[WikiEN-l] There are no pictures in Wikipedia any more

[Steve Summit]

Stephen Bain wrote:
>On 9/24/07, Steve Summit <scs at eskimo.com> wrote:
>> I just went from [[Talia Shire]] to [[Joey Tribbiani]] to
>> [[Matt LeBlanc]] and noticed that there were no pictures in any of them.
>
> I know what you're saying, but really, is it that hard to find a
> picture of Matt LeBlanc? We're not hurting any readers by not having a
> photograph.

I know what you're saying, but I must respectfully disagree.

I'll give you the backstory, because I think it's illustrative.
Bear in mind here that for the moment I'm speaking not as a
Wikipedia editor, but as an ordinary user.

I needed the date of the first Rocky movie (which turns out to
have been 1976).  Not too long ago I would always have gone to
imdb for this sort of question, but today, I automatically go
to Wikipedia.  It's faster, there are no ads to view, and, well,
it's Wikipedia.

On the [[Rocky]] page, I was reminded of Talia Shire, and
wondered what she was up to, so I clicked through.  Huh.
No picture.  Too bad; she's pretty.

In the Trivia section at [[Talia Shire]], there's an interesting
tidbit about some Friends dialogue.  Not being much of a television
watcher, I couldn't remember which character Joey was, so I
clicked through.  Huh.  No picture.  But surely there'll be one
if I click one step further, to [[Matt LeBlanc]]?  Huh!  Nope.
Dang.

(I'll save for another day a rant about how ugly and unnecessary that
{{trivia}} template in the Trivia section at [[Talia Shire]] is.)

Yes, if I really cared, I could obviously find a picture of Matt
LeBlanc.  But I didn't, so I didn't try.  In any case, it's all
beside the point: Wikipedia failed me as a reader.  That's too
bad.

After I sent that first message, I looked a little further.
Out of the six actors and actresses who starred in one of the
world's most popular sitcoms, we've currently got pictures of:
two.  I found that remarkable.  (And of those two, Lisa Kudrow's
face is so badly lit she's almost unrecognizable, and Jennifer
Aniston is pretty blurry and out of focus.)

I understand all the passionate arguments behind free images,
really I do.  But personally, I think we've cut off our nose to
spite our face.  And that's too bad.

(But I also didn't realize there were so many images sitting
there on Commons just waiting to be integrated into Wikipedia.
Thanks to those in this thread who've reminded me.  Putting my
editor's hat back on, I'll get to work.)