On 6/9/06, Essjay essjaywiki@gmail.com wrote:
I'm sure that the reason images aren't recoverable is an issue of space: We don't have the server space to store tens of thousands of images that were deemed unwanted. Likewise, we don't want to be holding on to copies of images that could get us in trouble, like copyvios.
I'd guess it's more of a historical accident. Undeletion of images just wasn't very important during the early years of the project, and no one got around to implementing it. There's at least one enhancement request in bugzilla, http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2099.
Since we have a developer on the list, thinking about possible solutions <lays out a carrot under a box to trap Magnus> perhaps he could provide us with some more information on what would be needed to make this happen, and perhaps even provide the needed code to make it happen.
I'll pledge, personally, to delete at least 1,000 of the backlogged images if this is implemented.
Essjay
Looking at the bug report, someone else has pledged $50 on top of that :).
Anthony