[WikiEN-l] Jimbo on Commons

[Carcharoth]

Actually, I should quote from the current page, not the one from 2 years ago!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IMAGE#Offensive_images

"Including information about offensive material is part of Wikipedia's
encyclopedic mission. Wikipedia is not censored. However, images that
can be considered offensive should not be included unless they are
treated in an encyclopedic manner. Material that would be considered
vulgar or obscene by typical Wikipedia readers should be used if and
only if its omission would cause the article to be less informative,
relevant, or accurate, and no equally suitable alternative is
available."

But this is actually veering off topic here.

The Commons issue, as far as I can make out, arose because there is a
presumption that diversity of imagery is needed to enable people to
select the images they need for the articles they are writing. To some
extent that is true, and there is no harm in having 20 or more similar
shots of a tourist landmark (and indeed, having day and night shots,
and different picture compositions and angles, and shots in different
seasons and for historical moments, is a vital part of photojournalism
and photographic documentation).

But when it comes to the human body and physiological functions, it is
possible (and in my opinion, better) to limit the number of images to
the best pictures and those that *really* improve an article, rather
than accept everything and hope the best rise to the top by a process
of natural selection (= use in articles). i.e. Actually discuss which
images to keep and which are not needed. And once you have enough of a
certain class of images, then restrict further additions and require
discussion before further additions take place (i.e. require the image
to be uploaded somewhere else, and then discuss whether it is needed
before uploading to Commons).

That is not censorship. That is a sensible editorial policy. Accept
that some articles need illustrating by images that may cause offense,
but discuss what images are needed, then go out and find them, and
once they are found, move on to the next discussion, rather than
allowing the continuing upload of similar images in an open-ended
fashion.

It's the difference between maintaining a repository of images for
anyone to look at and use (possibly for educational content, possibly
not), and making a careful selection of some images (for educational
use) and discarding the rest.

Carcharoth