On 29/12/06, Chris McKenna <cmckenna(a)sucs.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Dec 2006, David Gerard wrote:
>> On 29/12/06, Chris McKenna <cmckenna(a)sucs.org> wrote:
>>> On Fri, 29 Dec 2006, David Gerard wrote:
>>>> (Mind you, I already get phone calls from journalists who can't work
>>>> out what the hell is where on the typical image description page. The
>>>> current format *sucks* for reusers, even when they find their image.
>>>> Anyone want to work out an Image: page that looks more like something
>>>> you'd see in a commercial photo archive, or on Flickr?)
>>> What about the current layout do journalists not understand/not like?
>> Finding the author/uploader or even being able to work out which bit
>> of the interface is the username. Working out that clicking on that
>> will take them to the uploader's user page. If the uploader has a
>> userpage on Commons at all. Etc.
> Well the {{information}} template that is the encouraged standard has a
> prominent field for Author. In that all of my images that I upload are
> shown as:
> Author - Chris McKenna (Thryduulf)
Yes, that's useful. Though for images one is not the original creator
of, a reuser may want to contact the original uploader in the hope of
a better-quality image.
(The image in question was a public-domain image scanned at web size
from a book published almost a hundred years ago. So the uploader
would be the person to contact for a better-quality scan.)
It should be easy enough to make "Original uploader:" clearly stated
on the page.
> I am not certain that a redesign of the page is needed,
I think it could really do with some UI review. I was having trouble
over the phone even directing her to the place with the link to the
uploader's user page when we both had the page in front of us on our
computers. To a technophobe, the stuff below the image appears to be
technical gibberish in UI terms.
> but perhaps
> mandatory use of the {{information}} template - possibly with an
> auto-generated link to the userpage of teh uploader if this is possible.
Putting {{information}} templates on all Commons pages without them
would also be good.
> Is it technically possible to include a blank {{information}} template on
> the image description page for new uploads? Or maybe redesign the upload
> page to have several input fields corresponding to the template rather
> than one single free-form box as now? Would this require a hack to
> MediaWiki?
Not sure. cc: to wikitech-l for opinions. (Did the German UI review
cover Image: pages?)
- d.