Babel user information
en-N This user has a native understanding of English.
es-0 Esta persona no tiene ningún conocimiento del español (o lo entiende con mucha dificultad).
ja-0 この利用者は日本語分かりません (または理解するのがかなり困難です)。
This user supports the public domain.
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My global user page (linked in the ‘see also’ section above) contains information about me. The remainder of this page is not about me, but rather about this project, Wikimedia Commons (also known around here as just ‘Commons’). All references to articles are to the English Wikipedia (except where otherwise stated).

Commons is a media repository where anyone can contribute, but if contributed media is outside Commons’ scope or has legal or ethical issues, it may be deleted. Commons media can be directly embedded into pages on Commons and other wikis, such as the various Wikipedias in different languages. This embedding does not create additional copies of the media: it simply embeds the original copy. If the original copy is deleted, the media will also stop appearing on all the pages it is embedded in.

This page includes examples of relevant Commons media. As explained above, that media appears only when it is still available on Commons for normal use, which implies the Commons community has accepted (or, at least, not rejected) that media. That does not imply I endorse that media.

The sections below discuss a variety of issues relevant to Commons.

Jurisdiction edit

Commons inherits rules from relevant jurisdictions, as well as defining its own rules. Relevant jurisdictions always include the jurisdiction where Commons is hosted, but often also include other jurisdictions.

Scope edit

Commons is a repository of free (as in freedom) educational media. Its scope (for media) is defined by three criteria:

  1. Copyright status. This has its own policy; in practice, both here and elsewhere on Commons, it is treated as a separate issue to scope. It is discussed in its own section.
  2. Educational use. Media must be ‘realistically useful for an educational purpose’. This is discussed in this section.
  3. Format. This is not discussed here.

Media that is outside this scope is usually referred to as ‘out of scope’.

Generic ‘out of scope’ deletion requests edit

Some media is subject to generic ‘out of scope’ deletion requests, even though it is clearly in scope. Examples are given below.

The ‘2015 shaped sunglasses’ case is particularly damning, because that deletion request included 1 762 files, of which many were clearly in scope. The nominator relied on advice received from other users (including the administrator Yasu) at Commons:Help desk/Archive/2022/10#Category:Sakurako_Miki and Commons:井戸端/過去ログ19#Category:Sakurako_Mikiに収集されている人物について. No one seems to have considered that some files might be useful. One user (RZuo) admitted that some photos could be good stock photos, but went on to say that having so many rather private photos is useless for commons.

Copyright edit

Media used on this page edit

Media used only in the ‘More examples’ section below may not be listed here.

2015 shaped sunglasses (15827579308).jpg edit

 
2015 shaped sunglasses being worn by Sakurako Miki, age 6. (deletion request)

This image is in legitimate use at the Wikidata item New Year's glasses (Q16933125) (and has been since 16 August 2018). That means it is in scope. But it was subject to a generic ‘out of scope’ deletion request, along with 1 761(!) other files.

Used in this section:

Treble clef and Bass clef.png edit

 
Two musical staffs with treble and bass clefs, with two octaves of notes labelled, showing how the notes continue from one staff to the other with only one ledger line. (deletion request)

This image is clearly in scope, but was subject to a generic ‘out of scope’ deletion request.

Used in this section:

More examples edit

This section discusses examples that should be properly documented here, but are currently being investigated by me or discussed by the community.