[Gendergap] Commons Searches

[Sarah Stierch]

+1 Andreas.

:)

You said what I was thinking in such an eloquent way that I could never.

Is there a barnstar for "calm and clear communication?" :D

-Sarah


On Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 8:37 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> John,
>
> *From:* John Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com>
> > (Searching for "levee" in Commons brings up an image of a
> > naked Suicide Girl called Levee in third place.)
>
> Its a thumbnail for !@#$ sake, and anyone who finds that image
> offensive should turn off their internet connection.
>
>
> It's a perfectly nice image, but does it answer the user's need? In most
> cases probably not. If I google levee, I see levees, not nude girls:
>
>
> http://www.google.co.uk/search?gcx=c&q=levee&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1041&bih=638
>
> If I want to google for pictures of Levee, I google for "Levee Suicide
> Girls", and there she is:
>
>
> http://www.google.co.uk/search?gcx=c&q=levee&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1041&bih=638#um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=levee+suicide+girl&pbx=1&oq=levee+suicide+girl&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=127182l129981l0l130379l15l15l0l11l0l0l291l930l0.1.3l4l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=120e52a58330422e&biw=1041&bih=638
>
> I guess Commons should give more weight to categories, and less weight to
> file names. So when I google cucumber, it should show me images in the
> cucumber category first of all, and not images that happen to have cucumber
> in the title.
>
> Brandon, is there something developers could do in this regard?
>
>
> I am sure you'll be appalled that libraries include nude pictures in
> their search results, often when searching for something else.
>
>
> http://trove.nla.gov.au/picture/result?q=contemporary+north+america+20th+century
>
> fix the metadata.
>
> create a gallery page.
>
> create a category and populate it.
>
> etc
>
> p.s. abstract art offends me.  Can we please remove media related to
> John Levee's from the Commons search results for the term 'Levee'. ;-)
>
> > We should be under no illusion that we can find all search terms whose
> > results violate the principle of least surprise, presenting adult images
> for
> > everyday search terms.
> >
> > New such situations arise on a daily basis, each time someone uploads an
> > explicit file that has a plausible search term in its name and
> > description (try searching Commons for "eating", and then search for
> > "drinking"; or try finding images of Prince Albert).
>
> The ordering of the search results isnt ideal.  Have you raised a bug?
>
>
>
> The thing is, John, it's not a bug. How is it a bug? The image is called
> "Drinking urine" or whatever, and so it's a valid search result for
> "drinking". No doubt, a bunch of people would argue that it would be
> non-neutral to exclude it from the search results for drinking, because
> Wikipedia is not censored, and we don't care if people are unhappy with our
> service, because that would be non-neutral. ;)
>
> <Imagine rant here.>
>
>
> It puts too much weight on the filename, which isnt good because
> recommend against rename, so the current search results are gamable by
> the uploader.
>
> > We should simply offer safe search, like Google does.
>
> Google provides safe search.  They need to convert 'the internet' into
> a search results page that their customer wants to see, and the
> Internet has a whole lot of stuff that 99% of the world never wants to
> see.
>
> Wikipedia provides encyclopedic information.
>
> Commons provides a depository of media, and if you search for keywords
> in the metadata you'll see thumbnails of the matching media.
>
>
>
> I find Google safe search seriously useful, because it gives me a choice,
> and enables me to tailor my search to my requirements. If I want to see
> porn, I can see porn. If I'm looking for something else, I can prevent my
> search being flooded with porn.
>
> If I am a researcher looking for images of Prince Albert on Commons, I
> would appreciate not being forced to wade through dozens of images of
> penises with rings in them to find the image I'm looking for.
>
>
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&redirs=1&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns9=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1&search=Prince+albert&limit=500&offset=0
>
> We will not attract a more mature audience until we get our act together.
>
> Andreas
>
>
>
>
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>


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