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

[Brad Patrick]

Those are some really compelling figures and therefore arguments.  (And I
don't disagree about the yeoman's service done by those who edit on uploaded
images).

Surely nobody is prepared to argue that where we are talking about an image
stream measured in dozens of thousands, the yield is so pathetic, and the
immediate reduction in problem uploads can (theoretically) be cut by a
[[insert adjective here]] amount, we ought not consider the change?  5 out
of 6 deletes comes from a non-email-enabled user?  Geez...

My position is geared to support the community.  Here it seems a substantial
amount of editing time and effort can be refactored favorably to
(a) reduce bad image upload / copyvio
(b) increase communication (mere ability to communicate!) with presumably
new contributors (WP:Newbie)
(c) encourage, not eliminate, their work, just by helping with the right way
to contribute image content
(d) stem the tide of wasted human effort in dealing with this problem (bots
too)
(e) emphasize positive contributions
(f)  decrease whining and scare tactics
(g) big morale boost to image patrollers =)

Sounds like a bit fat net positive to me.

On 6/28/06, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 6/28/06, Brad Patrick <bradp.wmf at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I would be interested to know on what data you rest your conclusions.
> > GMaxwell will back up his statements about the nature of the problem
> with
> > actual numbers (won't you Greg?)  =)
>
> Sure,
>
> I think the most compelling bit of backup is the anecdotal one which
> every person who has deleted images on Enwiki can tell you:  we are
> unable to get answers to basic questions for many images and must
> delete them.  Does anyone here who's done a substantial amount of
> image patrolling on enwiki disagree?  It's easy to produce examples,
> just look for at orphanbot's deleted edits.
>
> However, I like numbers... they can mislead but they can also be food
> for thought. Keep in mind we don't current recommend that anyone use
> the email this user to contact inactive uploaders simply because few
> of the images which are eligible for deletion have a confirmed user.
>
> There were 57,472 images uploaded to enwiki in march.
> *21,000 come from uploaders with confirmed emails.
> *36,472 come from uploaders without confirmed emails
>
> There were 30,981 total images deleted on enwiki in march.
> *5,149 were uploaded by users who had confirmed emails.
> *25,832 were uploaded by users who did not have confirmed emails.
>
> I wanted to give stats on what percentage of deleted images came from
> users who had recent editing activity, but query is too expensive to
> answer off hand.
>
> I think the policy makes sense based both on my experience and based
> on the numbers.
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-- 
Brad Patrick
General Counsel & Interim Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
bradp.wmf at gmail.com
727-231-0101