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A village pump in Burkina Faso
Welcome to the Village pump

This Wikimedia Commons page is used for discussions of the operations, technical issues, and policies of Wikimedia Commons. For old discussions, see the Archive. Recent sections with no replies for 7 days may be archived.

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Village Pump Archives
+ J F M A M J J A S O N D
2004                 09 10 11 12
2005 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2006 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2007 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2008 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2009 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2010 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2011 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12

Contents




[edit] June 15

[edit] Template merge

{{Should be substituted}} and {{Must be substituted}} appear to serve the same purpose, since the former says "should always". Should they be merged? Rd232 (talk) 00:34, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Nope, it still can be merged with the help of a few parameters. Rehman 04:56, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
Parameters increase complexity and you'd likely see one of the above turned into a silent call to a combined template with the parameter specified. As in, {{must be substituted}} would have {{should be substituted|must=yes}} within it. – Adrignola talk 14:05, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
Symbol oppose vote.svg Oppose The words do have different meanings, and there is a completely different look. The same user created both, so there is an intended distinction. As noted above, it was already discussed briefly at Commons:Deletion requests/Template:Should be substituted and kept. They have already been translated into a bunch of different languages with their precise meanings; I see almost no benefit to changing things. It's just another template, which is no big deal, and trying to change it creates far more work than will be saved. Carl Lindberg (talk) 07:26, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
I don't think anyone diagrees that there is a difference. As far as I am concerned, that's not the issue. It's not clear to me how having two separate templates eliminates the risk of confusion between the two, however (if anything, it adds to it). --Skeezix1000 (talk) 16:08, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
Significant differences based only on parameter can be just as confusing, IMO. It looks like we would have a situation where based on the parameter, we choose one layout or the other -- there doesn't seem to be much overlap in terms of the template content. If that is the case, we may as well have two templates, and make the difference more apparent in the name. Lastly, there has already been lots of translation work here, and the list of languages in the two templates do not match up. You risk messing up a lot of that work, or at least forcing people to re-do translation work, where everything seems well enough if left alone. If the templates were just being created there *may* be an argument, but at this point... there's hardly a benefit that I can see. Carl Lindberg (talk) 16:57, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
The fact that the lists of languages in the two templates do not match up is precisely a major reason why these templates should be merged. Because the two are currently edited independently, seemingly in disregard to the complementary role the two templates play in respect of one another, we now have a situation where, for example, one template is translated into Spanish and the other isn't. So, a Spanish-speaking Commons user only gets half the story. This presumably would not have been a problem with one template. With two templates, you are always at risk of inconsistent and incomplete edits that have no regard for the sister template or the distinction between the two templates. There is tremendous benefit in eliminating that problem, and I disagree that suggestion that the templates work well as is.

As for overlap, the templates both consist of a box with the same icon. We are not dealing with completely different layouts. We are only talking about a message changing with the parameter. You suggest that we might change the names, but if we were going to that degree of trouble, why would we not just merge them and do things properly? --Skeezix1000 (talk) 17:20, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Just as an aside, I wonder how well the existing translations convey the distinction between "should" and "must". Unless one speaks 10+ languages, it's hard to monitor this. Where only one template has been translated, I suspect there is a good chance that the distinction is lost. Where both templates have been translated into the same language, but by different editors, I also suspect that is a lot of room for confusion. Again, there is less risk of this problem if we have one template that allows users to choose between "should" and "must" (and thus forces translators to distinguish between the two). --Skeezix1000 (talk) 17:30, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
GA candidate.svg Weak support (updated from oppose) — if there's a required parameter for MUST vs. SHOULD as per Skeezix1000 a merged template would in fact help with its i18n. –Be..anyone (talk) 19:05, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
An optional required=no (or false or 0) with a default required=yes (or true or 1) might be clearer. –Be..anyone (talk) 21:23, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
Sure. Just threw one possibility out there. It bothers me not as to what the parameter is eventually named, nor the value. – Adrignola talk 21:45, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
Just as a note... there is a distinction of "should" and "must" in RFC 2119. I don't think it's in any way "unclear". In many circumstances, the difference is significant (which is why all the internet RFCs make sure to use those words carefully). Not sure if the distinction here is important enough to keep the two templates, but it could be -- doesn't sound like "should" was widely used. Carl Lindberg (talk) 05:39, 4 July 2011 (UTC)
My oppose updated to weak support was inspired by RFC 2119, and much work on m:help subst-topics years ago before I pulled "right to vanish" on en:w:/m:/mediazilla: (doesn't affect the new userid here). –Be..anyone (talk) 05:43, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
"should" and "must" have different meanings in English, that's clear. The distinction between "should always" and "must" is clear as mud. Rd232 (talk) 19:42, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] FOP of aircraft factory in France for EN:WP Featured Article in Candidacy

Moved to Commons talk:Freedom of panorama

[edit] Replaced images doesn't refresh - Purge doesn't help

..this problem seems ubiquitous. I really wonder if the admins are aware of these problems and if someone is working on it. --Alexrk2 (talk) 09:41, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I have noticed that too. Yann (talk) 09:44, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Of course Commons' admins are well aware of this problem. But we have no means to do anything about it, beyond soothing angry uploaders/users and filing Bug reports. --Túrelio (talk) 10:24, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Please all complain, add notes and vote at https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28613 . Multichill (talk) 10:45, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Tnx, voted.. seems like this could take some time to resolve. Maybe it would be nice to place a hint on Commons so users don't get frustrated. --Alexrk2 (talk) 10:56, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
So nice to find out that I'm not the only idiot in the neighbourhood... Just wasted half an hour to try to understand what I did wrong... Ha ha ! It was not my fault. But the problem remains. Indeed, placing a hint somewhere (if possible, somewhere one could notice it) might be a good idea... In the meantime, I'll try voting, in case it would help anyhow... Oblomov2 (talk) 13:35, 3 July 2011 (UTC) (Oh no, I have to create a Bugzilla account or whatever and this will probably make me lose some more hours, I give up). Oblomov2 (talk) 13:38, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

File:2011 Turkish general election.svg has been re-uploaded under a new name, and the original file marked as a duplicate to be deleted, because there seems to be absolutely no way of getting any image version more recent than Jun 30 to display... AnonMoos (talk) 22:13, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

The same problem is affecting me as well. Last time this occurred (about a six weeks ago) some of my images took weeks to refresh. However, if one changes their preferences to increase or decrease the standard image size (say from 800 by 600 to 1024 by 768), the "correct" version is displayed. 09:31, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
This image is showing the wrong version since I cropped its border almost 15 days ago. In cases where there is an urgent need for the new version it can be solved by simply moving the file, however. It is possible that deleting an undeleting the file also has some effect, though I haven't tested it yet.--- Darwin Ahoy! 09:42, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
It's showing the cropped version for me. This image is squished really wide at 800 by 600 on my computer, does the correct version render for other users? OSX (talkcontributions) 10:16, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
is it? Weird, why can't I see the cropped version then? Even in different browsers?--- Darwin Ahoy! 10:40, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
This is what I see. OSX (talkcontributions) 10:53, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
Strange, I can't imagine why I'm still seeing the wrong version. Incidentally, even with the low res in your image I was able to see that the last crop was better than mine, and tested deleting and restoring the image, to see if it would change something, but I'm still seeing the border version. About your image mentioned above, I think I'm seeing the squished version as well.--- Darwin Ahoy! 11:12, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
Added a sitenotice about it. Hopefully it will stop people from worrying when updates/replcements seem not to work. Feel free to improve the message and/or possibly add a link to a page where such images may be listed. /Lokal_Profil 09:45, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Village Pump / Proposals

user:Docu just attempted to effectively delete Commons:Village pump/Proposals by merging it here [3]. I reject this attempt to unilaterally get rid of something that has hardly had a chance to succeed or fail, but to my mind has already proved useful and certainly had enough community engagement that it is absurd to rely on old discussion as "consensus" to get rid of it. If there is a community agreement to close it now, fine, I'll accept that. But it should be a new proposal/thread/discussion (here, I suppose, would be logical). Rd232 (talk) 20:56, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Your proposal was discussed here and didn't gain sufficient support. While I understand that you are interested in porting ideas from English Wikipedia to Commons, you need to accept that not all gain the necessary support.
The text discussion wasn't effectively deleted, but still remains available here. --  Docu  at 21:06, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
"didn't gain sufficient support" - you opposed it, so you're not the best judge. And this is hardly consensus against. It's often easier to judge an idea when you've got a concrete draft of it, and there wasn't at the time. So, by all means, revisit it, but don't cite that discussion as proof it should be killed now. Rd232 (talk) 21:19, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

* Close Commons:Village pump/Proposals. Why? Ask Docu. Why not? Because having a place for discussions and ideas that need a bit longer to gestate is helpful - better than this Village Pump where they disappear up the page quite easily. And having them on a separate page allows separate watchlisting by people who might not be interested in the everyday discussions here, but would keep an eye on bigger ideas. Rd232 (talk) 21:19, 3 July 2011 (UTC) struck, since apparently it is impermissible to discuss the merits of having a proposal subpage. Rd232 (talk) 22:14, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Summary of discussion of proposal about "Village_Pump/Proposals"

Rd232, would you provide us your summary of the discussion of your proposal at Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2011/06#Village_Pump_.2F_Proposals. Try to spare us your incivilities and just state the support and opposition your proposal gained. --  Docu  at 21:27, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

I see. Your opposition to this concept is so deeply visceral that no new discussion of the proposal on the merits is permitted? Besides which, two can play that game. What arguments against the concept were offered in that discussion? Rd232 (talk) 21:34, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Docu's moving this section down again, after I tidied it up to above the Proposal with an explicit assumption of good faith seems almost like a declaration of bad faith; a public declaration of an intention to disrupt. Rd232 (talk) 22:14, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

Please avoid editing other users' signed comments. As apparently we have different notion of "tiding", please refrain my comments at all times. --  Docu  at 22:29, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Apparently we have a different notion of "editing" too. Rd232 (talk) 22:30, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Pictogram voting comment.svg Comment The page has already been created, so oh well. Participants have already become involved with that page, and therefore reverting the proposal by merging the page back to this one is not a good idea. If Docu really wants better consensus, we can all re-discuss the issue so that we can achieve consensus that will satisfy Docu and others who didn't think the previous discussion was enough. That being said, let's just share opinions/votes on whether the page should be kept or not. I hope not to see another argument about how the previous discussion was insufficient or how this section should be formatted. --ZooFari 22:24, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
I'm fine with that. If there had been some real arguments against in that discussion, or dangers or potential harm I could see, I wouldn't have gone ahead and created the page. As it is, I think it should just be given a chance (maybe 3 months) and then see if it's still in use, or has died, or should be given up on for some other reason. (Unless someone comes up with some real demerits now.) Rd232 (talk) 22:29, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
"If there had been some real arguments against in that discussion, [..] I wouldn't have gone ahead and created the page.". That is really funny. It gives the impression you had actually been interested in other people's opinions. --  Docu  at 22:33, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Accusation of bad faith noted, and rejected. Would you care to discuss the page on its merits? Rd232 (talk) 22:36, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Your summary in the quoted sentenced is factually wrong. --  Docu  at 22:39, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
I've just revisited the archived discussion, and I don't think so. If you want to argue it (really, is it worth it?) provide quotes. Rd232 (talk) 22:45, 3 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Moving forward

The discussion is in regards to Commons:Village pump/Proposals. Should it be kept?

We are still trying to evaluate what conclusion to draw from the previous discussion. The page was created when the proposal was initially made. --  Docu  at 22:29, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
That it was closed prematurely? I'm fine with admitting that. Whether we all agree on this or not, it's not going be much help since the page already exists and is linked from several different templates, and users are already participating. That's what my comment above was about. If this is an issue about Rd232 not knowing when to close things, or if you presume the user lacks knowledge about anything regarding proposals, then that can be discussed somewhere else without interfering the process already in process. It isn't easy telling whether you support that page or not, because more of the energy is going towards Rd232's actions (and/or conclusions of the previous discussion I suppose) and very little towards the idea of the page itself. --ZooFari 22:41, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
It wasn't really closed. It drifted off without any substantial arguments against, and with a test case, very suitably, being the discussion of another VP subpage (Copyright). Rd232 (talk) 22:48, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
Actually, Rd232 created it and added some topic, before it was proposed here.
It's only in his mind that the following happened: "If there had been some real arguments against in that discussion, [..] I wouldn't have gone ahead and created the page."
Funny actually. Curious what he will make up next. --  Docu  at 22:48, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
OK, by "created" I didn't mean putting together a draft of the subpage (technically creation, which I did to assist the discussion, since it's much easier when you can see what it might look like) but putting it live, by moving the Copyright discussion there and linking it from {{Discussion menu}}. Your AGF valve may be malfunctioning. Please consider servicing it. Rd232 (talk) 22:51, 3 July 2011 (UTC)
".. and linking it from {{Discussion menu}}": You are quick in making more things up. Consider adding diffs when you try to relate your own actions.
At least you concede that you deliberately ignored the discussion ("by moving the Copyright discussion there"). --  Docu  at 11:05, 4 July 2011 (UTC) (edited)
My bad, I've just checked the history and I did add the new page to {{Discussion menu}} shortly after creating the draft, which was obviously premature. However moving the Copyright discussion there wasn't ignoring anything, it made sense at the time as the thread was going off topic, and it worked out just fine. Rd232 (talk) 11:29, 4 July 2011 (UTC)
It may be "anything" to you, but it was the community feedback for your proposal. --  Docu  at 11:34, 4 July 2011 (UTC)
By "anything" I mean a substantive argument against the concept. There weren't any then, and there haven't been here (yet). Even now you decline to provide any. Rd232 (talk) 11:39, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

┌─────────────────────────────────┘
I voted against it based on my deep experience with forums. It's relevant and I stated the basis. now get off my back.TCO (talk) 00:39, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

So basically you're saying you just don't like it? Because you've given no indication as to how your "deep experience" with "forums" (Commons is a MediaWiki wiki, not a forum) translates into concrete reasons to oppose. Every attempt to do so I've knocked back; so either change your mind (it is allowed!) or continue discussion (en:Wikipedia:Polling is not a substitute for discussion). Rd232 (talk) 01:20, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
I said it was based on deep personal experience from discussion forums. Take that for whatever it's worth. And get off my jockstrap. you're not contributing anything. You've already said you think my point unsupported (I disagree). So, we're not getting anywhere. Now just stop trying to have the last word.TCO (talk) 02:29, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
I'm not "trying to have the last word"; I thought we were having a reasoned discussion on the basis that one of us might persuade the other by the strength of argument, or else agree to disagree through different opinions on the strength of different arguments. "I don't like it and I'm not telling you why" doesn't really fall within that. Rd232 (talk) 08:17, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
Shade.png Good point. Personal experience rocks! (I mean it.)TCO (talk) 02:35, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
Darwinius provided specific reasoning that can be engaged with, drawn from personal experience. Perhaps you could take that as a model. Rd232 (talk) 08:27, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
Mega-discussions like that should normally be moved to a sub-page when they reach a certain size. One extra page to watchlist (VPR) is a couple of clicks, but subpaging every proposal would make it easier for people to follow just that discussion, but make it harder for people who are generally interested in following discussions on that page. There's a balance there, and in my experience, sub-paging discussions on an ad-hoc basis when they reach a certain size works pretty well. (And the flexibility to do that is one of the advantage of a wiki.) Rd232 (talk) 08:33, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
Yes, subpaging only at a certain size would probably be the best solution, indeed. We subpage every proposal at the wiki-pt Village Pump, and it suffers from the problems you point above (to the point that some proposals are even completely missed and not commented upon, due to people failing to notice the subpage being added to the VP).--- Darwin Ahoy! 08:40, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] July 4

[edit] Cropping PDF files

I found http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/Portals/0/FreedomTrain/TheTributeofFrancetotheMemoryofDrFranklin1790.pdf which has a death notice related to Benjamin Franklin in French

I do not have the full Adobe Acrobat. How do I cut off the caption and include only the death notice? The death notice is certainly PD, but the caption probably is not. WhisperToMe (talk) 01:12, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Discrepancies between Inkscape and WikiCommons SVG rendering

I've been having issues with producing images in inkscape and then seeing them being rendered by wikicommons. The issue is mainly text size and placement and I'm not sure if it concerns Inkscape or wikicommons. Can you please advise, as I'm producing quite a few images right now for a wikibook. See below Pluke (talk) 22:43, 5 July 2011 (UTC) CPT-logic-gate ex5 - Answers.svg

For me, this image renders just as bad in incscape as on Commons. Perhaps you should convert the text to paths. /Esquilo (talk) 07:34, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
Strange, which version of inkscape are you using? I'm on the portable apps version 0.48.0 running in windows XP. Can anyone else check to see if they get the same issue? I'd prefer not to use paths so that it's easier to edit. Pluke (talk) 10:42, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
I've just tested it in 0.48.1 and it looks correct, as does the pure svg render in chrome. It seems to be the png render that is causing a problem. Can you see if you can replicate this problem (and the correct versions)? Pluke (talk) 21:54, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
Set it to COM:GL/ILL. -- Perhelion»♥› 13:35, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
I think I might know what is going wrong. I have it under the "Sans" font in Inkscape, which apparently defaults to Arial in Windows, the font that wikipedia replaces it with is slightly larger, hence the misalignment. Is the only way to fix this to go through each image individually and change the font to dejavu sans? Surely I can't be the only experiencing this issue?Pluke (talk) 22:12, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
Use before upload Commons:SVG_Check. And see the infos here: Help:SVG#Fonts - there is also a link to the list of fonts which are available here. If you really need to use a specific font then upload a version of the svg, then convert the text to paths and upload as a new versions clearly describing in the version comment that the old version did contain text and this doesn't. Reason: Text as path is really bad for editing the svgs afterwards (e.g. translation, mistakes, ...). Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 02:34, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] July 6

[edit] Commons:Village_pump/Proposals#Amend_search_help

At COM:VPR there is a proposal to amend the search help. This involves expanding MediaWiki:Searchresulttext - draft at User:Rd232/searchhelpdraft. (Note those help boxes are collapsed by default.) Please see Commons:Village_pump/Proposals#Amend_search_help. Rd232 (talk) 09:02, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Old File Version Archive Request

I recently uploaded File:USMC 4th MLG vector.svg. However the first three attempts didn't render properly (showed as dead image link on my system). I have since resolved the rendering issue, but there are now four versions (three attempts and a revert) in the upload log that show no image. I'd really appreciate it if an admin would hide/archive, whichever is the proper term, these old versions that don't diplay anything. Thanks Jdcollins13 (talk) 14:52, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

✓ Done--Jarekt (talk) 16:26, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
thank you very much Jarekt, Jdcollins13 (talk) 21:56, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Secure server problems

In case anyone else has had the problems accessing Commons today that I've had (frequent 503 errors): it turns out this is a problem specifically with the secure server, so switching to the main server (until this is fixed) solves the issue. See also en:Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Frequent_503_errors.3F. Rd232 (talk) 22:00, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

seems fixed now. Rd232 (talk) 22:42, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] User categories

I would like to catch the idea of «user categories». Let me show some examples of user categories: Category:Photos by Ilya Ilf, Category:Karl Bulla, Category:Photographs by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, Category:Mikhail Evstafiev, Category:Photos by Ilya Varlamov, Category:Photos by Vasiliy Zimin. Why those categories are not marked as user categories? And why some other categories containing the works by modern photographers are labeled as user categories? I studied COM:USER and still cannot understand the difference between user-specific categories and author-specific categories when some photographer acts like a Commons user.--PereslavlFoto (talk) 22:39, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

Because Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky died years before the Internet/Commons and didn't upload them himself? --  Docu  at 23:32, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
Thus the photographer that uploads his art himself is nothing but a user now? -- PereslavlFoto (talk) 23:43, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
"user" is meant to mean "contributor" and "artist" in this context. --  Docu  at 23:50, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
Why artist categories are visible, but user categories are hidden? Why artists alive are worse than dead ones?!--PereslavlFoto (talk) 00:35, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
Basically, you have to be dead (or exceptionally expensive) before officially recognised as a real artist. --Foroa (talk) 05:44, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
Let's get back to the question: some living wikimedia contributors have "author categories" while others must live with "user categories". What, precisely, makes User:Zimin.V.G. more equal than others? NVO (talk) 07:56, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
NB I cleaned up a lot of user category entries recently, and may have moved some legitimate mainspace categories into user-category space, feel free to revert any changes that I made in error :-) --Tony Wills (talk) 09:41, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
  • Personally, I think author categories for users should be displayed in the same way as for others.
    This should apply to categories in the basic format (e.g. "Photographs by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky"). I'm not convinced of the utility of subcategories in these for every 10 images.
    The main problem we have today is that we can't easily identify topical categories from other categories other than by tagging them as "hidden". The "hidden" attribute should eventually just move them to a new line, but currently it doesn't. If we mixed all of them with topical categories, it just gets messy.
    To have user categories display for all users, a workaround used by some is through a link in a user template. This has the added benefit that it's also accessible from Wikipedia. --  Docu  at 10:46, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
I think that the problem is that the user hates hidden categories for his works. He might think that nobody will see him or find him less important. (He reverted several times the user cats) --Foroa (talk) 18:17, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
This is far from truth, because you take emotions for the reason (using the word «hates»). In reality the Commons users cannot understand why do the same photographers have different category types. Is it for discouraging people to join Commons? The reason in not emotion but logic. I beg you to see the problem, not the people pointing to it.--PereslavlFoto (talk) 20:19, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
Is it for discouraging people to join Commons is a fairly bizarre assumption, as nearly 99.9 % of all new users who are going to join Commons (including myself anno 2006) do neither know the difference between user and photographer categories, nor they (or a lot of them) know what categories are at all. (And, just for the records, even some "established" users with some high pretensions seem sometimes not to know how to categorize correctly.) - A.S. 20:58, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
(You are right, I am not a major burial specialist. So back to the question.) — What is the difference between authors and users, and why a photographer publishing at Commons has no right to be a photographer? — (You must know that en:Argumentum ad hominem is a en:Logical fallacy.)--PereslavlFoto (talk) 21:20, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
User categories are a concession to users to make them maintenance more easy, user categories are not topics, besides the maintenance aspect there is nothing that makes it acceptable that users include themself in our educational content. Commons is not flickr.com where people build their own photostreams, albums and so on. Some of the above mentioned categories are maybe simply not created correctly, but Category:Mikhail Evstafiev who is considerably notable judging by wiki articles is correct for example. --Martin H. (talk) 21:27, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
Is there any rule distinguishing authors in two groups, the notable ones and the other ones? How can a man catch up what categories are not created correctly? Thank you.--PereslavlFoto (talk) 21:59, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
I doubt about Flicr, please see the example. A usercat from Flicr user is treated as photography category.--PereslavlFoto (talk) 22:03, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] User categories: Flicr

Why do the Flicr users have their author's categories? They are just users, same to ourselves.--PereslavlFoto (talk) 16:26, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] July 7

[edit] Uploaded a new version of an image, but it isn't updating

Crosslink to older VP section on the same topic: #Replaced_images_doesn.27t_refresh_-_Purge_doesn.27t_help --Saibo (Δ) 04:05, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

I uploaded a new version of an image (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_beach_in_maine_on_a_clear_day.jpg). The upload seems to have been successful, but the site is still displaying the old version, and Wikipedia articles that link to the image are still showing the old version. I tried refreshing the page, clearing my browser cache, and manually purging the page, but the new version still won't show up. The only way I can display the new version is if I scroll down to the File History section of the page, and click on the new version, and the it will load... but this doesn't solve the problem of the new version not displaying on the main file page or in Wikipedia articles. Help? Thanks, --BMRR (talk) 01:05, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Nevermind, I see that this is known issue. Sorry. --BMRR (talk) 01:10, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
Same problem for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Strassen_algorithm.svg. (See https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28613, Elder article on village pump). Is there any workaround? --Xypron (talk) 04:38, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
To my knowledge there are only those workarounds: Only if it is very urgent (e.g. main page or similar) then just embed a slightly different size which wasn't used by anybody before (e.g. 179 instead of 180 px width). This will have the correct thumb. I guess deleting and restoring or simply uploading a duplicate under a new name could help, too. Those work arounds shouldn't be used for non-urgent cases as they are creating work and are non-standard. Just waiting helps. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 02:31, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
From my experience, deleting and restoring does nothing to resolve it, but renaming the file solves it, if there is some urgent need.--- Darwin Ahoy! 08:46, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] US National Laboratories as opposed to Department of Energy

This is kind of a broad concern. I see a large warning on our DOE template that works of National Labs may not be PD. And as far as I know, they are most or all run by contractors. (Some of the lab websites have a copyright notice, some don't. Also, for example, Ames, clarifies that the USG has a non-transferable right to publish all their images...so even seeing something on the DOE site might not be assurance that it is PD as general, they might just be exercising their right, but not ours for lab image republishing!) We have a LOT of images from National Labs. I am seeing them in Featured Articles at en-Wiki and the like. (It's not an isolate thing.) I pretty much LOVE these images. But also have this concern that we are broadly non-compliant. Appreciate any thoughts, not just on "the rules", but also practical things to make sure we're using compliant images (and that I not rule out good pictures.) P.s. I guess I could just throw a bunch of important pics into Deletions and get insight that way, but thought I would ask here first!  :-)

Some pics (must be more):

TCO (talk) 17:22, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Very legitimate concern, I think. However, the latter two you mention are Manhattan project photos (pre-dating the private involvement in the national labs I think, which were only created after the war), and the last one explicitly mentions the US Government employee who took the photo, so I don't think there is any issue with those. The first one may be an issue, though apparently being published before 1964 would mean that a copyright renewal would have to be on file at the Copyright Office somewhere for that one. For modern images, however, yes they are a concern (unless it is documented that a US Government employee took them). Carl Lindberg (talk) 17:38, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. Feel better. Guess I still have a mildly persnickety wonder about even MP era photos as the sites were often contractor-run even then. And there must be a difference in the type of contractor. If USG just hires a photog to do some photos, we would treat that as USG property (image made for hire, although even then I guess it would matter the actual contract), but then the labs now, are on Federal land, but are contractor-administered and the employees are not exactly civil servants. But...eh...you made me feel a little better.  :-) TCO (talk) 17:56, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
Manhattan Project I think would be entirely considered federal employees, or close enough. Contractors/employees may have been loaned by private institutions but the work was definitely only for the federal government, and I don't think they were contractor-run at all. Any photos would have been highly classified anyways. Official private involvement in running the labs themselves only started after the war... 1946/1947. Carl Lindberg (talk) 18:06, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
They used contractors even back then. Not sure the nature of the contracts, but say at ORNL, Eastman Chemical (formerly Tennessee Eastman hired several thousand females to work at uranium separation). The work had federal purpose then and after. Perhaps the nature of the contracts differeed (which would be great). But even at LA, there was a definite desire from the beginning to have a bit of an academic atmosphere and Universty of California was the meta-contractor. See the current FAC on Manhattan Project (great article, btw!) I feel a little better with the Wescott photos as he may have been directly contracted by Army History or the like (althouth still unclear).TCO (talk) 18:17, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
I'm going to write to Ames (want to ask for a bigger file anyway, to try to get Featured Picture). Will ask what they know about rights status as well. The thing about 1964 makes me feel pretty good, that this stuff is off copyright from a practical perspective, but will just be interested to see what they say.TCO (talk) 19:10, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
They said it was PD, but gave me a release anyhow. and bigger pics! Putting them on Wiki since this is where image is now.TCO (talk) 18:26, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Naming order of Japanese people

Hi! There has been a little debate regarding the usage of Japanese names.

User:Aphaia appears on several photographs posted to the Wikimedia Commons. I altered image descriptions, a category name, and category content so that the name reads as "Naoku Kizu" instead of "Kizu Naoko" to make the name order consistent with pages/categories/etc of other post-Meiji 1 Japanese names

The practice of name switching is commonplace, and most Japanese have not expressed opposition to it. However Aphaia has a strong preference for having her name written as "Kizu Naoko" even in foreign languages. She takes offense whenever a person expresses her name as "Naoko Kizu". Aphaia expressed a preference that her category, images portraying her, etc. should have the text read "Kizu Naoko" in Japanese order.

However, manuals of styles of various Wikipedias ask that post-Meiji 1 Japanese names be put in western order if the Japanese person is of the modern day era (on the English Wikipedia, if the person is born on or after the first year of Meiji). On the English Wikipedia, editors do not allow specific pages to be expressed in Japanese order, even if the subject has commonly used or has a preference for Japanese order. On EN all post Meiji Japanese people are to have their names written in western order. (Pages on subjects born before Meiji 1, who are historical figures, use the Japanese naming order).

I believe that despite preferences of particular individuals, the Commons, like the Wikipedias, should maintain/enact a manual of style governing all post-Meiji Japanese names so that they are expressed in the same naming order, but that would only affect Files, subject pages, and categories since those pages have "official" Commons content (analogous to Wikipedia articles. I would stress that Wikipedians, when on talk pages, category talk pages, user talk pages, user pages, etc. etc. should continue to refer to Aphaia as "Kizu Naoko" WhisperToMe (talk) 19:01, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

A name is what people go by. If she wants Kizu Naoko, there's no harm in using that for her name everywhere. Otherwise I demand that Cherilyn Sarkisian be written that way everywhere.--Prosfilaes (talk) 19:13, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
Well Cher was a stage name is "Cher" so the English Wikipedia uses that - Turns out she legally changed her entire name in 1978 to "Cher" (no family name, no middle name) - So that is her name, full stop.
Likewise on EN if a Japanese person has a stage name/pen name "Aba-kun" the English article is "Aba-kun" but the article states the legal name is "Taro Sato" - That differs from the presentation of a Japanese name (what order is the actual name in). On EN and other Wikipedias pen names and stage names of post-Meiji 1 Japanese people go in Western order too (Yukio Mishima, legal name Kimitake Hiraoka).
Speaking of "Cher" we could very easily refer to the category and in many occasions author as simply "Aphaia" or "Britty" but there's still the question of how to refer to her legal name in "official" Commons material.
WhisperToMe (talk) 19:15, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
A photographer can be credited by any name they choose, regardless of Wikipedia article guidelines (besides which, this is Commons, not Wikipedia, and we don't operate under their guidelines). If Aphaia chooses to be credited as Kizu Naoko, you have no right to demand it be changed to something else, or to unilaterally change her uploads to something else. For any files you have already modified, I would strongly suggest you revert your changes. Huntster (t @ c) 02:08, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
Aphaia, is the subject of the photos in the category, not the photographer. The category and photos are at Category:Naoko Kizu
While Commons is a separate project from the Wikipedias, it could easily establish its own manuals of style, and due to it's relationship with the Wikipedias, I think it would be a good idea.. WhisperToMe (talk) 02:29, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
Sorry, misunderstood. Still, please respect her wishes. If she wishes to go by "Kizu Naoko", and she obviously does, please respect that wish. Huntster (t @ c) 02:41, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
If the Commons community has a consensus that certain individuals may have their names expressed in their preferred orders versus the standard order, then I would be happy to honor those wishes.
WhisperToMe (talk) 05:06, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
As it stands, as far as I'm aware, there is no consensus either way, which means it defaults to the editor's choice in the matter, not the other way around. Look, I'm sure you mean well and are just trying to create a sense of standardisation, but I find it distasteful when the desire of an individual overwhelms the desires of other editors, and this situation seems to have that appearance. Huntster (t @ c) 07:46, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
In some cases Aphaia was the editor who added her own name in the photo descriptions, and in some cases she did not edit the descriptions at all.
For instance this photo used Western order from the start: File:Wikimania_2008_dungodung_64.jpg [4] (possibly because the Wikimania Alexandria name badge in the photo that she is wearing puts her name in Western order) - She did not edit the description in that photo (she probably didn't know the photo existed, since I added that photo to the category) - In photo descriptions which Aphaia edited, she used Japanese order - In some photos her legal name is not mentioned, and only her screenname is
She was the author of the Category:Kizu Naoko category - I moved that category the to western order to make everything consistent and added more photos to that category.
Speaking of the name badge, another factor that prompted me to use western order was that in some Wikimedia/Wikimania materials her name is written in Western order (the name badge, also the page title of http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Presenters/Naoko_Kizu , although the text inside the page uses Japanese order)
In some other Wikimania materials I found the name was put in Japanese order: http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_team and http://http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Schedule (in schedule her name appears as "KIZU Naoko" while other Japanese/Japanese diaspora person's names are as "Tomohiro Fukuhara, Yoshiaki Arai")
To illustrate how the name is written in Japanese, I used the format that is seen in various European language Wikipedias on how Japanese names are displayed in Wikipedia articles and added "Naoko Kizu (木津 尚子 Kizu Naoko) - aka Aphaia, Britty" to the category description
WhisperToMe (talk) 18:17, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Please honor other user's wishes about how their names are used. I agree with Huntster - I see no ambiguity about this. --SJ+

We should always default to respecting the wishes of the subjects or creators of photos - where possible. It requires a very good reason to do otherwise, since it is simply inconsiderate. Simple pedantry is not a very good reason (even if it fuels Wikimedia :). --SJ+ 14:33, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
Well, I understand the sentiment. But I do not believe that this issue is pendantic. In my earlier years, I interacted with people who crafted the Manual of Style on Japanese names on EN. And discussions about which naming orders or better, or how to assign naming orders, came up constantly: en:Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_for_Japan-related_articles/Naming_order and en:Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_(Japan-related_articles)/misc5#Name_Order_Discussion are some examples of discussion. It was very difficult to come up with the standards on how the names would be ordered, and who would get what order. Because of the level of controversy, I would think that such a thing isn't pedantic (at least by Wikimedia standards :) )
If this was a small, personal project with a group of close friends, or something about social networking, or something more informal, I would without hesitation have the name be written as "Kizu Naoko" - But Wikimedia Commons is a large educational project and I think conforming to general English/other language media print standards would be important. While I haven't found Aphaia's name in the news, if she suddenly had an article written about her in the NYT, or Agence Presse France, or the BBC, I would imagine that her name would appear in western order.
Looking at the archives, I found a case where going against the subject's wishes on the name (in this case though, he's a public figure in the news constantly) may be editorially the best choice: en:Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_(Japan-related_articles)/misc5#Name_Order_Discussion
"The naming of biographical articles in Wikipedia is complicated by the fact that one individual may be known under several different names at the same time, and may change their name a number of times in their life. For example, we have an article at Cat Stevens (his stage name) even though he was born as Stephen Demetre Georgiou and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. To be neutral, our only choice is to examine popular usage. —Morven 23:20, Jul 8, 2004 (UTC)"
"Sometimes, I feel that those of us who live in Japan, or are just more familiar with Japanese culture than most of the English Wikipedia user profile, need to step back and realize that even though doing it this way is "right", when it has been established on WP to do it that way, it is for a very good reason. Most of the people reading about Japanese people in WP are not us, but others. I think the conventions are usually formed with that in mind, and thus, are what we should follow in the WP playground. Neier 08:02, 12 November 2005 (UTC)"
I am aware that the discussion is old, but I think the sentiment should illustrate how I feel about the issue.
I think the determination for Commons on how to handle these issues ought to be not be necessarily what the subject of photograph wants. It is what is best for the reader or what the reader would expect. Commons is mainly for the user/reader. If the international media made a story about or featuring Aphaia, they would certainly use western order. I believe that acting in a manner that would help the reader in understanding the content would be a "good reason" for an exception to going by the wishes of the subject.
If the consensus is "Well, Aphaia is not a public figure (yet?) and people who talk about her use FN-GN, so in this case it would be best for the reader to see her name in FN-GN and give an exception" then I would be fine with that. I just hope that I illustrated why I take the position on the matter that I take.
WhisperToMe (talk) 15:48, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
Well, I just found something interesting: There's only one journalism-related article that I found about Aphaia so far, and it mentions Aphaia's name in Japanese order (not sure if the journalist knew whether "Naoko" was her first name or if he believed it was her family name.
Cohen, Noam. "Some Errors Defy Fixes: A Typo in Wikipedia’s Logo Fractures the Sanskrit." The New York Times. June 25, 2007.
I just sent an e-mail to Noam Cohen asking him if he knew that Aphaia's family name was "Kizu."
WhisperToMe (talk) 16:34, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Anyway, a recent trend is for Chinese people (at least) who have become famous in the last few decades to become known in English by the Asian name order: Yao Ming, Li Na, etc. AnonMoos (talk) 01:02, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Yep - As the MEXT/Mombusho article points out, typically Korean and Chinese people do not have their names switched. And some Chinese people working abroad continue to be referred to in FN-GN order. WhisperToMe (talk) 15:48, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Policy Translation

Hi. I´m natural spanish speaker. I´ve been looking for this policy in spanish but I couldn´t find it. I´m able to translated, but I´m not sure if I can, if I must request some permission, if I need concensus or I can do it without problem. Can someone tell me if I can create Commons:Umbral de originalidad or is there any other method I should follow? Thanks. --Andrea (talk) 20:01, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

We can probably copy es:Umbral de originalidad to Commons and make minor changes or something. Killiondude (talk) 21:40, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
I translated the policy :) But I don´t know how to add the headline: "This project page in other languages: English | Spanish | +/−" --Andrea (talk) 21:54, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
What you did one day later works for me, thanks. –Be..anyone (talk) 18:58, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Technically were other users, I just made a small adjustment :) But yes, I think now is perfect. Cheers. --Andrea (talk) 02:02, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] July 8

[edit] Inkscape Text Problems

I'm having problems with the way text appears in many of my Inkscape submissions and I don't understand why. Image File:Baker's San Felipe Flag.svg should have each word centered down the white stripes of the flag, and not left justified. Also, the font has changed to some sort of default, which I didn't specify. On File:San Jacinto Flag.svg, two of the words are showing up on the ribbon over the sword but a dark rectangle appears where a third word, "Liberty" should be. I was about to upload another submission, but the thumbnail showed another dark rectangle over the text. All of these files look perfectly fine in my Inkscape, but once they're uploaded, the text goes crazy.--Glasshouse (talk) 00:2Italic text8, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

The software that Mediawiki uses to convert SVG to PNG can be a little quirky, and it is a known issue that just hasn't been solved yet. See Commons:SVG Check and Help:SVG for more information. Huntster (t @ c) 02:15, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
Additionally, any font used in an SVG file must be one of those listed here. Huntster (t @ c) 03:28, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
Okay, I've hand-massaged both files, and the San Jacinto flag should be fixed (correct font and halved the file size). Also "fixed" the San Felipe flag, but the damn caching problem has decided to rear its ugly head for this file, and the image refuses to update. Sigh...that's getting old. Huntster (t @ c) 07:44, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks so much for the help. I'll use the fonts in the list you referenced, and as for the San Felipe flag, I guess we just wait until the cache updates itself?--Glasshouse (talk) 21:42, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


Mysterious black rectangles are generally a symptom of the non-standard Inkscape "flowtext" nonsense... AnonMoos (talk) 09:25, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] File:Allan_Manning's_Signature.jpg

It's not really about deletion, but about a problem concerning the license ( {{self|Cc-by-sa-3.0}} ) used in :

Uploader is not the author of this, and can't license it with a free license.

Scanning something do not create a new copyright => the scanner is not the author of it. What remains is the author of the element represented , here the signature of Allan Manning. But there's a long habit on commons to consider signatures PD Simple (or {{PD-signature}}). Hence, this file can't be licensed with a free license (with self), but should be maybe tagged PD.

Lilyu (talk) 05:09, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Martin H --Lilyu (talk) 10:12, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Special:Upload page

Hello!

Is there any way to implement the templates {{int:filedesc}} and {{int:license}} to the upload page in their appropriated places? The output of this form contains the section titles == Summary == and == Licensing == , I think that it would be nice it they were exchanged with the internationalized templates. And as long as I am on it, is there any way to add

== {{int:filedesc}} ==

in the preloaded text of the basic upload form? I forget to add it manually too often when uploading something... Regards, Grand-Duc (talk) 16:18, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] help uploading larger size images, but that have changed file extension

Hi. I requested and got a donation of 3 larger size images. However, the extension is .tif (an allowed kind for us), but our original was .jpg. Trying to upload "new copy" does not work as the extensions are different and it won't let me change destination name. Should I upload as all new versions? run some conversion of my own through Paint (don't want to lose content though)? What?

Concerns these three images: [5]

P.s. I know it's Wiki, but help your brother?

TCO (talk) 19:04, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

Upload as a new version, and add an "other versions" entry to the .jpg. --Carnildo (talk) 20:57, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

OK. Not sure how to add an other versions, but will try.TCO (talk) 21:19, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

There is a template {{other version}}. - Jmabel ! talk 17:30, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] South Sudan and Arab world maps

Hi, I m an admin in Arabic Wikipedia and I m wondering, with the independence of South Sudan, if you are going to update some maps in Commons. There is a lot of maps dealing with the Arab league or the Arab world that still contain South Sudan. Can any one remove the South Sudan from those maps Category:Arab League ? --Helmoony (talk) 20:09, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

I would suggest that you identify suitable maps to be modified, and file a request at "Commons:Graphic Lab/Map workshop" for new versions of the maps to be created and uploaded. — Cheers, JackLee talk 08:20, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Bearing in mind that in some cases, the existing file should be updated, and in others it should be retained and the new file uploaded under a new name. Powers (talk) 15:22, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Yes, I wasn't suggesting that the new files be uploaded over the old ones (these may be useful for historical reasons). — Cheers, JackLee talk 17:43, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Thanks, someone has already moved the dicussion there. --Helmoony (talk) 16:59, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Attributing A Derivative File With The New Upload Wizard

I like the fact that the new upload wizard is quick and easy, but I only have the option to list the item as my own work or as someone else's work. I often borrow elements from other wiki artists, and I want to give them credit for their work, but the upload wizard, as opposed to the old form, doesn't let me attribute a file as a derivative of someone else's work. How are we to handle derivative submissions going forward?--Glasshouse (talk) 22:36, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

The upload wizard (UW) is simply incomplete and will not be complete in the near future. Just use the old form Commons:Upload instead.
It would be best if you leave your UW feedback at Commons:Prototype_upload_wizard_feedback. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 03:27, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] July 9

[edit] Username policy for organizations

Could I request additional comments on a username policy question which I posted on that project's talk page? Please see Commons_talk:Username_policy#Test_case.

The issue is that some Wikipedia projects, like English Wikipedia, discourage group accounts such as those which might be used by anyone at an organization. My question is whether Wikipedia Commons supports such accounts. It seems to me that an organization might have media files which it could be willing to upload, and an organization account would be the most appropriate kind of account for doing this.

However, the global login created might be problematic for its existence on some Wikimedia projects. Could someone please comment on this on the talk page given above? Thanks. Blue Rasberry (talk) 01:11, 9 July 2011 (UTC)


[edit] Fun with sortkeys in General views of USS Ronald Reagan

More for the above gallery in Category:General views of USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76). The numbers used for sorting are approximate.

It's a bit silly, I concede. Anyways, enjoy. --  Docu  at 07:10, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

? The 2nd image is ≈ 45 ° on the photographers port side and the last is 45° to starboard. If you want to use the full 360 deg notation then the 2nd should be 315° and the last 45° because degrees are counted clockwise.--P.g.champion (talk) 09:48, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Actually I thought about using 0° for the view now at 180°. Feel free to revise it. --  Docu  at 10:25, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Archive template problem

Why is [6] not showing up at the top of Commons:Graphic Lab/Illustration workshop? There seem to be three levels of templates, and I'm not sure I edited the right thing, or if I did, whether the new version will ever get transcluded over a cache of some sort. 99.24.223.58 10:11, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

That template is obsolete. The template used for archives is Template:GraphicLabArchive. However, don't add "(stale)" becuase the template is localized. You may, however, modify the part that says "Completed requests are archived regularly" in the English translation page: Commons:Graphic Lab/top/en. Changing it to "Completed and stale requests are archived regularly" will work, but will need to be changed for all other languages as well. --ZooFari 17:40, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Could someone who knows what that means please do it? I'm a monoglot, but I know better to tell people that only the completed requests are archived when old stale requests are archived too. All should be linked from the archive box, unless there is a reason not to. 99.24.223.58 22:37, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Help: I cant't restore original File:LocationSouthernSudan.svg

I tried revert to original upload of File:LocationSouthernSudan.svg (see here), but the system show other picture that original, The original picture was a pink and red svg map scheme, like ohter files File:LocationSudan.svg, File:LocationAngola.svg, etc. But an user upload other type of map. I tried rever this, but commons show ohter picture. See the history of image. Shooke Flag of Argentina.svg Flag of Italy.svg(Talk me in spanish, english or italian) 17:26, 9 July 2011 (UTC) Have Some problem with server, i reverted image, but not show the same that original, i not understand Shooke Flag of Argentina.svg Flag of Italy.svg(Talk me in spanish, english or italian) 17:29, 9 July 2011 (UTC) Some administrator can be restore to original upload?. Have Some bug that not show the image Shooke Flag of Argentina.svg Flag of Italy.svg(Talk me in spanish, english or italian) 17:33, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

This is a caching issue. It just takes some time for the system to update the thumbnail images. Leave it alone for an hour or so, then check it again. It should have updated itself by then. — Cheers, JackLee talk 17:41, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
But the problems are other users, that not wait for this and revert again Shooke Flag of Argentina.svg Flag of Italy.svg(Talk me in spanish, english or italian) 17:44, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Patience; besides, the red/orange map needs some fixing (overlapping and such, give me a few minutes) Seb az86556 (talk) 17:46, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Ok, Shooke Flag of Argentina.svg Flag of Italy.svg(Talk me in spanish, english or italian) 17:47, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Fixed: the two are now separate objects, rather than one plastered over the other. Seb az86556 (talk) 17:55, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
The newest version looks rather horrible. I don't think that's what you intended, Seb. Killiondude (talk) 18:03, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Looked horrible due to the bug, I fixed it moving to File:Location Southern Sudan.svg. It may me moved back to the old name when the server issue is resolved, but for now this is the only practical way to solve the bug I'm aware of. Otherwise the wrong version may stay there for weeks.--- Darwin Ahoy! 18:37, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
Thanks Darwin. I think that rename the file like LocationSouthSudan.svg, see Category:South Sudan. Thank Shooke Flag of Argentina.svg Flag of Italy.svg(Talk me in spanish, english or italian) 19:58, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
I can rename it again, if there is a need for that and there is no opposition. If LocationSouthSudan.svg is the best final name, I may issue an universal replacement for the file name as well (I have not done it for the current name, since it was meant to be a temporary fix only).--- Darwin Ahoy! 07:01, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
I don't know why people cannot be patient and upload a new version using a new file name. You broke the sense, mainly in Wikinews articles where the old map was so far used to show both Sudan and South Sudan in one map which the 2007 version was the only useful map. There a different usages of maps. Never ever upload a new version on the same file! --Matthiasb (talk) 14:36, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
BTW: There was even no need to such confusion, since File:LocationSouthernSudan-Independent.svg exists since May 2011, now using the correct naming File:Location South Sudan.svg. --Matthiasb (talk) 14:38, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] "Unsourced Flickr image" templates on image that didn't come from Flickr

An image that I uploaded a few minutes ago, File:ElzaGate.jpg, has been tagged as an unsourced Flickr image. That doesn't make much sense to me, since I didn't get the image from Flickr. It's a PD-US image, and I think it's likely that someone else uploaded it to Flickr at some point, so I guess that maybe it was detected as being identical to a Flickr image. I've never encountered this particular issue before. Will anyone object if I quietly delete the template as irrelevant? --Orlady (talk) 22:25, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

If you didn't get it from Flickr, why did you add the template {{flickrreview}} ? /Esquilo (talk) 06:53, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
Added by new upload wizard? Bulwersator (talk) 10:26, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
Wouldn't surprise me, I'm sure someone posted on Commons they their own photographs were being tagged with {{flickrreview}}, a month or so ago but can't find it. Bidgee (talk) 10:45, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
I know where it is, it's somewhere in the UW feedback page, in more than one thread if I well recall.--- Darwin Ahoy! 11:13, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] July 10

[edit] Missing Creative Commons templates

Hi everyone, I created all the missing Creative Commons license templates like for example {{Cc-by-2.0-za}}. I do this by looping over the countries at {{Cc-country-flags}} and combining this by the different types (cc-by-/cc-by-sa) and versions (1.0, 2.0, 2.5 & 3.0). If the template exists at the Creative Commons site, it will be created here. Some messages are still missing (see for example {{Cc-by-3.0-cr}}). I'll add them to Translatewiki later. Expect these messages to show up in the next couple of weeks. Multichill (talk) 14:37, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] How many images from www.flickr.com...

I recently appealed to a flickr contributor to make one of their images available here. I tried to figure out how many of our images come from www.flickr.com .

If I am not mistaken there are about 655,000. Geo Swan (talk) 19:20, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

You did catch also category descriptions with weblnks to flickr. With Category:Files_from_Flickr you see 175484 Admin reviewed Flickr images, 140295 Flickr images reviewed by FlickreviewR, 124391 Flickr images uploaded by Flickr upload bot. = 440 170 reviewed images. If some images are not in several of these cats. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 21:34, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Upload new version of picture problem

Hi! I tried to replace File:Kawanishi E7K seaplane.jpg with unretouched version from crimso.msk.ru but I can't see the new version, only the old version resized to the new version's size. I tried to clear cache (even by action=purge) but it didn't work. Can anyone help me? Thanks... --Sceadugenga (talk) 19:29, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately, this is a known technical problem with the display of thumbnails that doesn't have any simple solution right now. You'll just have to wait a few hours and try refreshing the page again. The new file has been uploaded, though – if you click on the "full resolution" button you will see it. — Cheers, JackLee talk 20:07, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
"hours" or even days/weeks, yes. Please just wait and continue to discuss this problem at the relevant sections above - if needed (avoid a scattered discussion). Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 21:21, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
File is showing the correct version now (at least to me), as are the various project pages. Hopefully this indicates the servers are slowly returning to normal...update lag time seems to be decreasing. Huntster (t @ c) 08:35, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Use of the in category names

[Discussion copied from "User talk:CommonsDelinker/commands" for more comments.]

Rename Category:Rail tickets of the London Underground to Category:Rail tickets of London Underground (0 entries moved, 8 to go)grammar
Pictogram voting comment.svg Comment: I don't think grammar requires the the to be removed. — Cheers, JackLee talk 06:25, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
It is not correct, grammatically or otherwise, to use the article with "London Underground". As a , it does not require the article. Ravenseft (talk) 18:24, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
Ummm, are you suggesting that it is always grammatically incorrect to use articles with proper nouns? If so, I think that is not right. It is grammatically correct to say "I visited the White House today", and incorrect to say *"I visited White House today". For that reason, there is nothing grammatically wrong with "Rail tickets of the London Underground". — Cheers, JackLee talk 18:29, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
I'm sorry but your example is not helpful. The White House's official title is "The White House", like "the United States" and "the British Virgin Islands", so in these cases the "the" is indispensable. Hence, "Mountains of the United States" is correct and "Mountains of United States" is wrong. However, when "the" does not appear in the name, it is unnecessary to use it. So, "Cars made by Toyota" and not "Cars made by the Toyota". I realise this is not the place for an English lesson, that can be found elsewhere, so perhaps another native English speaker could confirm my explanation? Ravenseft (talk) 20:19, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
I regard myself as a native speaker, and I have not heard of any rule which states that the is only to be used when the word is part of an "official title". (And how does one find out what the "official title" of a proper noun is? Why is the "official title" of the USA "the United States of America" and not simply "United States of America"?) The website you referred to is interesting, but it doesn't seem to lay down any hard and fast rule on the matter. For example, http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-proper_3.htm states: "We normally use 'the' with the following sorts of names: ... the Ritz Hotel, ... the Royal Theatre, ... the Crystal Palace". I don't see how "the London Underground" is distinguishable from these examples. Anyway, I'm happy to hear views from other editors on this issue. — Cheers, JackLee talk 20:32, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
I'm copying this discussion to the Village Pump as this is probably not the best place for it. — Cheers, JackLee talk 20:38, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
The answer to your question is quite simple - there is no "the" in London Underground. London Underground which issues the tickets in this category is a company founded in 1985, the full title of which is "London Underground Limited". I believe your confusion may have arisen from the fact that LU is sometimes used as a synonym for "the Tube" which refers to the network in general. The "the" is therefore superfluous at best and grammatically incorrect at worst; it also gives rise to the impression that more than one company is issuing Tube tickets. Ravenseft (talk) 20:46, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
Ravenseft, unfortunately in some respects you appear to have an unhelpfully oversimplified understanding of linguistic usage/grammar, and a simple Google search suggests that there are plenty of occurrences of the phrase "the London Underground" on UK sites: [7]... -- AnonMoos (talk) 01:11, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
I don't see many other categories that includes a definite article. /Esquilo (talk) 04:58, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
There are a fair number that even begin with "the" -- see [8] -- and I imagine quite a bit more with "the" in the middle (e.g. Category:Flags of the United States etc. etc.). AnonMoos (talk) 11:35, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
(edit conflict) A definite article isn't uncommon in category titles. See e.g. all the sub-categories of Category:People of New Zealand by region and all but one of the sub-categories of Category:French Revolution and of Category:Transport in the Dominican Republic. The exception in the latter case is Category:Buses in Dominican Republic, which seems just as unnatural to me as Category:Rail tickets of London Underground. (I'm not saying that "London Underground" always requires an article; there wouldn't be anything grammatically wrong with Category:London Underground rail tickets, for instance.) This nomination seems to be based on a very peculiar idea of English grammar. --Avenue (talk) 12:01, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
Most of the categories AnonMoos links to seems to be books, films etc where 'the' is a part of thier name. There is a definite distinction between Category:The Black Cat and Category:Black cats. /Esquilo (talk) 14:16, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
  • Point of order -- Ravenseft wrote “The White House's official title is ‘The White House’...” ‘The White House’ is a nickname. The official title of the POTUS`s residence is something like “the Executive Mansion”. Geo Swan (talk) 19:52, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
It is very common in English to use the definite article before proper nouns that are of the form "Adjective Noun", even if the noun doesn't strictly include the article, except when the noun is used as an adjective. (As noted above: "I went to the White House", but "White House security is tight".) "London Underground" fits this pattern; it sounds stilted (at least to American ears) to omit the definite article. Exceptions include the titles of creative works (e.g., Dangerous Liasons or Scary Movie), though such works often incorporate the definite article anyway (e.g., The Little Mermaid). Powers (talk) 21:10, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

"London Underground" is a en:Proper noun. The definite article should be excluded. Rd232 (talk) 00:09, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Or, to be more precise, it's a proper noun referring to the company existing since 1985 (en:London Underground) and by extension the institution existing since 1933. Rd232 (talk) 00:15, 12 July 2011 (UTC)
While proper nouns are not normally preceded by an article (e.g. Chicago, Lady Gaga, etc.), they often are (the New York Times, the CN Tower, etc.). Whether it is a proper noun or not is a red herring. What is the most common usage, with or without an article? What does en-wp use? --Skeezix1000 (talk) 00:24, 12 July 2011 (UTC)
The company/institution name does not include the definite article. On the other hand, when referring to the system, especially prior to 1933, the definite article is used, because then it's a common name (adjective+noun). Rd232 (talk) 00:49, 12 July 2011 (UTC)
If including the article is only considered to be a solecism by a few railgeeks and company employees, but hundreds of thousands of ordinary riders are perfectly happy to include it, then I see no reason to change the category names. Meanwhile, the article en:London_Underground includes the article several times in the introductory section alone... AnonMoos (talk) 09:46, 12 July 2011 (UTC)
Ordinary riders call it "the tube". Rd232 (talk) 14:19, 12 July 2011 (UTC)
Really? I call it "the Underground". That phrase is used in 'Art on the Underground' and 'Poems on the Underground', so I'm not the only one. But the whole conversation is slightly silly anyway. Is this amount of discussion worth it just to decide on whether to include 'the' or not? Carcharoth (Commons) (talk) 02:13, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Anybody speaking russian there ?

Hi,

Could anybody tell via the Russian Embassy or something that the pic ru:Файл:Unigpo28051942ausstkat91.jpg is somewhat the same as File:Bundesarchiv R 49 Bild-0022, Berlin, Ausstellung "Planung und Aufbau im Osten".jpg here and therefore should be deleted there after the use of the Commons one ?

Yours sincerely,

Ultrogothe (talk) 22:39, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Why should they? It's a cropped and contrast enhanced variation which maybe fits more into what they want to do with the file. --Matthiasb (talk) 12:20, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
I added NowCommons template to the russian page. Thair copy is of much lower resolution and quality. --Jarekt (talk) 14:57, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] July 11

[edit] Category:SNCF Class Z 23000

This type of train was never owned by the SNCF but the RATP. See french wikipedia. Please rename. Smiley.toerist (talk) 09:01, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Please leave a request at "User talk:CommonsDelinker/commands". Thanks. — Cheers, JackLee talk 10:21, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

It is not clearcut, see discussion page. CMP or RATP? Do we in general use the historic company or the actual company? Smiley.toerist (talk) 09:03, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

In that case, you've done the right thing by initiating discussion on the category talk page and notifying editors of the discussion here. Sorry I can't participate – I know nothing about trains. — Cheers, JackLee talk 09:39, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] July 12

[edit] Thousands of medical images

Working on the donation of a few thousand / tens of thousands of medical images under a CC3.0 license. If we are able to come to an agreement how would I go about arranging the upload here? Or should I speak with the WMF? --James Heilman, MD (talk) 02:29, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Talk to User:Multichill, he has experience with large batch imports. Otherwise, see COM:BATCH. Lupo 06:43, 12 July 2011 (UTC)
Start a page at COM:BATCH and lets continue discussion there. But in general we will need 3 things to do successful mass upload
  • Access to the images: they should be either online somewhere or you might need to upload it to our new staging area
  • Prepare metadata: For each image we will need as much data as is available. Ideally data would be provided to the uploaded in a spreadsheet.
  • Categories: Although this step can be done after upload, it is usually easier to assign commons categories to each image before the upload
Once we assemble those 3 things the actual upload is rather straightforward. --Jarekt (talk) 14:25, 12 July 2011 (UTC)
Great thanks. Will let you know the details when they are finalized. --James Heilman, MD (talk) 00:22, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Copyvio tag

On template:copyvio, it says Appeal: If you think that the file does not meet the criteria for speedy deletion, please explain why on its talk page and remove this tag. But if the uploader sees this and (say, they add some extra information on the copyright status) remove the tag, they will get a 'Please do not remove speedy deletion tags' warning. Maybe the wording should be changed. Who was the 'you' in that line referring to? An admin, any user that is not the uploader? --Ben.MQ (talk) 08:49, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

I really don't think there's a settled policy against removing speedy deletion tags. If you think it's not a matter for speedy, and want it to be taken to a formal deletion nomination, that's the only way. AnonMoos (talk) 09:41, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] French translation help

Please could someone help me by translating a couple of sentences from French to English at Commons:Administrators/Requests/ArséniureDeGallium. It's fairly urgent, as the Admin Request closes soon. --99of9 (talk) 23:01, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] July 13

[edit] Editing the Upload Wizard

Re Commons_talk:Licensing#Free_Art_License.3F - does anyone know how to get changes made to the Upload Wizard? I get it's an extension (mw:Extension:UploadWizard), developed as part of the Usability Initiative (cf [9]), but I can't see anything about how to change the Wizard structure. Maybe only the developers can? Rd232 (talk) 00:12, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

<snip> discussion moved to Commons:Village_pump/Copyright#Upload_Wizard_-_Free_Art_License. please continue there to avoid a scattered discussion. --Saibo (Δ) 01:11, 13 July 2011 (UTC)
I think that this discussion is resolved and can be archived. If you disagree, don't hesitate to replace this template with your comment. --Saibo (Δ) 01:11, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Free image?

Hi, can any admin/expert please check if this image is free for real? It was taken from a fan page and it really doesn't seem like a public domain photo. The license confuses me. Mel 23 talk 02:48, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

I've nominated it for deletion here. No evidence that the license is valid. Huntster (t @ c) 04:33, 13 July 2011 (UTC)
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