[Wikipedia-l] Require confirmed email address to upload images?

[Kat Walsh]

One of the big problems with checking and tagging images is that we
often cannot contact the uploaders -- they register an account, maybe
only to upload, and then they never log in again, never check their
talk page, didn't provide an email address, and you have no way to
contact them.

A lot of images are deleted because we simply have no way to contact
the uploader who didn't provide a source or a license to ask them what
the correct information is.

I think it would be a big step forward to require a confirmed email
address in order to upload images. It's a not a large hurdle for
contributors, no minimum time or edit count -- just that we must be
able to contact you, and then if we cannot, we're sure it's not just
because you haven't been checking your talk page.

This would also make it far easier for reusers of our media to contact
the contributors to confirm! Wikimedia gets many requests to reprint
photos and often we have to say that we simply do not know how to get
in touch with the copyright holder -- someone who last edited a year
ago is not likely to check a talk page.

I hear it said that this would be an easy feature to implement.

Suggestions/thoughts/objections?

-Kat

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