Erklärung/ Beschreibung in Deutsch? SPBer 11:35, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Ja, das wäre schön, aber einige verhalten sich so, als wäre dies ein rein englischsprachiges Projekt. Schade. Besser wäre, man erzeugte über die Disku-Seite erst mal verschiedene Sprachversionen, bevor man die Seite aktiv schalten würde. --Martin 18:41, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

If you translate it, it will exist. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 01:11, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

If a German (or Spanish or Polish or...) speaking admin or experienced user would have done a translation before uploading the new version it would exist already and many non-English-speaking users would not have been irritated. This is still an international project! Not everybody speaks English and is able to translate such texts and not everybody knows how to handle and create these language versions. Just as a reminder for those veteran users who like to forget or ignore... --DianeAnna 01:56, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry. The software did not act the way I expect and I didn't realise until just now. grrrr.

MediaWiki:Upload-url defines the target page for the upload link in the menu. MediaWiki:Upload-url/de should have the target link for German interface. For all the codes, I made MediaWiki:Upload-url/XX be Special:Upload. Then I made MediaWiki:Upload-url Commons:Upload. So the "Commons:Upload" link should only have appeared for English interface. Now for some reason the software is ignoring all my /XX messages and just using the default link, so everyone got that link, which is NOT what I wanted. I wanted to avoid that problem. But it still happened, grr...

I will open a bug. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 03:29, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

bugzilla:9544 "MediaWiki:Upload-url language subpages aren't used on Commons". pfctdayelise (说什么?) 03:50, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Das wird ja immer seltsamer, wenn ich 1x auf Hochladen klick erscheint dies Bild: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Upload, klicke ich dann noch mal auf Hochladen,erscheint wieder die gute alte deutsche Beschreibungsseite http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload .Ich weiss nicht wer es war, aber so kann ich damit auch leben :-)SPBer 11:09, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Redesign

I like the new system (I have already translated it into Norwegian), but I don't like Commons:Upload. I would rather have it like Hjelp:Bildeopplasting or Aide:Importer un fichier. Those are more usable, and prettier. Kjetil r 22:40, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Wow, that was quick! Note you can use a different design if you like. Perhaps if it is better everyone will switch to it. ;) But those help pages are a bit redundant to us, aren't they? (Don't they *tell* people to go and upload at Commons?) --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 00:51, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

I have now started a redesign, see User:Kjetil r/Upload. It is only 50% complete, but I guess you get the idea. Is it good, or is the current design better? Kjetil r 00:01, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Other languages and mixed up links

To those responsible for the new design:
Translating such an important page into the main languages (German? Spanish?) before uploading would have been a good idea!!! Right now, a click on the German navigation bar leads to the norwegian version! Obviously something got mixed up... --DianeAnna 23:59, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Sorry about the link to the Norwegian version, my mistake. I have now reverted it. Kjetil r 00:14, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

uh... wtf

is there any way to bypass this page? I usually just type {{PD-self}} or {{PD-NASA}} or whatever. --Indolences 01:57, 10 April 2007 (UTC) edit: I see the "somewhere" else link now. that's better, i guess. -Indolences 02:01, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

You can still just type Special:Upload in the search box, and you will go to the default (old) form. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 03:29, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

• It is very un-obvious what a potential new uploader is meant to do next when facing this page, one reads to the bottom then what? ... it would perhaps be better to turn things around so the Stop! message is at the top, then you proceed downwards with something saying "to proceed with your upload click on the answer to these questions" ... --Tony Wills 23:13, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Do you think something like User:Kjetil r/Upload is better? Kjetil r 00:28, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

You think it's unobvious to follow links? :/

Kjetil, yours also looks good. If people prefer it we can switch. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 04:05, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

It's a hazzle now! --Immanuel Giel 07:24, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Not much feedback here. I'll present User:Kjetil r/Upload at COM:VP. Kjetil r 03:05, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

I've uploaded hundreds of images, and this page left me totally confused. After a quick look at this talk page and then going back and staring at the page for a bit, I realized that you are supposed to select one of the links. I think their external link color threw me off. --Pmsyyz 16:59, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Sorry. I added a line that says "Click on the appropriate link". I hope that will make it more obvious what to do. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 03:36, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Have to admit, I find commons:upload a hassle and an annoyance. meta:instruction creep sums it up for me. Cburnett 02:30, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

That's not the point of what this page is supposed to do. It may be instruction creeping for some people, but it's necessary for new users, since we are getting too many new images uploaded by new users who don't specify the source and license, two required pieces of information that we need to know. If they don't have that info, they get deleted. Our admins here are already busy doing other stuff than deleting untagged images. This page is designed so that new users learn that source and license info are required.  V60 ^{干什么？ · VContribs} 03:43, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

And Special:Upload does not cover this. Instead, half the page is about freedom and the other half is explaining {{Information}}. "Upload your own work" is a prime example of instruction creep, IMHO. The effort to read and understand that page, in addition to doing the same for commons:Upload, is not trivial. And it's overboard for the simple "give us the source and give us the license" that seems to be an issue. If it's not instruction creep then it definitely is not KISS. (Though I do "enjoy" the neat hack to get different versions of Special:Upload via the uselang parameter. Just leads me to believe that this entire change in uploading was hasty and not well thought out.) Cburnett 05:32, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Well feel free to do us a favour and make suggestions for improvements, rather than just complaining it all sucks. Since I don't have your POV I don't know what changes would improve it. For instance Commons:Upload has 8 lines, and just prompts you to follow a link for the case that applies for you. How is that instruction creep? How could it be cut back? pfctdayelise (说什么?) 09:18, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Possible design change

See Commons:Village pump#Commons:Upload - which do people prefer?.  V60 ^{干什么？ · VContribs} 04:08, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Text about forbidden own work not necessarily clear

In Step 1 of the page to upload your own work, I can see that the hand icon is meant to indicate you're not allowed to upload certain things. However, icons such as this are not always immediately obvious to everyone, and so someone might think the non-permitted works listed are acceptable. Could some text be added - e.g., "Permitted works:" and "Non-permitted works:"?--A bit iffy 08:17, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Ya, good point. I added some words. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 02:30, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that.--A bit iffy 12:20, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Modfied from another work in the commons...

I modified Image:Walmart_exterior.jpg... this did not seem to cleanly fit any of the licensing options. --Remi0o 22:55, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Did you intend to upload it over the top of the old one? If so, look at the bottom of that page for a link that says "Upload a new version of this file" and follow that link.

If you intended to upload it separately (significant changes rather than just cleaning up the image), upload it using special:Upload (the generic form) and link to the original, and usually you have to use the same license as the original too. --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 02:26, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

On own work

If this is possible, in the section for uploading your own work, can an admin change to ? Biggo391 01:07, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Er... why? The first one is pretty much a standard on Commons and other Wikimedia projects... --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 02:54, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Note that "STOP" is written in English, and the upload form is in various languages. If upon each translation they must change or find a new picture it would be more complicated than pure translation of text. -- Editor at Large • talk 06:48, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Okay, nevermind. I just though that the stop sign looked better. Biggo391 20:58, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

¡Traducid!

Al darle a que el archivo es de flickr en castellano sale peor que en inglés: no trae explicaciones. Gracias. -Leavade 11:44, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Hola, bon dia. Puedes traducirlo tú mismo del contenido en inglés (MediaWiki:Uploadtext/fromflickr) al castellano, que se encuentra en MediaWiki:Uploadtext/esfromflickr. Hazlo en la página de discusión y, cuando termines, avisa a cualquier admin (a mí, por ejemplo) para que lo actualice. Gracias. --Joanot Martorell ✉ 07:14, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Aprovechando ya lo traduje yo, está guardado aquí: MediaWiki talk:Uploadtext/esfromflickr y MediaWiki talk:Uploadtext/esownwork

--Serg!o 17:27, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Edit request

If I'm not mistaken, I believe admins can edit special pages. So, on the one to upload your own work, can an admin change to ? Look at both images, you will notice they have a slight difference, and the second one looks better. 71.233.232.243 16:23, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure? I don't quite know if it's possible. Yung6 16:34, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Please disregard this request (belatedly), the second one was created by a blocked sockpuppet (Yung6) and is a copyvio of the original (my image, very slightly altered and with the license changed without permission). silsor 18:57, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

I am in the process of cleaning up links to the second image. silsor 18:58, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

New image

I have just changed the image to my new one, which is this one:

I hope that's okay with everyone. Yung6 16:33, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

I do not think your image looks better on this page. In fact, nobody complained about what it looked like, and I doubt anyone will if there are no changes. (→zelzany - framed) 18:19, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

How about we use both images? Yung6 18:21, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

It'll mess up the layout. (→zelzany - framed) 18:23, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

While the green one is nice, the blue questionmark image was created specifically for the page: it is colour-coordinated to add visual interest without standing out too much and taking your eye away from the important text. It just fits better with the colour scheme  :) -- Editor at Large • talk 00:23, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

I prefer the colors of Image:Questionmark copyright.svg to Yung6's image. If you look at his talk page, he seems to change the colors of various images and replace them without discussion. --Pmsyyz 20:59, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Tweaked formatting

Won't be object if I get reverted, but I have tweaked the formatting of the upload form, to add a small amount of padding. This gives some space on the left side of the page, so the text doesn't run into the left border. Also, changed valign=top to "style=vertical-align:top;", and made the changes on all languages to keep things consistent. -Aude (talk | contribs) 22:20, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

"It is from somewhere else" page.

I click the commons "Upload file" link:

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Upload

I then click the "It is from somewhere else" link:

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload

That Special:Upload page really sucks. Please give me access to it, and I can rewrite it to make it much simpler and clearer.

The main thing is to put the form at the top, and the instructions after the form. All tags possible should be in the dropdown menu. There should not be this on the side: "(also add a license tag if those below do not apply)".

Also, the licensing drop-down selector needs to be at the TOP of the form.

There should be a SEPARATE narrow FORM just below it for pasting in tags from Commons:Copyright tags. Copyright tags should not be pasted in the long Summary form. That is too confusing.

No tag selected, or pasted in, means no upload is allowed. Period. The person gets sent back to the page with a message saying they must pick a tag. That message should have links to more info.

I did not see a tag in the dropdown menu for images put into the public domain by the author. I did not see this tag: {{PD-link}}

In the dropdown menu It should be listed something like "Online image with author notice online that it is in the public domain". That should cover both images and image/pdf downloads.

All I saw was "not self-made, but creator allows release under...". And then the only choices were GNU and GFDL. Need something specifically for the words "public domain."

For an example of some public domain images online see:

• http://november.org/graphs

That web page says "These graphs are in the public domain."

I uploaded one image from there so far: Image:Incarceration rates worldwide.gif --Timeshifter 02:01, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi Timeshifter,

Thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately we are quite limited in how we can customise the upload form. We can't really switch the order of elements, or introduce completely new elements, for example -- although we would love to...MediaWiki is fairly limited in that way. Basically we can just change the text on things.

PD-link is not in the license selector, you're right. One reason is that it is not used very often and the drop down list is just a convenience for the most common templates. The other is that PD-link requires a parameter for it to be used correctly, and AFAIK there's no way to select something from a list and type in a parameter for it.

The image you uploaded is fine in terms of copyright (although frankly you would be better off looking up the data and recreating it yourself... it's pretty ordinary in terms of quality). If you plan to upload lots of images from that site, I recommend putting the text on your user page and then basically ignoring the form and just copy+pasting the text.

Hope this helps. cheers --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 12:26, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Can we create a version of {{PD-link}} without the parameter required? It is not an essential parameter. And exactly how is the form worked on? And where? Are there separate working pages for the text and the form? Does the form have to be worked on by the MediaWiki developers? If so, can someone please pass on these ideas to them? Or maybe point me to where I have a chance of passing on the ideas to them.

I did a Google search of the site for "public domain" images. Here is the Google site search. I gets around 29,000 results. The links specifically searchs the commons site for this phrase: "image has been released into the public domain"

The dropdown menu has a selection for "I found the image on Google or a random website". Maybe "random website" can be a separate selection. Then people can be led to another page that asks about the copyright status of the image as indicated on the website page.

I have created forms for web pages. So I know the order of the form elements can be changed. It is also possible to create a form element for each item. One separate form line for each element:

• |Description=
• |Source=
• |Date=
• |Author=
• |Permission=
• |other_versions=

I think this would help tremendously in getting people to fill out the form easily. --Timeshifter 06:26, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

I totally agree with you, but the wiki admins can only dabble with the tools we are given. That dabbling does not include creating new elements or moving elements around. If you want to become a MediaWiki developer in order to redesign the upload form, be my guest. Here is the code for the upload form. If you want to open a bug request to suggest improvements for it, go to bugzilla:. You can also talk to the existing developers on IRC or the mailing list.

PD-link absolutely essentially needs a parameter, because without the link, where is the proof of the copyright status?

You might also find this page interesting for details about exactly what the wiki admins can and can't change: Commons:Redesigning the upload form. --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 12:38, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Wow. Thanks for all the links. I bookmarked them all. I have a lot to study. Unfortunately, I don't know coding, other than some basic HTML. I disagree that the PD-link notice absolutely needs the parameter. The parameter is for the URL on the tag in this sentence: "However, as a courtesy, a link back to Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) would be appreciated." The URL substitutes for the wikipedia URL. If no URL is put in the PD-link template, then it defaults to the wikipedia URL. So it is an optional parameter now. I suggest that somebody could pick PD-link from the dropdown menu, and then when they try to upload the image they get a request for that URL. Even then it should be optional, as it is now. People need convenience more than perfection. Perfection gets in the way of practicality of use concerning the upload form. --Timeshifter 22:41, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

By the way, you suggested creating some better graph images using the data. I don't know how to create such images. Someone else also just suggested creating some better graphs from the data. Here is the diff: [1]. I hope somebody creates better chart, table, and graph images from the data. Maybe a wiki table too. --Timeshifter 23:17, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Hm. PD-link is different to what I thought it actually was. Sorry for not actually reading it until now. It is not a great template because really have to explain how/why they know the thing is PD... are you sure Template:PD-author is not a better choice?

For creating simple bar graphs, check out the very cool m:EasyTimeline (although it's more like ModeratelyDifficultTimeline :) see if you can find a similar graph to adapt, rather than creating one from scratch). --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 23:57, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

(unindent) Thanks for the link to Template:PD-author. I am not sure it would work for public domain graphs taken from this page: http://www.november.org/graphs . The author is not indicated on the page. Would one put "November Coalition" as the author?

Can m:EasyTimeline work for creating a non-timeline bar graph like Image:Incarceration rates worldwide.gif? I looked at a few of the timelines here: en:Category:Graphical timelines. The underlying wikicode varies greatly in difficulty and length depending on the complexity of the graph. Some of the graphs look like they would be fairly easy to construct. If I had a model of a non-timeline bar graph, I would be able to figure this out a lot faster. Looking at m:Help:EasyTimeline syntax, especially its length, makes my brain hurt. :)

I think the templates would be more useful if the images were used directly instead of the templates being transcluded. Then people could see the images in thumbnail form in categories. New versions of the image could be uploaded over the old version as the template is updated. Maybe people are doing that now for some of the timeline images that aren't clickable image maps. --Timeshifter 06:44, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

moved to user talk pages. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 00:23, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, EasyTimeline discussion can be continued elsewhere. --Timeshifter 13:30, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Section break. "It is in the public domain"

I decided to go ahead and use the PD-author tag for the charts and graphs from November.org:

{{PD-author|[http://www.november.org/graphs The November Coalition]}}

Thanks for informing me of that tag. I used that tag for another image I uploaded to the commons from November.org: Image:US correctional population timeline.gif

I had to take a long route to figure out the public domain tag options. These 2 pages were the most informative to me:

• Commons:Copyright_tags#General
• Template:PD

I suggest a link to Commons:Copyright_tags#General from Commons:Upload. I will add it now. Others may need to further clarify the situation at Commons:Upload concerning public domain tagging. It is the first page uploaders usually see. There is no info there about public domain images. The final link there "I need help figuring out what the license is" is a link to a talk page. That is a stark last resort. There needs to be some intermediate links before that one.

I don't know how to create pages like this one, "Upload work from a government source": http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Upload&uselang=fromgov

There needs to be a special upload page titled "Upload work from other public domain sources". --Timeshifter 13:44, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for putting in the link to COM:CT, seems like a good idea.

About public domain, I am just concerned that many people think "it came from an archive/government/it looks old, therefore it must be public domain", when this is not a reliable way to determine public domain items. PD tags like the country ones are often misused, like "this is from the official government website of country X, therefore I'll tag it PD-X". So in a sense I don't want to make it too easy to upload public domain stuff, because A) it's not that common and this page is trying to concentrate on the most common methods to avoid getting overwhelmed, and B) it is pretty complex and often misused.

Anyway, what do you think about adapting the "fromgov" one to have other countries etc? I only put the US there because it's the most common case and the most clear-cut. But you can extend it if you like.

The main text is at MediaWiki:Uploadtext/fromgov. Only administrators can edit it. But if you want to copy it into a sandbox page (like User:Timeshifter/Uploadtext-fromgov), and work on it, then let me know when it's done and I can update it. cheers --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 07:15, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the link to MediaWiki:Uploadtext/fromgov. I doubt I would have ever figured out the location of that page unless someone had told me as you just did. One goes to this page from the main upload page:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Upload&uselang=fromgov

I see now why the upload pages are so difficult to navigate after all these years. In my opinion it is because average registered users can't edit the text on those pages. Also, even if registered users wanted to leave suggestions about improvements in the wording for those pages, they would not know right away where to leave those suggestions. For example; where on this page does an average registered user see a path for suggestions:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Upload&uselang=fromgov

The fromgov page would not be the ideal place to solve the particular problem I had in finding and using the appropriate public domain copyright tag. Because the November.org graphs and charts were created by them, and not the government. They used government stats. Stats can't be copyrighted. Just their presentation. November.org could have copyrighted their graphs and charts if they had wanted to.

I think the fromgov form can be improved though. Along the lines you are discussing. But there needs to be a path from that form to the discussion page for that particular form. Specifically, there needs to be a link from that form to MediaWiki talk:Uploadtext/fromgov

I have a lot more ideas for improvement of the uploading process. I may add a list of links to the top of this talk page. Something like this:

To discuss the various specialized upload pages, consider commenting also at the MediaWiki pages listed below under the long links for the pages with the various upload forms.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Upload&uselang=fromgov

MediaWiki:Uploadtext/fromgov

http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Upload&uselang=fromflickr

MediaWiki:Uploadtext/fromflickr

etc.. --Timeshifter 12:33, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Upload file size limit

The file size limit for uploads is 20MB..If you try to upload bigger than that, It will not work and give you connection problems..Could you add a warning to the upload page about that?--Alnokta 04:33, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

What do you mean, "give you connection problems"? The system already gives you this warning... just like if you try to upload a file in a format we don't accept. pfctdayelise (说什么?) 13:38, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Talk page for Special:Upload

Where is the talk page for Special:Upload? And can that talk page be linked from Special:Upload?--Timeshifter 16:39, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

I see that the Special:Upload form is for the "from somewhere else" upload page that is linked from Commons:Upload. The talk page for Special:Upload is at MediaWiki talk:Uploadtext. --Timeshifter 17:03, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Document page for Special:Upload

I have noticed that oftentimes there are transcluded document pages for the explanatory text for many templates. Is there such a document page for Special:Upload?

For example; for w:Template:Unsigned2 there is w:Template:Unsigned2/doc. This way users can edit the explanatory text directly, or they can suggest changes on the talk page for it. Such as at w:Template talk:Unsigned2/doc

It also keeps the discussion for the template itself separate from the discussion for the explanatory text for it. See w:Template talk:Unsigned2 for discussion about the template itself.

I would like a similar setup for Special:Upload. I want to make changes directly to the explanatory text. I think registered users should be able to do that. If that is not possible, then I would like a talk page where I can use {{Editprotected}} to make a request for an edit to the explanatory text.

I would also like to be able to make some very technical suggestions for the template itself. So that the busy MediaWiki developers and programmers might possibly see more suggestions from me and others.

Most people will not make such technical template suggestions elsewhere because it is unintuitive to do so. The other locations for such technical suggestions are oftentimes baffling to figure out. Such as at Bugzilla (is that the place for MediaWiki technical suggestions?), etc..

The other locations for technical suggestions oftentimes don't get the discussion, participation, and consensus that can occur naturally on a standard wiki talk page over time. And with a standard wiki talk page there is no need to create yet another login account as at Bugzilla, etc.. --Timeshifter 18:25, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

Please see Commons:Redesigning the upload form which lists the system messages (ie, pages in the MediaWiki: namespace) that are used to construct Special:Upload. You can make an edit request on the talk page of any of those MediaWiki: pages, which are only able to edited by admins (that is how MediaWiki works, we can't change that).

To make technical suggestions, use wikitech-l. --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 10:53, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for. I linked to them from the box at the top too. --Timeshifter 11:34, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

A friend's work

After It is entirely my own work add another choice or advice for It is a friend's work, and he/she asked/allowed me to upload it for them. As creators often are not upload experts or even computer users. Perhaps mention Commons:OTRS. Jidanni 20:42, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Or perhaps mention the «create ã new account in the name of your friend and use it for uploading the works» option. God bless the ability to upload with a pseudeanonymous name, as it makes such things easier (I haven't done it myself yet, but I will seriously consider it the next time I upload the work of a friend). --Kjetil r 02:29, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

Some people (gasp) aren't interested in learning computers at all, not even to mention this computer, but still wish to contribute great work. So we should remember not everybody is a computer nerd or even user or wishes to be.... Jidanni 22:45, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

I think Kjetil meant you could create an account in the name of your friend, and you use it to upload their work as "pd-self".

In general people should be discouraged from having multiple personalities but OTOH, that is the best solution to this problem of "real world verification" that I have heard so far... --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 04:39, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

I would be better to use one's own account and add a comment "[x]Uploaded for Name: Blob Blobowitz, who fully consents...", than encourage making and using an account for Blob, who of course doesn't know or care to know what is going on. Else it feels like turning Wikipedia into a Nigerian Scam. Jidanni 09:01, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Flickr

The Flickr page should probably be more aggressive about NC and ND being disallowed. For instance, perhaps this change:

Licenses with NC (non-commercial use only) or ND (no derivative works allowed to be created) are not OK here.

to:

Licenses with NC (non-commercial use only) or ND (no derivative works allowed to be created) are NOT OK here.

--Superm401 16:59, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

You don't think the little stop hands are aggressive enough? --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 08:15, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Image guidelines

I added a link referring to the image upload guidelines. I've been having much luck with the recommended PNG and JPEG optimizers, and getting more people to optimize images would reduce bandwidth requirements without losing image quality. Cwolfsheep 14:18, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

That was a little bit overkill. :) I removed the banner. One, it was way too big and attention-grabbing for a relatively unimportant topic of file type, and two, we would suggest for users to follow some Commons guideline rather than an English Wikipedia one, if any. Is w:Wikipedia:Preparing images for upload any different to Commons:File types? Maybe add the useful links to the page here.

A more appropriate place for this type of message, if anywhere, would probably be MediaWiki:Uploadtext/ownwork. --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 07:36, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Sentence in need of correction

On the Special:Upload page under Describing your uploads, it says:

Permission - quote the of the author's permission. Maybe take out a "the".

 Done. You may wish to request at MediaWiki talk:Uploadtext in future. Cheers, — Giggy 01:31, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Empty row at the bottom and subscript

Is there some technical reason for the empty 55px-high row at the bottom of the table? It doesn't really make the form look better. If "|height=55" is left out, the text will fit the box nicely - at the moment there is some ugly whitespace there, in Opera at least. On a similar note: why is (see our guide) in subscript and not just small text? I don't want to change without asking, as there might be some reason I cannot yet see. --rimshot^talk 11:02, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The row was used in an old design but I don't think it's needed now. I suspect the use of sub rather than small is because in some browsers they look the same so you wouldn't be aware of the difference. Please be bold and improve it. :) --pfctdayelise (说什么?) 10:19, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

No results

The MediaWiki:Upload-url do not change the link of "Upload file" in sidebar, particularly in Vietnamese Wikipedia where I'm an admin. I had to change MediaWiki:Common.js to make it work. Can somebody explain? Vinhtantran 18:15, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I copied the above comment from Commons talk:Redesigning the upload form. --Timeshifter 20:55, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Uploadtext/screenshot

Could we get a upload-form for screenshots? I ask for this as these are often under a wrong license as people choose on available in the Upload form and not as advised in Commons:Screenshots.

The Uploadtext should explain free screenshot licensing and have {{Free screenshot}} with the license= parameter prefilled in the text form. Uploaders shall then pick from free software licenses available at commons like {{GPL}}, {{BSD}}, {{LGPL}}, {{CeCILL}}. Is this possible? --Matt 14:07, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

People might use the English Wikipedia screenshot upload form for ideas. It is linked from w:Wikipedia:Upload. The current direct link to it is this. It may change, so for the current form (pre-filled-in correctly) go to it from w:Wikipedia:Upload. The transcluded introductory text pages for the various wikipedia upload forms are linked from the table at the top of w:Wikipedia talk:Upload. --Timeshifter 15:38, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

I created Commons:Upload/screenshot using the "wpUploadDescription mechanism" and listed all FOSS licenses currently available at Commons + a link to Commons:Screenshots for further explanations. --Matt 12:39, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Flickr tool suggestion

The text "Summary (use Flinfo tool):" is great, got me to use the FInfo tool, but this also discouraged me from adding or changing any of the FInfo tool output. Perhaps a small addition to that would encourage people to add a description when the flickr image did not come with one? How about changing it to "Summary (use Flinfo tool. Then add any additional description):"? If I had seen something like that, as a new user I would have been much better about filling in useful descriptions for the images I was uploading. I wouldn't have thought the FInfo output was sacrosanct or required schooling to edit its output. - Owlmonkey 01:23, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Sounds good. Another idea might be to explain that on the Flinfo page itself:

http://wikipedia.ramselehof.de/flinfo.php

I think "ID" should be explained on the Flinfo page too. I figured out by experimentation that "ID" meant the last set of numbers in the URL of the Flickr image page.

Here is another useful Flickr tool:

http://inside.wikia.com/wiki/Import_Flickr_Images

It is on w:Wikia. --Timeshifter 08:06, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Entirely my own work

This phrase was just ridiculous. The whole point of commons is that you can get works that can be resused. How am I supposed to say it's entirely my own work if it's an edit from a Commoner's work. I've changed the phrase so I don't lie every time I upload an edited work of a free license. --Dori - Talk 15:33, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

I think that's complicating matters for new users. If it is not entirely your then why not use from somewhere else? I hope you don't mind, but I have reversed your change. Lycaon 15:52, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

derivative work

Hi, my tool derivativeFX is designed to upload derivative works of commons-files to commons. how would be:

It is a derivative work of a file from Commons

? There is a little limitation - it works not with Internet Explorer because of JavaScript-problems. Thanks for feedbacks! --Luxo 17:13, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

any objections?--Luxo 14:50, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

It works now also with Internet Explorer but only with one original file... Working on for supporting more.--Luxo 21:02, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Edit summaries and previews at the uploading screen

When uploading, it seems you edit summary is by default and unchangeably whatever the description etc is. Wouldn't it be better if you could write your own ES, e.g. 'tweaking contrast' or something like that?

Also, wouldn't a 'preview' be useful, even if there is no preview of the picture itself (or perhaps a small one, if possible)? Richard001 11:14, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

When uploading mediawiki generates the ES itself, you can't edit it... a preview of the selected file is also not possible because of browser security.--Luxo 20:15, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

MICHAEL (Multilingual Inventory in Cultural Heritage in Europe)

El proyecto MICHAEL (Multilingual Inventory in Cultural Heritage in Europe), apoyado económicamente por la Comisión Europea a través de los programas eTen, tiene como objetivo facilitar el acceso a las colecciones digitales de museos, bibliotecas y archivos de los diferentes países europeos. El proyecto comenzó en junio de 2004 y en 2006 inició su andadura MICHAEL Plus (2006-2008), evolución del anterior.

La plataforma MICHAEL permite recuperar las colecciones digitales en un portal multilingüe, abierto y centralizado. Proyecta, además de promocionar el patrimonio cultural de Europa, agregar valor a los recursos digitales facilitando la educación a distancia (e-Learning) y estimulando el turismo cultural. El consorcio cuenta con miembros de la República Checa, Finlandia, Francia, Alemania, Grecia, Hungría, Malta, Italia, Países Bajos, Polonia, Portugal, España, Suecia y el Reino Unido, representados por autoridades públicas, instituciones de investigación y empresas privadas.

jodagab proviene del español jorge david g g

Should the above comment be on this talk page? Can someone translate it? Or please remove it if it is offtopic. --Timeshifter 23:40, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Here is what I found with a Google search:

MICHAEL: Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe.

http://www.michael-culture.org

I do not know how much of it consists of free images or free media files, if any. --Timeshifter (talk) 14:58, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Special:Upload variables language

I think amount of text in this form are improperly big. It is a sadism to compel newby read all this (remember - english is not native language for all world), so I want to made a form for a tyro (this can be made for each language) -

• Question (Where is the work from?) - Answer (It is entirely my own work)
• Question (It is derivative work?) - Answer (No)
• Question (You hand over this file in public property without any conditions?) - Answer (Yes = PD-Self)

For this i need an explanation of form code, like "&source=own_work&license=PD-Self" or else. Carn (talk) 16:29, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

• Commons:Redesigning_the_upload_form
• i found "wpUploadDescription" param. Carn (talk) 10:46, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Categories on this new upload page

Its not the first time, that tis new upload page eats my Categories? Isuppose I have to click one of those multiple links to make it appear within the picture file. But I cannot figure out, which one to click. Why is this so complex? Maybe this is the reason why there are so many pics without a category? --hdamm (talk) 16:15, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

derivativeFX much too slow

The "derivativeFX" tool used to for the derivative work option is much too slow. I suggest switching to something else. I've been waiting ten minutes and the page has yet to load. SharkD (talk) 07:31, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

OK, I switched to Firefox and managed to get it to work after refreshing the browser a few times. I'm now at step 3 and it's asking me for the local file, the filename on the server, and a summary. The problem is that there's nowhere to type in the summary, and there's no button to continue. WTF? SharkD (talk) 07:51, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

OK, I pressed enter despite there not being a button. It then inserts its own summary without giving you a chance to edit it, and then automatically loads the Special:Upload page. And all the forms in the page are completely blank. I went through all this just to be presented with a blank upload page? What a piece of junk! This tool should be disabled as soon as possible. SharkD (talk) 07:54, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Does not work at all. Can someone please fix the tool? Tanks --GDK (talk) 13:21, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Massive upload

How do I upload a lot of images at once? I have one uploaded, but it is pain to upload many images one by one. Maybe there is a tool or something? Sorry for a stupid question. Thanks! Olpl (talk) 08:08, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Hello, I think Commonist can be the right tool for you. :) →Diti the penguin — 19:39, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Change Flickr link text

{{Editprotected}}

Reading the thread Commons:Forum#Hilfe benötigt and related discussion, it seems there's an at least occasionally recurring problem with users who also have Flickr accounts uploading their images using the "from Flickr" interface. If they don't happen to choose the same license when uploading here than they used on Flickr, the review will then fail and the images will often be nominated for deletion, wasting the time of both the uploader and our administrators.

Currently, neither the main upload page at Commons:Upload nor the additional instructions at Commons:Flickr images make it sufficiently clear that one should not use the "from Flickr" form for one's own images. (It might well be mentioned somewhere in the instructions, but it's not obvious at a glance.) The upload form itself does mention it, but it would be nice to provide the information sooner. I feel a simple change that could reduce the frequency of such problems would be to replace the text "from Flickr" in the link on Commons:Upload with "someone else's work from Flickr".

The change is sufficiently trivial that I'd just make it myself and see if anyone objects, but of course I can't do that on a protected page, so I'm requesting that someone else make it for me. If you disagree, feel free to disable the {{Editprotected}} tag (or revert the edit if it's already been made) and discuss. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 15:36, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

 Tehty, hyvä idea --Joku Janne^(Fi) (Wikiwiki) 01:02, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Canadian federal government site senate member photo

Fair game? Please advise. Thanks.--Anna Frodesiak (talk) 23:44, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Commons:Help desk

Can the following line on the main upload form be changed?

"I need help figuring out what the license is"

Can it be changed to:

"I need live help."

Please see: MediaWiki talk:Uploadtext/fromflickr#Commons:Help desk

People need help for various things. --Timeshifter (talk) 21:26, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Uploadtext/fromflickr added this line:

If you need live help, feel free to ask it at Commons:Help desk.

Maybe combine that with what is on Commons:Upload.

I need help figuring out what the license is. For live help feel free to ask it at Commons:Help desk.

This may help a lot of newbies. --Timeshifter (talk) 12:33, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Changing "File:" to ":Image:" in the other versions field eats the first character of the file name

I've just uploaded three images of the same subject to Commons. I linked them all together using the "other versions" field of the upload form. However I neglected to hard link the image, and so the form changed my "file:" to ":Image:", however in doing so it deleted the first letter of the file name so "file:Bathroom sink with overflow hole circled.jpg" became ":Image:athroom sink with overflow hole circled.jpg" - see [2]. This happens using both Commons:Upload and Special:Upload.

My guess is that this is caused by whatever does the renaming detecting the first character is not a : and then deleting the first six characters and replacing it with ":Image:" - I have not tested to see whether it also does this changing "Image:" to ":Image:" or whether it changes ":File:" to ":Image:" (correctly or incorrectly) though. Thryduulf (talk) 22:37, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. What an embarrassing error, present since October 2008! Should be fixed now. Go to the upload form and then refresh your browser's cache to get the correction. If it still happens, notify me. Lupo 06:34, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

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