On Tue, 17 May 2011, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
The images from today and yesterday are:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turbo_imperialis_01.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:On_the_edge_-_free_world_version.jpg
If you are unwilling to recognise the difference in terms of educational vs. artistic content, nothing I say is likely to make any difference. Frankly, it's not even worth discussing.
"Featured pictures are images that the community has chosen to be highlighted as some of the finest on Commons." Both today's and yesterday's main page images are featured pictures.
I am not making any judgement regarding educational or illustrative content, (both images are equally usable for educational purposes, albeit different ones) other than if two images are recognised to be of the same standard ("featured status") then they should be treated as having equal value to the project. If we want to treat artistic and illustrative works differently then we need separate standards to judge them by (instead of or as well as "featured status", I can see arguments for both). If we want to say that some featured pictures are more valuable to the project than others then we need some other status for one or other of the groups.
Yesterday there were calls that we should not be featuring the work of non-notable Wikimedians full stop. Today were are featuring the work of an equally non-notable Wikimedian and there are no calls for the image not to be shown on the main page on these grounds.
Obviously there are no calls not to show today's image on the grounds of being inappropriate for school children as it is very unlikely to be offensive to the school children in the cultures of those commenting.
My point is that if you want to apply any criteria for the showing or non-showing of any image on the front page you need to appply the criteria consistently.
---- Chris McKenna
cmckenna@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna
The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart
Antoine de Saint Exupery