[WikiEN-l] Uploading images should be a privilige, not a right

[Mark Wagner]

On 7/21/06, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/21/06, Mark Wagner <carnildo at gmail.com> wrote:
> [snip]
> > Much of the image deletion policy is based around the fact that there
> > are maybe a dozen people on Wikipedia who understand the image use
> > policy well enough to enforce it, and are willing to take the time to
> > do so.  At the same time, over two thousand new images are uploaded
> > each day, adding to the 553,000 images already on Wikipedia.
> >
> > By making image uploading a privilege to be earned rather than a right
> > conferred by registering an account, we can relax the policy and deal
> > with uploaders individually, rather than automated notification of
> > problems and nearly-automated deletion of problematic images.
>
> I, too, have faced all the challenges that you mention in your
> email... I especially 'enjoy' watching someone play license template
> roulette. :-/   But I don't believe it would be wise to turn off image
> uploads.
>
> What you say about copyright being hard is mostly true, but I think
> that what matters more than it being difficult is that it doesn't
> match up to people's natural instincts. They think "I got this off a
> webpage for free so it must be okay." or "No one will complain".

That's my point with "they don't understand it, and aren't aware they
don't understand it".

> In any case, I think the worry about copyright is ignoring the real
> problem:  WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH PHOTOGRAPHERS!  Even if we ignore the
> advantages of being able to work with the creator, when the copyright
> holder uploads their own content our problems are greatly reduced.

At the same time, we have no incentive to increase the number of
photographers.  When you can just grab a picture off the web and stick
it in an article, there's no incentive to get out there and start
taking pictures.  It's not like digital cameras are hard to come by --
every other cell phone has one, and cheap dedicated cameras can be had
for $50-$75.

> We could also replace the upload link in the standard public skin with
> an instruction page... and require people to redlink images in order
> to upload them. (This would reduce the huge number of images which
> spend their whole life orphaned, freeing up our resources.. and would
> require new uploaders to read a bit in order to figure it out).

That would certainly help.  Part of the problem is that it's so easy
to upload images, people are surprised when they get it wrong, and
they haven't been around long enough to know how to fix things, or
where to go for help.

-- 
Mark
[[User:Carnildo]]