[Foundation-l] Free license templates

[Robert Rohde]

On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 9:34 AM, White Cat <wikipedia.kawaii.neko at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Although this has been probably discussed before...
>
> We currently have a problem with the names chosen for licenses on all
> wikis.
> Let me explain. Consider the following 5 categories. I have noticed that
> they all have a different name for most of the free licenses. Each
> language
> tends to translate the license name and sticks to that name.
>
> http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategori:Resim_telif_etiketleri
>
> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%C3%A9gorie:Mod%C3%A8le_de_licence_d%27image
> http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Vorlage:Lizenz_f%C3%BCr_Bilder
>
> http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B0:%D0%A8%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8_%D0%B7%D0%B0_%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B5
> http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categoria:Template_copyright
>
> Ideally all freely licensed images will eventually be moved to commons. So
> all copyright related info should be as commons compatible as possible.
> Translated template names cause a few problems.
>
> This practice will lead to commons having hundreds of redirects per free
> license. Juggling them makes work on commons more difficult. For example
> each of those redirects would need to be protected against vandalism as
> such
> vandalism may even have legal implications. For example someone may sneak
> a
> disclaimer to GFDL templates. Such template names are also not
> bot-friendly.
>
>
> I would suggest a uniformed template name on all wikis.
>
>   - White Cat
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As White Cat already knows, I object to the preemptive renaming of templates
on other wikis when it makes those templates more difficult for the local
community to understand.

This would include using languages other than the local language when
templates have words in their names (e.g. {Attribution}), or taking locally
logical names and truncating them to hard to understand language neutral
constructs.

The specific example that White Cat and I have recently had an argument
about is {{GFDL-with-disclaimers}} on enwiki, which Cat would like to rename
{{GFDL-en}} to follow Commons' naming scheme.  As I have explained in that
context {{GFDL-en}}, while language neutral, obscures the essential meaning
of the template, since it is not simply enwiki's version of the GFDL, but
rather a version of the GFDL in which additional disclaimers were attached.

Systematic naming is great, but local projects need locally intelligiable
names.  As much as a headache as this creates for Commons, I don't believe
it is in the WMF's interest to impose a globally uniform naming scheme if
doing so would be detrimental to the understanding of the local communities.

While I fully believe the projects benefit from working together, I also
believe that any change project A wants to make withing project B, must
first and foremost do no harm to B.  The idea of imposing a standardized
naming scheme for the benefit of Commons largely fails that test.

-Robert Rohde