Seriously, this tool is phenomenal, and when linked with Brian's upload
tool, provides a straightforward way to get new, relevant images into
Wikipedia. I really hope you'll spread the word on Wikipedia. Perhaps
mention it to the Signpost guy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotswood%2C_Victoria looks much better with
two new images, don't you think?
Some other appearance suggestions:
* Rename the links that appear next to the image. I suggest making the image
itself a link to the flickr page (and hence unlinking the title), then
having wording like: Upload with [[Bryan]] / [[flinfo]].
Actually I don't really understand how flinfo works, so perhaps you could
just decide which is the better method and only link to that.
* Show the flickr tags for each image. That would help a lot in determining
if the thing in question is referring to the actual subject. I'm looking at
suburbs, and very often there's a place in the US or UK with the same
name...the tags would help here.
I do note though, that it's still a *lot* of steps. Most if it's pretty
obvious and just a question of clicking the right link, but I wonder if you
can streamline it still further.
Let's see, once you've done your search, it's:
1.Middle
click the title of an image to view it in another tab. Decide whether
it's appropriate.
2.Return to main tab (if it's not, close the tab)
3. Open the "Brian's Upload Tool" link in a new tab
4. Click the Continue button
5. Type categories, adjust description and filename if necessary. (sometimes
this page displays wrongly in my browser) [most of this step seems
redundant, as you can change all the information except the filename on the
next page anyway]
6. Click Continue
7. Click Save Page
8. Click "Flickr Uploader" link.
9. Click "Comment" link
10. Type a comment, usually referring to the page you'll be adding the image
to. Tense can be complicated as the image isn't actually visible *yet*.
11. Close the tab and return to your main tab.
12. Click the Edit link next to the original article, opening in a new tab.
13. Type the name of the image somewhere, either as part of an infobox, or
an [[image:...]] link. Usually involves flipping back somewhere to get the
exact image name.
14. Type an edit summary (usually "Add image")
15. Click save.
16. Check that everything looks ok.
17. Close the tab.
And that's basically the shortest possible version. Going further would
include making a proper category on Commons (which is itself a subcategory
of something), possibly making an "article" on Commons, then linking to
either the category or the article
page from the Wikipedia article via the {{commons}} or {{commonscat}}
templates. You could also go through the other language editions,
adding the image there too.
Conclusion: It's still a lot of clicking and typing, and feels very
"manual". How could this be better? How could *Media*Wiki better integrate
images and text?
Let me dream a moment:
1. Somehow, categories on all the wikipedias and commons are linked.
2. By default, articles display up to N images from the appropriate Commons
category, without being explicitly told which images or which category. Say
N=10. Images are tagged so that MediaWiki can choose which image should be
the "main" image, and which should be shown in a Gallery section.
3. With a single click, the flickr image is prepared for upload to Commons
with appropriate categories. You simply tweak image name and description,
then press save.
4. The Wikipedia page (or pages) is then shown with the new image for
approval. Since this is automatic, you simply have to check that there
aren't any special issues to know about.
Is this desirable? Is it feasible? What are the downsides?
Steve