Timwi wrote:
A friend of mine just asked me why he couldn't
upload an image to Wikipedia.
It turned out that he was trying to replace an image that exists at the
Commons.
The error message is confusing/misleading. It insists that you use a
different filename. It does not mention at all the possibility of
replacing the image on Commons. I think it should recommend to replace
the image at the Commons, and only if that is undesired, use a different
filename. Otherwise his image won't replace the old, and the old would
remain at the Commons and his improvement would go unused.
Timwi
It took me a while to understand the problem (i thought he was trying to
upload it *on commons*).
I concluded you're proposing changing
MediaWiki:Fileexists-shared-forbidden to add a clause "or replace it there."
IMHO, [[Wikipedia:Be bold|]] and go for it