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Welcome to the Village pump

This page is used for discussions of the operations, technical issues, and policies of Wikimedia Commons. Recent sections with no replies for 7 days and sections tagged with {{section resolved|1=~~~~}} may be archived; for old discussions, see the archives.

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  1. If you want to ask why unfree/non-commercial material is not allowed at Wikimedia Commons or if you want to suggest that allowing it would be a good thing please do not comment here. It is a waste of your time. One of Wikimedia Commons' basic principles is: "Only free content is allowed." This is just a basic rule of the place, as inherent as the NPOV requirement on all Wikipedias.
  2. Have you read the FAQ?
  3. For changing the name of a file see Commons:File renaming.
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Oldies[edit]

Getting translations from Wikidata[edit]

Is there currently an effort to enable use of Wikidata to get translations, and if yes, where can I follow the progress and/or help? Thanks --Reinhard Müller (talk) 09:02, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Hi Reinhard, for this to properly work we first need arbitrary access to Wikidata items. Take for example Haarlem and Category:Haarlem, Haarlem is connected to d:Q9920 so we can use all the data (including translations) from this item. On Category:Haarlem we can't access this data, because this category is connected with a different item. With arbitrary access we can access the other item opening up a whole new world of possibilities. At the moment arbitrary access is being rolled to the first wiki's. We have several open bugs:
  • T49930 - "Allow accessing data from a Wikidata item not connected to the current page - arbitrary access (tracking)", the general overview bug
  • T98307 - "Deploy usage tracking and arbitrary access to commonswiki", enable the feature here
  • T89594 - "Use the arbitrary access to Wikidata feature on Commons (tracking)", all sorts of nice things we can do with the data
  • T89601 - "Build a Multilingual tag alternative in LUA using data from Wikidata", that's probably closest to what you want
How are your LUA skills? ;-) Multichill (talk) 19:47, 6 May 2015 (UTC)
Hi Multichill, thanks for your reply, these links are certainly enough to keep myself up with the progress of this issue. I had a look at LUA and might try to play around a little with it when arbitary access is enabled. --Reinhard Müller (talk) 23:25, 6 May 2015 (UTC)
@Reinhard Müller: actually, we should have started with converting our templates to LUA yesterday. I was talking about that with @SamB: on irc:
First existing functionality has to be reimplemented in LUA, tested, debugged, deployed etc and when we're finally done, we can add new things like grabbing data from Wikidata. Multichill (talk) 19:59, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
@Multichill:: I'm not sure I fully understand. Which templates would you reimplement in LUA right now? --Reinhard Müller (talk) 20:59, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
@Reinhard Müller:: Well, any of those which we're hopeful to ad Wikidata support to once we have arbitrary access, like {{Authority control}}, {{Institution}}, and {{Creator}}, will first need their basic functionality reimplemented in Lua, and unlike the Wikidata features, we can start on the basic functionality now. The tracking ticket for places we want to use arbitrary Wikidata access is:
If we don't start now, then we'll look kind of silly when they finally roll out arbitrary access and nothing seems to happen. —SamB (talk) 02:18, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
Ah, obviously I needed Commons:Structured data to understand where this is heading :-)
Sounds like an interesting project. If a rainy weekend comes up, I might have a look, but please don't hold your breath! --Reinhard Müller (talk) 16:49, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

I make extensive use of Wikidata for the translation work that I do. Unfortunately a recent change to the formatting of Wikidata makes it very difficult to use now. I used to be able to just copy and paste the list of wikis with the file names into a spread sheet, but now I can not do that and just get garbage instead. That is an inexcusable change to Wikidata that needs to be corrected, so that the data, the wiki, whether it is FA/GA, and the file name, are in columns that are tab separated to enable using copy and paste. As a work around, you can get an unformatted copy of the data at https://www.wikidata.org/w/api.php?action=wbgetentities&format=xml&props=sitelinks&ids=Q42 (change Q42 to the item number that you want). There is also a third party display that can be used at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MGXcpD0SPFlkmzQonnf1xLIYxeGTpIlDvy3WjePPcqQ/edit?usp=sharing

To use it just change the query to the Q item you want and select the wikidata formatting that you want from the tab that says "Wikidata". You have to be logged in to Google to use it. Delphi234 (talk) 15:20, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Shiny rails[edit]

Brussels tramline Tervuren in wood.jpg

Is there a category for rails in low lying sunlight?Smiley.toerist (talk) 11:02, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

That seems excessively narrow. I'd just categorize it in "Category:Rail tracks in Belgium". If you like, create a new subcategory "Category:Sunlight reflections on structures in Belgium" and add that too. — SMUconlaw (talk) 12:11, 6 May 2015 (UTC)
I'd just go for a generic Category:Sunlight reflections on structures (and throw the existing Sunlight reflections on structures in the United States‎ in there). There's really no need to subcategorize every possible subject category by location, decade etc. --El Grafo (talk) 12:21, 6 May 2015 (UTC)
I do have other examples File:Rotterdam CS lage zon.jpg, File:Surbiton train sunset.JPG, File:Andon station 08.JPG and some other I don't remember yet. When I see this combination I take pictures. Smiley.toerist.

New Category:Sunlight reflections of railsSmiley.toerist (talk) 08:11, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

I'd suggest renaming it to "Category:Sunlight reflections on rail tracks" so that it is in line with "Category:Rail tracks". (Note the use of the word on rather than of.) — SMUconlaw (talk) 08:43, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Category:Petrol stations in Massachusetts and similar categories for other locations[edit]

I do not understand why we have changed this from Category:Gas stations in Massachusetts. The word "petrol" is not used in the United States. Categories are supposed to help people, especially people who are unfamiliar with Commons, to find images that they need for one reason or another. A person coming to Category:Buildings in Massachusetts to look for images of gas stations will conclude, incorrectly, that there are no images of gasoline stations in Massachusetts on Commons.

The following is from Commons:Naming_categories#Principles:

  • "Names of Commons categories should be optimized for readers over editors; and for a general audience over specialists.
  • Category naming should prefer what the majority of English speakers would most easily recognize, with a reasonable minimum of ambiguity, while at the same time making categorization of media files easy and second nature."

We could argue all day whether the majority of English speakers use the word "gas" or the word "petrol", but it is clear that the word "petrol" is not used at all in the United States and therefore in following this principle it should not be used for locations in the United States. .     Jim . . . . (Jameslwoodward) (talk to me) 10:53, 7 May 2015 (UTC) @Jameslwoodward: this has already been reverted (or, more accurately, reversion has been requested of a bot. - Jmabel ! talk 14:51, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

Thanks both for the note and for the action. .     Jim . . . . (Jameslwoodward) (talk to me) 15:45, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
The only acceptable pinciple is that of terminological stability. Assuming that there is not a regional variant in the named object (as seems to be the case) we need and want the same word for the same concept regardless of location. Local specific of English dialectology, charming as they might be, are irrelevant, as are the stated concerns of addressing a local user’s base. There is only two ways about it, one right, and another wrong:
or:
There’s no 3rd alternative. If dialect diversitity (within English) is a principle to be held above terminological homogenity, then language diversitity should matter too — for the same exact reasons, now applying globally, not only within the confines of the English speaking world. It seems that it is still necessary to stress that English in Wikimedia Commons is a mere commodity, naturally chosen on practical grounds, and that its dialectological diversitity is for us a nuisance — quite opposite to what happens in the English Wikipedia. -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 19:49, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
Two more examples:
  • The same for the quaint use of "trolley" and "street car" for selected cases of what is termed a "tram" everywherelse, regardless of local language use.
  • The same, too, also for instances of exoticistic use of unnecessary non-English terms in specific countries/regions, such as "azulejo" instead of "tile" when used in Spanish- or Portuguese-themed categories.
(And there’s whole giant bunch more of these to get rid of.) -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 20:05, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
For the record, w:en itself uses "en:Filling station" as the base term, with the appropriate terminological and dialectological discussion. Would it be suitable to rename the whole tree in Commons? -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 11:04, 9 May 2015 (UTC)
Possibly, although maybe "service station" would be better. --ghouston (talk) 11:55, 9 May 2015 (UTC)
I support using "gas station" in articles about facilities in the U.S. "Petrol" just makes me think of "Petrel", a seagull-like bird. BD2412 T 15:16, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Way to miss the point. (Also — articles…?) -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 18:24, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Recognizability of category titles matters. Are there people in the English-speaking world who would not recognize "gas station"? BD2412 T 19:55, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
It should at least be expanded to "Gasoline stations", and according to Wikipedia that name is only used in North America. What do you think about "Filling stations" or "Service stations"?. These establishments do sell other prducts, like diesel and gas (as in LPG, not gasoline). --ghouston (talk) 05:40, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Only used in North America, where 70% of the native English speakers live.--Prosfilaes (talk) 08:43, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
I don't think there's any Commons policy to use a particular variant of English. The category tree is currently using a regional variant, "Petrol stations", which was the cause of the current discussion, and switching to a different regional variant is unlikely to help much. --ghouston (talk) 10:56, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Filling stations, service stations, fuel stations, all would be preferable to "petrol". The Wikipedia article is at w:Filling station. No one actually calls these "gasoline stations". BD2412 T 17:50, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
We have a general principle of locality on Commons. For instance we have "Railway stations in the United Kingdom" (because railway station is the British term) versus "railroad stations in the United States" (railroad being the American version). There is no such thing as a "gas station in Dorset", as no one in Dorset would use such a term. If there were a "gas station" in Dorset, it would presumably be a railway station serving a natural gas plant. "Petrol stations in Dorset" is correct, "Petrol stations in Massachusetts" is not. -mattbuck (Talk) 20:13, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
I hadn't heard about this. That would mean Tuválkin's second option with Category:Benzineras in Catalonia, and who knows what in Chinese. --ghouston (talk) 22:30, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Shouldn't that be Benzineras de Catalunya? Of course this variant fails the "category names in English" policy. But if we used the regional names, maybe Petrol stations in England, Gas stations in the USA and Service stations in Australia, then what would be used for non-English countries? A single name for the whole category tree is by far the superior option. --ghouston (talk) 22:37, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Only for the top of the tree. The branches need to be named using category names that make sense for that location. Gas stations in the U.S. for example. There is nothing wrong with Petrol stations having categories that include gas stations and service stations as well as petrol stations. Delphi234 (talk) 15:26, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
I don't know. Logically the name doesn't matter much and it's better to pick one and use it everywhere. However if this idea is unpopular, then maybe you are right and we just have to put up with it until categories become translatable. After that, you'll presumably see "Petrol stations" everywhere if you select British English and "Gas stations" if you select American. There would be similar problems unifying the names of other categories that appear to be the same thing, such as Category:Terraced houses and Category:Row houses or the subcategories of Category:Controlled-access highways by country. --ghouston (talk) 22:39, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
I may be exaggerating the capabilities of Wikidata: it seems it doesn't support multiple versions of English [1]. In that case, there will actually be necessary to pick a single name if in future "Structured data" means that category intersections are specified dynamically (so that categories like Gas stations in the United States no longer exists, but are formed from "Gas stations" (or whatever the category is called) and "United States". However as I mentioned below, I don't think this is happening soon. --ghouston (talk) 23:28, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

I wonder how soon it will be until one will be able to "view" category names in languages other than English while seeing the category trees. It would be especially helpful for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean viewers and editors. WhisperToMe (talk) 17:48, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

I suspect it won't happen for years. Such a change would be probably be based on Commons:Structured data, which is currently on hold, and is nowhere near to encompassing categories. --ghouston (talk) 22:22, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

commonsarchive.org[edit]

Hi, The site http://commonsarchive.org/, which hosts RAW file for Commons is down. I tried to contact Dcoetzee, but no answer so far. Any idea what to do? Regards, Yann (talk) 20:52, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

Well, he has been banned by the WMF and might not have anymore interest in this. --Túrelio (talk) 21:00, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
Yes, obviously. But this service is quite useful. Who could host such a site? And how to get a copy of the files there, if possible? Regards, Yann (talk) 21:17, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
@Yann: I just had a successful connection to the site. Apparently the DNS entry (somewhere) has expired, but googleing "commonsarchive.org" revealed its IP address is 50.17.253.13. Adding "50.17.253.13 commonsarchive.org" to local /etc/hosts, and navigate to http://commonsarchive.org/ should work. I think it's better to set up a DNS entry somehow. In the meantime, I'll see how to backup this wiki, as it might get broken anytime. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 07:20, 9 May 2015 (UTC)
Right. It works for me that way. Thanks, Yann (talk) 07:52, 9 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks Yann and Zhuyifei1999 --The Photographer (talk) 22:29, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

@Yann, The Photographer: I backed up all the (publicly visible) revisions and all the current versions of files with the help of my modified version of wikiteam. Shall I create a read-only wiki to import them or publish the dump? --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 12:05, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Yes, whatever you can do. Yann (talk) 12:18, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
@Zhuyifei1999: Yes, please, you saved my life!, let me know when it is ready to change commonsarchive template. We hope that this problem can be solved soon. Everything seems to be that the domain expired and the owner is on vacation. --The Photographer (talk) 13:09, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
@Yann, The Photographer: All dumped are imported to tool labs, and I'll setup short urls tomorrow. I can't enable open registration because of the tool labs rules though, so this can't be a permanent solution.

┌─────────────────────────────────┘
 @Yann, The Photographer: You can login via oauth now after oauth consumer ff6b05e3444853dac5c7f4b68c497bc7 is approved :D --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 09:34, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Thanks!!! Zhuyi!!, what do you mean about "temporal solution" and i cant login:
Application Connection Error

"Commons Archive" is not approved as a Connected App. Contact the application author for help.

Connected OAuth app not approved, E005

BTW. I sended a email for Steinsplitter about severals problems for upload new RAWS, about of max file size and upload wizard. Thanks. --The Photographer (talk) 13:08, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

@The Photographer: Well, the OAuth app waiting for approval, so I just temporary disabled oauth. You should be able to login normally.Approved, could you retry login? Also I fixed max file size today during my IRC chat with Steinsplitter, could you do a test upload and see if it works? And do you mean I should install upload wizard? I just installed it :) --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 13:34, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
  • @Zhuyifei1999: I have two users this, and this, could you unificate it in "The Photographer", every commons user can log in commonsarchive wmflabs?. Please install upload wizard and chunked uploads, I need upload a RAW of 6 GB. I need upload 7zip, zip, rar, png, raw, dng...etc. I dont know if you know some way to check if a zip,rar or compressed file has a binary or password. Because we dont want virues there. Can I kiss you ? --The Photographer (talk) 14:45, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
I think it would be a security issue to allow 6 GB uploads. --Steinsplitter (talk) 15:50, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
In the project Commons:Project to create spherical panoramas of important monuments, we are working (assuming a 5D Mk iii full frame camera) with the follow:
  • 14mm rectilinear: 12 shots and 98 megapixels (two rows of 5 and a zenith and nadir)
  • 16mm rectilinear: 14 shots and 128 megapixels (two rows of 6 and a zenith and nadir)
  • 24mm rectilinear: 24 shots and 289 megapixels (one central row of 8, two rows of 7 and a zenith and nadir)
  • 28mm rectilinear: 27 shots and 394 megapixels (one central row of 9, two rows of 8 and a zenith and nadir)
  • 35mm rectilinear: 42 shots and 616 megapixels (two central rows of 11, two rows of 9 and a zenith and nadir)
  • 50mm rectilinear: 58 shots 1.2 gigapixels (one central row of 16, two rows of 15, two rows of 10 and a zenith and nadir)

The more pixels you got the file will become bigger, in this case a panoramic of 245 images with a D300 camera make a bigest dng file ~ 6 GB ziped. --The Photographer (talk) 16:12, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Wow 6 Gegabytes! Even commons, which has a better backend than labs, can't deal with such a huge file. Would you break it down to smaller zips and try the upload? I'll work on the chunked upload feature tomorrow. As for who is allowed to login, it's currently decided that all autoconfirmeds and confirmed users on commons are allowed to login. Login of non-autoconfirmeds are not very necessary as they are new to commons anyways, and they might simply be spammers. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 17:18, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
If you have the free space (I'm not sure what the space limits on labs looks like), you could transfer it to your labs account via scp, and then run importImages.php to import it from the local file system. Bawolff (talk) 21:15, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
Afaik 6 GB isn't a problem for labs nfs. But my internet connection is not good enough to download and upload 6 GB within a reasonable amount of time (nor I think Steinsplitter can). --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 01:00, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
@The Photographer: You can opt-in for Chunked uploads in toollabs:commonsarchive/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-uploads, tested with a pdf version of Voynich manuscript --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 01:54, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks Zhuyifei1999 for your help. I didn't know it is possible/allowed to install MediaWiki on the Labs. This looks like a good solution for the forseeable future. As I am admin on this archive, I will keep a watch about potential issues. Regards, Yann (talk) 20:05, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

@Zhuyifei1999: Can you try setting $wgTiffThumbnailType = array( 'jpg', 'image/jpeg' ); at the bottom of LocalSettings.php? Some raw file formats are close enough to tiff, that that might be enough to make them have thumbnails. Bawolff (talk) 21:51, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Tested, it worked, but it consumed a lot of time and memory to generate the thumb, making rendering very slow. I'd rather not risk the tool getting deleted because of too much consumption. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 01:00, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
Domain Status: pendingDelete -- http://www.icann.org/epp#pendingDelete -- perhaps someone can grab the domain as soon as it is "dropped from the registry database". -- Rillke(q?) 22:01, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

How do I contact another user to tell him I appreciate a specific contribution of his to a specific wiki page?[edit]

Hello, I wish to contact "user:johndoe" to tell him a specific ONE PIECE of content he added to an article, was very impressive? I do not wish to use the content, alter it, or even see it again. So please do not think I need a different page I have already seen. While researching cuttlefish bones, I was very impressed with his "Aligned flight through image stack of µCT-data of a cuttlebone, top view.ogg" and I think it took him a long time to create this content, and would thus like to let him know his time was appreciated. How can I contact "User:johnDoe" to tell him myself, I appreciate this specific contribution/graphic to the Cuttlebone wiki? AND; Is this type of contact to show appreciation discouraged by the wiki community, because it may be considered a waste of a possibly busy author's valuable time? Thank you, Perry in Florida USA

If you look at the page history, there is a link you can use to Thank that edit. Alternatively, you can simply leave a comment into "user talk:johndoe" telling exactly what you said above. Platonides (talk) 22:56, 7 May 2015 (UTC)
To expand on that (the last question): Thanking users is highly encouraged. Basvb (talk) 00:10, 8 May 2015 (UTC)
And greatly appreciated. Simply thanking someone can make the difference between them taking the effort to make another contribution, or not. Delphi234 (talk) 15:41, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

May 08[edit]

Noctilucenta font release[edit]

Just an update, the libre font discussed earlier has seen its first release, under the name “Noctilucenta”! Go get it now!—♥ Kelvinsong talk 15:47, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

Wow! -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 22:08, 10 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks!!—♥ Kelvinsong talk 23:16, 10 May 2015 (UTC)
Wow!++ Jee 03:06, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Facebook like thumb.png How could we further promote the font? I really like that font for reading texts on screen in it. -- Rillke(q?) 22:18, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Any plans making LaTex packages? -- Rillke(q?) 22:19, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
I would also propose to get this at meta:SVG fonts!? ↔ User: Perhelion (Commons: = crap?)  23:16, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks y’all!! <3 @Rillke the main problem is not enough people know about Noctilucenta—it currently only has 17 downloads and ten notes on its github repository… && I might make LaTeX packages once I fill it up with a more complete set of math symbols because right now it’s still missing a few important ones I think @User: Perhelion Dunno how to upload it to the wikimedia server but if you know how by all means do so lol!—♥ Kelvinsong talk 21:25, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
User:Kelvinsong, Noctilucenta is missing "ɮ" (or was, when I downloaded it). Any special reason? It is merely a conjoined "l"+"ʒ"… -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 10:53, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
I left out the digraph IPA letters because they are deprecated—i think you’re supposed to just write “lʒ” now—♥ Kelvinsong talk 12:52, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
That means that Noctilucenta is useless to typeset old documents using those deprecated characters, as well as new and old documents pertaining those deprecated characters. Too bad. -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 19:56, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
Alright I’ve released a new version that contains said glyphs @Tuválkin—♥ Kelvinsong talk 00:13, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
Yay! -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 01:31, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
Try to get it into Google fonts ;) Other things you might want to consider are release debian/ubuntu font packages etc. I'm sure some folks can help. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:09, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

@Kelvinsong: The "download font" buttons on your landing page returned 404. --99of9 (talk) 04:32, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

That's because Kelvinsong updated to v.1.01 (digraph IPA letters). Grab it from https://github.com/Kelvinsong/swiftday/releases -- Rillke(q?) 08:20, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
@99of9 this has been fixed—♥ Kelvinsong talk 20:36, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Tool like 'Cat-a-lot' for inserting a given template into a selection of media ?[edit]

Hello,

I got tired of manually inserting the template:Watermarked template into watermarked media, so I was wondering if there is a tool similar to 'Cat-a-lot' that can help with this?

What would be useful is a tool that like 'Cat-a-lot' can be used to first mark a set of media, and then select the template for insertion into each description page (e.g. below any content that is not a category).

Do we have anything like that?

Thanks.

PS. I am aware that in uploading media with the 'Upload Wizard' one can specify the Watermarked template, but what I am looking for now is to fix the many watermarked images already uploaded without that template.

Lklundin (talk) 21:00, 10 May 2015 (UTC)

Ever tried MediaWiki:VisualFileChange.js? -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 22:08, 10 May 2015 (UTC)
@Tuvalkin: No, but I will now! Thanks. One question before I start mass-changing files: When I have selected N files (initially N will be on the order of 1 :-), entered a regular expression and validated the Diff on a selected image, is there a way to get a count of how many of my N selected files that actually match my regular expression, before I hit execute? That should reduce the risk of the famous unintended consequences. Thanks again. Lklundin (talk) 15:11, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

May 11[edit]

No preview or progress status in basic upload form[edit]

I'm not getting any preview of the file selected in basic upload form. While clicking on the "upload file" button, the status says "waiting for commons.wikimedia.org" without any indication that the file is being uploaded. After a long time, the upload is completed, silently. Earlier (a few months ago; at least) I can see preview and %status. Now it gives the impression that the tool is dead. I tried it yesterday and closed the page thinking it was broken. Then upladed files using ugly Upload Wizard. It was also very slow; but has progress indications. Today I need to overwrite a file which is only possible through basic form. I waited patiently and it worked although without any preview or progress indications. (Thanks all for the support; I started uploading files using the lens procured through community support.) Jee 03:05, 11 May 2015 (UTC) I can see previews of small files. Jee 07:47, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Previews are not shown for files larger than 10 MB. To preview the file, it has to be loaded into memory of the browser, for a really large file, this could slow down your web browser quite a bit as it tries to show a preview of the image (I'm not sure what qualifies as really large, or if 10 MB is an appropriate value). Perhaps the fact that a preview is intentionally not shown should be communicated to the user. I don't recall their being a progress meter at all in Special:Upload beyond what is built into the web browser. Bawolff (talk) 16:43, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
This is a plain old but robust form. It is up to the browser telling users how much data has been transmitted. It even can't be found out by client side coding and adding server-side magic will overcomplicate it again. But chances are good that while phab:T74768 is resolved (AFAIK, they have to use client side scripting for solving this), that a progress bar will be added. Meanwhile bigChunkedUpload.js provides a reliable progress bar (although not a nice interface). -- Rillke(q?) 22:14, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks Bawolff and Rillke. Hmm; the %progress indication may be from the browser which is not showing now. Anyway, it is a very useful tool for me and will continue to use. Will try Rillke's tool too. Jee 02:20, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

Whether Black and White derivatives of copyrighted work are allowd on commons ?[edit]

Moved to "Commons:Village pump/Copyright#Whether Black and White derivatives of copyrighted work are allowd on commons ?" to avoid discussions occurring in two places. — SMUconlaw (talk) 19:41, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Bad deletions[edit]

Many of the files deleted as a result of Commons:Deletion requests/Files uploaded by Vibhabamba - at least some of which were used in documentation on sister projects - should not have been deleted, but instead should have had their attribution fixed.

These should be undeleted, and restored on those sister projects (which, as usual, received no prior notification of the impending deletions.

I'm about to get travel overseas, so have no time for a more formal request or debate. Andy Mabbett (talk) 09:29, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

@Didym, Jianhui67: Any opinions? Yann (talk) 07:28, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

spam in a file description[edit]

Hi,

I came across File:Google Appliance.jpg this file, I saw some description in non-english language thus checked with google translate. I do not know that language but prima facia seems to be spam, I wish some one else peer reviews this and take apropriate action regarding the same.

Mahitgar (talk) 11:42, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

I've undone this edit. Bidgee (talk) 11:53, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

Question about images in a category[edit]

Pierpao submitted a bot request and I noticed there are currently a large number of pictures in Category:Files uploaded by Russavia (rename) and I wanted to ask about a couple things regarding those images and this has nothing really to do with Russavia but as a general question as I learn about things here in commons. Sorry if this example is a sensitive subject.

  1. Is it really appropriate to have user based work categories like this? I get needing to have maintenance categories but this seems unnecessary. Additionally so in this case since the user isn't allowed to edit.
  2. Several of the images in that category have borders. Should we mark them to have the borders cropped?
  3. Most importantly of the questions IMO, several of the images in this category are marked with a copyright tag. Should these even be allowed in commons if they are copywritten in this way. One example is this one but there are quite a few like it. Reguyla (talk) 17:16, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
  1. They need to be in some kind of maintenance category so that people can find files which have been identified as needing renaming. Either keep them in the current category, or put them directly in Category:Media requiring renaming without the related template. I don't see any big need in changing the way the files currently are grouped.
  2. Yes. The first file I looked at already was in Category:Images from Flickr with borders.
  3. File:20100524- DSC6204 (4871747439).jpg has a copyright notice in the border. This means that you need to consider Commons:Watermarks#Legal issues with the removal of watermarks before removing the border per 2) above. These watermarks are allowed but unwanted. --Stefan4 (talk) 17:37, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Thank you Stefan4. Reguyla (talk) 20:27, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Fixed this one. Yann (talk) 07:26, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
I fixed several hundreds of files from these categories. But still more to do: 917 and 3,065. Regards, Yann (talk) 15:52, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Question about copyright[edit]

Hi. Is there any reason why I shouldn't be able to upload this image? After all, this image of parliament was engraved before 1834.Anythingyouwant (talk) 21:47, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

It's clear free as the most other posters on this page. PS: I'm sure there can be much better resolutions found... ↔ User: Perhelion (Commons: = crap?)  22:07, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, I have uploaded it here. Cheers.Anythingyouwant (talk) 22:20, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Looks good, what do you say to this: zazzle, carolin, Allposters⁉ ↔ User: Perhelion (Commons: = crap?)  22:28, 11 May 2015 (UTC)
Wow, that last one looks pretty darned good. I'll upload it.Anythingyouwant (talk) 00:21, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Sorry the last one is fake (and watermarked), its upscaled and compressed, yours looks better, so please revert.
@Anythingyouwant ↔ User: Perhelion (Commons: = crap?)  00:32, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
I don't understand, the last one you suggested has a lot more bytes in it, and I can enlarge it to see more detail. Is the watermark a big problem? Anyway, how can it be fake?Anythingyouwant (talk) 00:36, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Because I have chosen the resolution manually, I see now the max resolution is 2100px (I thought I can get higher) and you can see w:JPEG artefacts (as small boxes). Must be removed, see COM:Watermarks #Unacceptable watermarks, you must also crop: COM:MFC #Unnecessary borders ↔ User: Perhelion (Commons: = crap?)  00:53, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
I have just cropped it. See here. There's just a little tiny part of a watermark at the bottom right, so it's not promotional or obstructive. OK? There are five versions uploaded so far.Anythingyouwant (talk) 01:05, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Okay, I see your crop, thanks, I guess we're all set then?Anythingyouwant (talk) 01:17, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Hm* it's ok, I mean the watermark is now not readably anymore (but not optimal). Sorry my fault to give the full 2100px version not earlier, so I simply do this by myself. Maybe some admin can delete the version-history (and maybe some graphic-artist can remove the watermark completely). GN8 ↔ User: Perhelion (Commons: = crap?) 01:22, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks.  :-)Anythingyouwant (talk) 01:27, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Hm* :-/ thanks to Nagualdesign for rework! But unfortuntely he used the downsized version not the "full" 2100px version (with also lesser artefacts). Can you do it again please? ↔ User: Perhelion (Commons: = crap?)  06:59, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
I changed the license to PD-Art. Regards, Yann (talk) 07:17, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

May 12[edit]

API upload question[edit]

Can you help me here? --Jobu0101 (talk) 08:49, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

With https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?action=upload&filename=&file=&token=+\, see mw:API:Upload (with the third-party commonsapi not). --Steinsplitter (talk) 12:12, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

Category:Days by day[edit]

What is the purpose of categorizing kings and other persons by day of their being of reign/end of reign and similar? I believe that a king doesn't make this date such special. --Infovarius (talk) 11:29, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

The point is, when enough subcategories (about people, like in your example) were added as childs to a given day category, to split it into Category:Reigns ended on 1234-05-06, Category:Reigns started on 1234-05-06, etc. (Maybe instead of "reigns" something broader, like "offices", "positions", or "tenures"). Meanwhile, the nexus established by such categorization means simply that, f.i., this king is somehow related to this date. (Your question is self-explanatory, actually; I’m assuming this is about dates as parent categories in kings’ categories, not the opposite, yes?) -- Tuválkin ✉ ✇ 10:46, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

Cat redirects[edit]

Funny, categories Category:Shopping mall interiors and Category:Interiors of shopping malls are redirected vice versa. No other cats, so they are orphaned as a pair. --Achim (talk) 18:39, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

Fixed. --ghouston (talk) 02:56, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

May 13[edit]

File size problem when uploading from mobile phone[edit]

I tried to upload a few images from my mobile phone today. I could not find any way to upload from the mobile view, so I switched to desktop view and tried to use the upload wizard. After selecting the image, the upload wizard displayed the following message:

File too large.
You can only upload files with a size of up to -1 B. You tried to upload a file that is 1.18 MB.

If needed, I have a screenshot of this message, but the above text is all that the message says. Could someone relay this error to Bugzilla or, if it's already been posted, explain what the problem is? Phone OS: Android 4.4.2 (KitKat). Browser: Chrome 42.0.2311.111. Is there a way to upload from the mobile Commons webpage? The mobile site ought to have an easily visible upload link. AHeneen (talk) 00:09, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

I had no issue of uploading via the basic upload form using Chrome 41.0.2272.96, Android 4.4.4. Bidgee (talk) 00:36, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
File wizard gets stuck on "Processing files" for one photograph (on a 100MB connection). Bidgee (talk) 00:44, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
Cant upload files this evening from my laptop using Safari. 9.7 kB.

"File too large. You can only upload files with a size of up to -1 B. You tried to upload a file that is 10 KB."

I have been uploading files of this or larger sizes for years. What's up?--Smokefoot (talk) 01:03, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

Same issue here; can't upload anything using the upload wizard. Schwede66 01:04, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

Hi, there was a bug in the HHVM upgrade that happened today. It's been worked around for now, uploads should work again. If not, please let someone in #wikimedia-tech on IRC know. Details and tracking info at phab:T98933. Legoktm (talk) 01:37, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

Works now. AHeneen (talk) 01:57, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

New graphing and mapping software[edit]

If you want to know more, then there's an upcoming talk about the new Vega-based graphing system this week. It's 13:00 PDT on Thursday, 14 May, which I think works out to 21:00 UTC. If you're interested, the link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7DTn9jHnI0 There should be a demo as well as some technical information about how the system is built. Please share this link with anyone who may be interested. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 02:17, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

To get an idea of the sort of things you can do, here is a pie graph of how big all the subcategories of category:Sunsets_of_India_by_colour are:

Bawolff (talk) 02:52, 13 May 2015 (UTC)

I do hope someone in the development team has run through "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward Tufte and similar works - especially the concepts of data-ink ratio (maybe data to screen-real-estate here) - look forward to this and I hope it is not all about pie charts. Shyamal (talk) 06:40, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
Other examples are on MediaWiki. Bidgee (talk) 08:07, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
Interesting, very very interesting. Thanks for the info. --El Grafo (talk) 12:22, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
  • The video has a count down clock on it that shows how soon it will be starting. A bit over four hours from now. Delphi234 (talk) 15:33, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
    By the way, I would hardly call SVG and PNG's "last century". While the new graphing functions are handy they are not by any means a replacement for having a separate image, which offers many significant advantages. For example, you can create a chart on commons and it is instantly available everywhere. Create it on a wiki using graphing and you have to recreate it and separately maintain it on every wiki where it appears, which could be on over 100 separate wikis, each in their own language. One of the tricks that I use is to use {{CURRENTYEAR}} on each wiki if I know the chart is updated frequently, so that it never has to be changed, and every year will automatically display the right year for the chart date range. Delphi234 (talk) 15:55, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
I agree, especially about the SVG - seems like it would have been easier to render SVG markup generated by a LUA module for instance. The SVG specification allows for parameters. Shyamal (talk) 03:00, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
Of course images are not dead - after all, Graphoid, the Graph's backend, generates them to make page loading faster. My point was that we shouldn't post images that are very hard to change, when we can post the source data + graph info that converts that data into a picture or possibly even animation (once available). SVG is fairly complex to work with, and PNGs cannot be modified at all (need to be regenerated from the source). On the other hand, you do raise a very valid point that graphs, or more generically - any pages - cannot be transcluded from commons. That is a huge limitation in my opinion, and we really should work on allowing common repository of templates and lua code, usable by all wikis. --Yurik (talk) 14:33, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

@Shyamal: I was more interested in playing with the ability to create graphs from data about the wiki then the type, so I used a pie graph as it was the first example I came across. The graphing extension supports a wide variety of graphs types, and I believe you can even tell it to draw rectangles or other things in order to make custom graph types. As a matter of fact, the graph extension is not an entirely new graphing system, but actually taking an existing graphing program (Vega), and graphing (If you'll excuse my pun) onto MediaWiki. Bawolff (talk) 19:50, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

@Bawolff: I realized a bit later, after posting, that the Vega system is more generic. Shyamal (talk) 03:00, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
As a reminder, this is about to start now at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7DTn9jHnI0 and #wikimedia-office on irc. Bawolff (talk) 19:59, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

May 14[edit]

Category:Files that need updating[edit]

A new hidden category has been created, Category:Files that need updating for files that need to be updated. It has subcategories for articles that have time sensitive data that has to be updated on a regular basis, such as daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. Delphi234 (talk) 14:28, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Generally, it is a good idea to create a file redirect instead and upload those graphics for each time interval under a separate file name so we can reference historical data as well. After uploading a new file (e.g. File:Average Residential Price of Electricity by State 2015.svg), we would then change the file redirect to point to the newly uploaded file. Further reading.
Additionally adopting {{Current}} to categorize files into said categories and using the template instead would highlight the fact the files are updated periodically. -- Rillke(q?) 08:08, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Deletion request question[edit]

I’d like help understanding why a deletion request was denied. The photo was originally titled “Church of Scientology Boston”. If you type that into Google search the commons photo (of the Church of Christ, Scientist) will show up. It’s not until you actually click into the commons picture that the new name shows. I think I understand why retaining licenses are important but this photo was misnamed for the first five years (only the description was changed four years ago). It’s only been correctly named for the last year.

User BASVB suggest using rename for this. How will that take care of the issue mentioned above- google image misdirecting and numerous years of being mislabeled? Is having five years of people potentially misusing a file worth keeping it for the one year it was correctly labeled? Thanks

Counter steer (talk) 19:07, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

As far as I can see, the image is now correctly named and labelled as File:Church of Christ, Scientist Boston.jpg. Typing "Church_of_Scientology_Boston" in Google leads you to File:Church of Scientology Boston.jpg as first result, which seems correct, too. Then, where is the problem?--Pere prlpz (talk) 22:20, 14 May 2015 (UTC)
Google is probably finding the redirection link File:1408 px - Church of Scientology Boston.JPG that you already linked to. Maybe you'd have had more success asking for this link to be deleted, than trying to delete the correctly-named image itself. (I don't know if Commons has any policy about deleting misleading redirections.) --ghouston (talk) 01:06, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
Google doesn't seem to be very aware of redirects. At least, the main reason given by proposers of widespread renaming policy is that Google just uses present file name. Then, I suppose that any remaining wrong Google search is just caused some cached result and will be fixed soon.--Pere prlpz (talk) 09:57, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

May 15[edit]

File:Can456man一二三名刺.JPG[edit]

please see the deletion request page. There is a dispute regarding photo of a Japanese celebrity, allegedly raised by a JAWP user Can456man claiming that he/she is from the celeb's management agency --Puramyun31 (talk) 01:27, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Batch deletion of files within a category[edit]

Hi, I've imported a number of files using the Flickr2commons tool, but have unfortunately messed up both the filename prefixes and the descriptions in these files. I think the easiest way to fix this would be to delete them all and re-import them again with corrected prefixes and descriptions. How would I go about doing this? I don't really want to add a delete request for each file individually. I believe that submitting a category deletion request only deletes the category and not the files within. Or can I batch-fix the filenames and descriptions?

All the files are in this category. I only want to delete/fix the files in the category, not the category itself or its subcategories (and their files).--Cpt.a.haddock (talk) 07:10, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Commons:Bots/Work requests might be a good place to address this matter. VisualFileChange allows mass-deletion and edits on files contained in a category, including adding templates like {{rename}} and using patterns from the file name grabbing information from the file's metadata. If you would be a little more specific about what should be changed, assessment whether it could be done without deletion - which is generally the preferred way to go - would be possible. -- Rillke(q?) 07:57, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
@Rillke: Thank you. Those tools look handy; I'll have a look at them. The things I need done are:
  1. In each filename in this category, replace "Tua Pek Kong Temple -" with "Ping Sien Si -".
  2. In each file's description, replace "[[w:Tua Pek Kong Temple, Sibu|Tua Pek Kong Temple]]" with "Ping Sien Si Temple".
  3. In each file's description, replace "[[w:Sibu|Sibu]]" with "[[w:Perak|Perak]]".
--Cpt.a.haddock (talk) 10:09, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
@Cpt.a.haddock: Okay? (configuration, settings in profile) -- Rillke(q?) 11:15, 15 May 2015 (UTC)
@Rillke: OK x 100! Thank you! --Cpt.a.haddock (talk) 11:38, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

When are duplicates (with different licenses) not duplicates?[edit]

(As ur policies says, difficult/disputed admin decisions can be discussed on VP.)

  • Foldere.svg
  • Folder-open.svg
  • Message-new.svg
  • Mail-message-new.svg

Cleaning or maintenance seems always be very difficult thing on Commons and more like a senseless doing, because people doing different things to the same issue. Concrete here, normally and common is, that whitespace is not a reason for keeping duplicates, normally and common is, that duplicates have not another license and author (normally and common is, that admins answer to his admin-decisions… but not on Commons as so often). What is this, can we give this as an extreme real example to the Commons policies? What is your opinion here? ↔ User: Perhelion (Commons: = crap?)  12:27, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

@Perhelion: Are all uploads of User:RRZEicons icons derived from the Tango project? If the only thing changed is some white space margin/padding, clearly all of them are copyfraud and out of scope anyway. I don't see a reason to keep such unused duplicates. --McZusatz (talk) 16:34, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

May 16[edit]

Flickr2Commons partial uploads[edit]

While doing license reviews yesterday and today, I've noticed a few uploaded using F2C that didn't fully upload. Doesn't look like a big issue, but each file had a different uploader. Maybe a minor bug. I've overwritten them directly, but they still need to be reviewed:

Hope that's all. Thanks. INeverCry 09:08, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

[edit]

Embroidered commons logo.jpg
The British Library has media related to Magna Carta.

I thought people might enjoy this embroidered version of the Commons logo, taken from Magna Carta (An Embroidery), a 40-foot long recreation in needlework of the en-wiki article Magna Carta as it stood in May 2014, that was unveiled at the British Library on Thursday.

Further images at c:Category:Magna Carta (An Embroidery). Jheald (talk) 14:01, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

Could you please link to the files (eg. [[:File:Embroidered_commons_logo.jpg]] = File:Embroidered_commons_logo.jpg), rather than displaying them? Bidgee (talk) 14:32, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
I could do that, but I thought people might like to actually see them. Incidentally, why isn't the indenting working when there's a left-justified image? Jheald (talk) 16:03, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

Give someone you appreciate a t-shirt[edit]

Dear all,

do you know any awsome Wikimedians? Nominate them for a free Wikimedia t-shirt. It is just like a barnstar, only you can wear it.

All the best, --ThePolish 14:15, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

I thought that had ended, seems I was wrong! Bidgee (talk) 14:30, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
Retrieved from "http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons:Village_pump&oldid=160814987"