In my opinion there are 2 basic problems with images: 1. Image copyright and various Wikimedia policies are very complicated. Most people have no understanding of them or don't even know they exist. 2. (A lesser problem), people who just upload pictures of themselves for the heck of it, with or without malicious intent. This includes vandals and people who want a free webhost.
I'm an admin on en:wp and have done a fair share of image cleanup. But even after reading the image policy pages multiple times, I still feel like I only have maybe a 40% grasp on all the concepts. I don't think we can or should make image policy "simpler" (for legal or whatever other reasons), and I don't have any quick answers. We just have to remain vigilant and fix the problems as they arise. That said, if anyone has ideas I'm all ears. The image delete backlogs are always huge.
Erica User:Fang Aili on various Wikimedia
On 11/14/06, Birgitte SB birgitte_sb@yahoo.com wrote:
Is it 90%? I haven't seen anyone actually define what the problem is on foundation-l at least. Is it images with no info, or false info? Or is just that the new users aren't using Commons category system unrelated to copyright? I tried to read the Commons-l archive to catch up, but I am still unclear on what scope of the problem is. Does anyone actually have numbers?
Without really knowing the situation, I would say that I believe all communities struggle to keep up on these things. Everyone has backlogs they are working through and these things happen in cycles. One month you make great progress, another month things are overwhelming and ground is lost. Perhaps threatening drastic action is a good way to draw attention and hopefully solutions when the situation gets particularly bad. However I think it would really be useful to talk about the real numbers in this situation. How much worse is it than what others are dealing with?
Birgitte SB