Talk:WikiImages.org/Archive
- Yes please! Such would be extremely useful, IMO. I would like to go even further: Not only place images on the page, but also links to pages with images that are available in the public domain or GNU/FDL, with a description of those images. That way, when I want to get an image with an article, I could make a search on the images site and perhaps find some. Andre Engels 08:23, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC)
- It makes sense for pics which are language-independent, like photos of places, people, things - language-dependent stuff like maps should be continued the way they are now. And we should enforce the PD/GFDL policy for these pictures, so there will be no problem with one language accepting fair use or dubious sources, and another one not - all of the languages should be able to use these pictures. I also have some more photos which I could contribute, but there is often no fitting article yet. Ahoerstemeier 08:33, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC)
- or, allow/make inter-wiki image display to work
Why not just make inter-wiki image display possible (at least for the short term)? And if anything, this would be a subproject of Wikimedia (like meta) and not a project of its own. So it would not need its own domain. http://files.wikimedia.org would be fine. --Maveric149 16:02, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC)
- Which way we do it depends on who feels like coding it. I feel like coding it and I think there should be separate Image: pages and separate image table entries, but that the image table entries can point to arbitrary upload directories. Perhaps we could even use real symlinks. Ultimately we may create a files.wikimedia.org, and when we do, we can move the actual images to there and update the image tables to point to the new location. But presumably there would first have to be some sort of nice-looking website to put at http://files.wikimedia.org/.
- Of course, I'm still open to suggestions. But my scheme is based around finding the absolute minimum of developer effort, so unless the suggestion is even easier than mine, or someone else is willing to help, it's unlikely to happen. As for Ahoerstemeier's pictures with no articles, we should create a page for such images here on meta, right now. -- Tim Starling 23:29, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Just some comments..
- I have seen some Japanese wikipedians wanting to have either of these(interwikipedia or centralized repository) - in relation to Inline Linking discussion.
- I personally think both are good ideas to pursue, though details would need to be worked out.
- In case of files.wikimedia.org, I think it is nice if the files are provided just for any wikimedia projects - even though all projects so far use GFDL only, having extra freedom where it is possible with regards to the choice of license would be nice. (License incompatibilities is my latest obsession..)
- In place of image use policy and deletion, we might want to use "linkability" control - if an image does not meet the criteria of, say, wp:de: or wq:en:, then admins for those project can disable the linkability. Others in other wikipedia or wikisomething might be able to cite it as long as their image use policy permits it (base on fair use, or some others). Tomos 00:33, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC)
Why not just use meta's upload utility? It is neutral ground and central (it is planned to be multilingual and will be project neutral as soon as it is moved to meta.wikimedia.org). Image: links could then just point to meta. There would be no need to set-up another project, subproject, subdomain or set up custom software. That sounds like it would just require a few lines of code change plus the copy work. Wikimedians would then have to sort out file name conflicts. --Maveric149 02:52, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC)
So, mav says (1) why not use meta, or (2) file.wikimedia.org; Tim says (3) how about a central repository with multilingual-friendly interfaces; (4) Fantasy says, a central repository with possibilities of assigning multiple names to one image, I guess. And in below, (2) and (4) are considered the same? I'm confused. Tomos 05:49, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC)
- Fantasy started the thread, with the proposal that images all be stored at WikiImages.org. Mav basically agreed with that proposal, except he said it should be at files.wikimedia.org, or better yet, meta.wikimedia.org, rather than WikiImages.org. I had a completely different proposal, where images are not centralised at all -- rather, local names on various wikis all point to an arbitrary wiki where the file is actually stored. So [[Image:Australia.jpg]] might display the image from [[de:Image:Australien.jpg]]. -- Tim Starling 07:13, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC)
- Well, regardless of whose idea is which, here is one thing I wanted to point out. If we have a centralized repository, we might have an interlingual edit war over image - some saying "hey, I think this image is a better depiction of coffee cup, why did you change it?" another saying (in another language) "What's happening? What is this strange stuff? We need a picture of coffee cup! Like this one!" I really hope this could be avoided as much as possible.
- One solution I can think of is to make it possible to link to a specific version of an image, as opposed to the latest version. Tomos 05:56, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC)
- If there was such an edit war, one side could simply make a duplicate with a new name. If you link to a version, then small improvements become difficult. -- Tim Starling 07:13, 29 Oct 2003 (UTC)
On one of the mailing lists, Jimbo said that we could have a seperate project that aims to be a GFDL image collection, complete with description and category pages. I like this idea the best. Images used under permission should have to get permission for each wiki individually. Jimbo thinks that you shouldn't be able to link to pictures from here, though, because if multiple pages link to the same picture, the replacement of one picture could mess up another page. I think that this reasoning is flawed because you can just check what pages link to it before updating the picture, and I don't see why his argument doesn't mean that we shouldn't allow multiple pages in the same wiki link to the same picture, which we do allow. -- LDan
As to the issues of language, would a check-box system of some kind (similar to the licensing arrangement now) be workable? For example, if I upload a photograph I simply check the "All Languages" box, but if I upload an English map, I simply make it available in English. People can then search for images based upon their preferred language, if any. Odd bloke 00:26, 30 November 2005 (UTC)