--- On Tue, 17/5/11, Chris McKenna <cmckenna(a)sucs.org> wrote:
From: Chris McKenna <cmckenna(a)sucs.org>
Subject: Re: [Commons-l] Fwd: [Gendergap] Photo of the Day on Wikimedia Commons
To: "Wikimedia Commons Discussion List" <commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Date: Tuesday, 17 May, 2011, 15:04
On Tue, 17 May 2011, Andreas Kolbe
wrote:
terms of educational vs.
artistic content, nothing I say is likely to make
any
difference. Frankly,
it's not even worth discussing.
"Featured pictures are images that the community has chosen
to be
highlighted as some of the finest on Commons." Both today's
and
yesterday's main page images are featured pictures.
I am not making any judgement regarding educational or
illustrative
content, (both images are equally usable for educational
purposes, albeit
different ones) other than if two images are recognised to
be of the same
standard ("featured status") then they should be treated as
having equal
value to the project. If we want to treat artistic and
illustrative works
differently then we need separate standards to judge them
by (instead of
or as well as "featured status", I can see arguments for
both). If we want
to say that some featured pictures are more valuable to the
project than
others then we need some other status for one or other of
the groups.
This never was justifiable as a featured picture to begin with. As it was,
it scraped through in Commons 8:2:2,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Featured_picture_candidates/File:…
with support comments that don't make a good case at all, and failed to
attract support in German Wikipedia:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Kandidaten_f%C3%BCr_exzellente_Bilde…
Yesterday there were calls that we should not be
featuring
the work of
non-notable Wikimedians full stop. Today were are featuring
the work of an
equally non-notable Wikimedian and there are no calls for
the image not to
be shown on the main page on these grounds.
There were no calls to stop featuring work of non-notable Wikimedians. If we
did that, almost all photographs of buildings, plants, mountains would be
disqualified. The actual point is quite different.
Commons does not host original art by non-notable Wikimedians that does not
have an obvious educational use. That is Commons policy. Commons is not for
fan art; DeviantArt is the right place for such images.
Even if you disagree with me and assert that the image does have educational
value, featured picture criteria require notability (nope), high artistic
merit (nope), high illustrative merit (nope, this is an independent work of
art, rather than an illustration of anything pre-existing), or high historic
merit (nope).
Andreas