[Gendergap] Commons Searches

Fri Oct 14 01:14:15 UTC 2011

Ryan,

We have just performed a 24,000-people referendum on a personal image filter, and the Board has declared a willingness to devote resources to implementing a corresponding solution.

If that work is done, we would also have all we need to make the Commons search function – which is also the Wikipedia multimedia search function – work in a way that would provide users with the results they are actually looking for.

Andreas

>________________________________
>From: Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari at wikimedia.org>
>To: gendergap at lists.wikimedia.org
>Sent: Friday, 14 October 2011, 1:47
>Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Commons Searches
>
>
>Unfortunately we currently have zero developers working on search (as far as I know). There are several more significant search bugs that are also not going to be fixed any time soon. Another issue is that our search engine is Java while the rest of MediaWiki is PHP. This makes sense for performance reasons, but makes the pool of potential developers who are able and willing to work on it much smaller. In other words, this might get fixed in a few years, but I wouldn't hold my breathe. In the meantime, it would be good to follow Sarah's lead and proactively curate the content we have so that there is less potential for astonishment in our search results.
>
>Ryan Kaldari
>
>On 10/13/11 5:37 PM, Andreas Kolbe 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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