[Foundation-l] Commons as an art gallery?

[Andreas Kolbe]

Incidentally, that little piece of original art is also the picture of the
day on several Wikipedias' main pages; among them the Russian and Bulgarian
Wikipedias.

The image itself has been nominated for deletion in Commons by User:AndreasPraefcke, as out of scope.

A.

--- On Mon, 16/5/11, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Foundation-l] Commons as an art gallery?
> To: "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List" <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>, "Wikimedia Commons Discussion List" <commons-l at lists.wikimedia.org>, "Increasing female participation in Wikimedia projects" <gendergap at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Date: Monday, 16 May, 2011, 16:40
> There is a long thread on the Commons
> and Gendergap lists about today's
> featured image on Commons:
> 
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/commons-l/2011-May/
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/gendergap/2011-May/
> 
> It's an original piece of art by a Wikimedian, "in the
> style of" erotic 
> manga:
> 
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:On_the_edge_-_free_world_version.jpg
> 
> The picture was removed from the main page by a WMF staff
> member, acting as
> an ordinary editor, and then restored a few hours later by
> a Commons admin. 
> 
> Aspects of the image that have been discussed include the
> fact that 
> 
> * it has no noteworthy artistic value
> 
> * it is used to showcase a Wikimedian's artwork on the
> project main page
> 
> * it lacks educational value, being the work of a
> non-notable Wikimedian
> 
> * it makes the Foundation look puerile
> 
> * it might turn off serious educators
> 
> * it might turn off older people
> 
> * it might turn off schools
> 
> * it might turn off women
> 
> * it might turn off institutions owning valuable content
> from donating to the Foundation
> 
> * it is the victim of cultural fascism directed against
> manga/anime
> 
> * it is the victim of prudery
> 
> * it is the victim of censorship
> 
> * not showing the image on the mian page would undermine
> the Foundation's mission
> 
> etc. etc.
>  
> This is really a Foundation topic though. Are projects'
> main pages there to 
> showcase Wikimedians' fine art? If yes, then why do we not
> have songs by 
> unsigned garage bands "in the style of ..." as featured
> media of the day?
> 
> Should the Foundation establish guidelines on what type of
> content to feature
> on project main pages?
> 
> Crossposted to Foundation-l, Commons-l and Gendergap.
> 
> Andreas
> 
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