Per GerardM: "Many people no longer trust Commons to store their media files. People are more certain that their files will remain available when they upload media files to their own project."

I for one won't use Commons for image uploads. I feel that my uploads have been treated vindictively there.

There is no functional reason for Commons to even exist. Images can as easily be uploaded to the various language Wikipedias for use in illustrating encyclopedic articles, which is the true point of the exercise, thus allowing different encyclopedias maintaining differing local standards for their inclusion. (Just be sure to use the {{keep local}} flag to keep things from being expropriated by bots and buccaneers if you go this route.)

Commons is dominated by "free use" (as opposed to "fair use") advocates who see mission of the repository as the accumulation of any image whatsoever which may be deemed "educational" in the very loosest sense of the term. They rely on a precedent established in 2004 as their rationale for their free use worship, which they consider axiomatic but which is actually debatable.

Commons has poorly developed standards for inclusion vs. exclusion and is dominated by a group who run roughshod over their critics.

Tim Davenport /// Carrite on WP /// Randy from Boise on WPO