Hello Deryck,
On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 5:20 AM, Deryck Chan deryckchan@wikimedia.hk wrote:
Different wikis often have different metadata formatting conventions because it's just wikitext. How do the tracking categories know where to find the information?
The templates are different across wikis, but the machine-readable metadata markers are (or should be) the same. The CommonsMetadata extension, which actually works for all wikis, looks for those hidden markers added by information and licensing templates, and that's how it finds the information.
This is part of a larger project aiming to standardize machine-readable metadata across wikis, and to add missing templates where needed. You can read more about it at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/File_metadata_cleanup_drive .
I haven't advertised it widely yet because it's not really actionable yet: I need to finish the metrics, so we can measure progress, and I also need to finish the how-to so people know how to add the machine-readable markers. I'll send a follow-up announcement later this week, or next week at the latest. In the meantime, let me know if you have other questions :)
-- Guillaume Paumier