On 12 December 2014 at 10:59, Pipo Le Clown <pleclown(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Vous savez quoi? Allez tous vous faire foutre.
Just because you're writing in your native language of French doesn't mean
that civility is optional - just as it should not be for native speakers of
English. As *The Matrix *films identified
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfnmkgmUDW4>, French is a very excellent
language to swear in. However, we are not playing a game of "who can make
the most offensive comment in order to prove that they were offended by
someone else's comment" - even though several people here seem to think we
are...
...vous proposiez des choses constructives, des améliorations possibles du
logiciel par exemple, ou une façon de reconnaître le
travail des
wikifourmis qui catégorisent, corrigent
les descriptions...
The request for constructive ways to improve the software (and give
positive recognition for people's work) is something that was implied by
Steven's first email too:
On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 12:40 AM, Steven Walling
<steven.walling(a)gmail.com> wrote:
The only interaction I ever get on Commons about my
photos is a
notification [of deletion]... No thanks for thousands of uploads. No
notification of how many views they produce for our projects. No message
about downloads for free reuse.
I see both your messages (Pipo & Steven) as asking for the same thing [and
I've removed the insulting words from both quotes]. Commons could use some
specifically-tailored features to help improve its 'humanity' and make all
the positive work that people do more visible. Just like the way the "thank"
extenstion <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Thanks> was created
when it was realised that the only semi-automated feedback tools we had on
Wikipedia are for "negative" feedback (block, ban, delete, warn...).
There are at least three independent *software *projects that are underway
which will hopefully help to address this issue:
- Erik Zachte has been promoting this RFC on
mediawiki.org
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Media_file_request_counts>
to
improve the media file statistics infrastructure. The GLAMwiki community
(among others) have been clamouring for usable metrics for years, and this
looks like the best opportunity yet to see something happen. This will make
it easier to identify the re-use and visibility of our work.
- The Single User Login finalisation project
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/SUL_finalisation>, if I understand
correctly, should mean that we will have the architecture in place to make
"global" echo
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Echo_(Notifications)>-notifications
(e.g. "your image was used in...", global-talkpages (c.f. Flow
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Flow>), watchlists... This should mean
that even if you don't visit a wiki regularly, there would be more methods
of being kept in contact.
- The Structured Data project
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Structured_data> will move
much of the metadata handling, currently done locally on Commons, to
Wikidata. If I understand correctly, this will greatly increase the
usability of Commons to non-English speaking users and also decrease the
learning-curve of Commons for new-users.
However, none of these software improvements, by themselves, will help
overcome the perception that Commons (and Wikimedia in general) is an
*intransigent
*and* pugilistic *culture. In the GLAMwiki outreach community we spend a
lot of time talking to GLAMs about the value of sharing their content with
Wikimedia - but they are often fearful of us because of this stereotype. The
way this conversation has degenerated into arguments which I will
paraphrase as "I'm not intransigent, you are!" only consolidates that
stereotype.
It's like we all feel like we're the one being attacked - like some kind of
mutual siege-mentality - and where victim-blaming is the first response to
any perceived threat. Acknowledging that there is a problem is the first
step to solving it. However conversations like this make it seem that some
people feel the only problem is other people saying that there's a
problem...
Finally, following Craig's comment:
From: Craig Franklin <cfranklin(a)halonetwork.net>
Am I the only one that sees the irony in asking folks
not to pick on the
Commons community, then immediately asserting that enwp is the source of
all drama?
Not just that, but also... Am I the only one that sees the irony in how
this thread started by arguing that the Commons community "...cares more
about strict free licensing than it does about utility to people who need
knowledge", and then the conversation quickly veered off into an omnibus of
WikiLawering about strict free-licensing minutiae: Tunisian
Freedom-of-Panorama,
Tractor logos and Israeli Government Works!?!
-Liam
wittylama.com
Peace, love & metadata