// sorry for cross-posting The FileExporter will soon be released as a beta feature to all wikis. The planned deployment date is January 16. Some background: Files from local wikis should be transferred to Wikimedia Commons if their license allows it. This way, they can be used by all wikis. But if you wanted to import a local file to Commons in the past, you couldn’t properly transfer its file and page history. It was a wish from a survey of the German-speaking communities to find a solution to this problem. Now, the FileExporter makes it possible to import a file from a local wiki to Wikimedia Commons, while keeping its history intact. A first version has already been a beta feature on a few first wikis since June 2018. [1] Since then, bugs were fixed and features were added. If you’re interested in importing local files, please give the feature a try. Even though it’s a beta feature, you can use it for real file imports. Please note that in order to get started, you need to 1. activate the beta feature “FileExporter” on your wiki [2], and 2. make sure your wiki has a proper configuration file. Configuration files are maintained by each wiki's community. They define, among other things, whether a file can be exported. Exports from wikis without a configuration file are blocked. Find more more information in the documentation. [3] We’re looking forward to your feedback on the central feedback page! [4] A big thanks to everyone who gave feedback so far. If you wish to learn more about the project, have a look at the page of the wish. [5] For the Technical Wishes team, Johanna [1] deployment plan: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/Move_files_to_Commons… [2] go to Preferences > Beta features, e.g. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeat… [3] documentation on configuration files: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/Move_files_to_Commons… [4] central feedback page: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help_talk:Extension:FileImporter [5] project page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/Move_files_to_Commons Johanna Strodt Project Manager Community Communications Technical Wishlist, Wikimedia Deutschland _______________________________________________ Commons-l mailing list Commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l

What I fail to understand is how this will be better than using files from Wikidata. The only benefit is that people may feel good because their file has been exported and it is to these poor other Wikipedias to share in the luster of ones own Wikipedia. The biggest drawback I see is that disambiguation becomes an issue, scripts conversion are an issue and updates are not possible once a list has been converted.