[Commons-l] Fwd: [Gendergap] Photo of the Day on Wikimedia Commons

[Andreas Kolbe]

--- On Mon, 16/5/11, Chris McKenna <cmckenna at sucs.org> wrote:
> Actaully, I think it has made the absolutely right choice -
> to stick to 
> it's founding principle of being not censored. 
> 
> We best respect our end users by doing exactly what we say
> we will do - 
> i.e. provide an uncensored repository of educational and
> educationally 
> useful free media.


It seems to me you are obsessed with the breasts in that image. If someone argues 
against an image with breasts, it is censorship.

If someone argues against hosting some Wikimedian's technically semi-competent,
but undistinguished Thomas Kinkade pastiche in Commons, would you also shout
censorship? Probably not, I guess, because the censorship argument requires
that there be breasts in the image.

Again, if I get a garage band to upload a few tracks, does the singer have to say
"fuck" in the lyrics to have your support? That would work too: "Y'all only want
to delete this great track in the style of ... from Commons because the singer 
says 'fuck'. But that's what singers in this genre of music say all the time, and
therefore it's educational. Commons is not censored!"

So ... following this line of thought, the way to prove educational usefulness in 
Commons seems to be to make sure that there are either breasts or "fuck" in your 
piece of art, or music. Because without that, it's just a so-so painting by an 
amateur artist, or a so-so track by an amateur band, and the censorship argument 
won't wash. 

The whole point is that this image has neither superb artistic merit nor superb 
illustrative value. Artistically, the perspective and textures are poor, as was
pointed out at FPC, and educationally, the fantasy setting is too specific to be 
illustrative of a generic style.

Andreas