Commons:Help desk/Archive/2010/09

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Intersect categories

Is there some place to request that a bot move everything that is in both Category:Stereo cards of San Francisco and Category:Cliff House into Category:Stereo cards of Cliff House? - Jmabel ! talk 04:52, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

You can apply {{intersect categories|Stereo cards of San Francisco|Cliff House}} to the last category and next time Multichill runs his bot he will move the file. This may take a couple of weeks, but it's done quite efficiently.  Docu  at 04:59, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
I knew there'd be something like that! Thanks.- Jmabel ! talk 05:03, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Further related question: images that are in both Category:Stereo cards of San Francisco and Category:Stereo cards of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 really ought only to be in the latter. Can I tag the latter category with {{Intersect categories|Stereo cards of San Francisco|Stereo cards of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906}}? Or won't that work when the target category is one of the categories in question? - Jmabel ! talk 06:10, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

Not sure, I'd give it a try.  Docu  at 06:33, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

"We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again"

While uploading and filling out the text which takes some minutes, the assigned medium is gone and this message is given:

We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again"

Is that a problem of my computer or the software? It did not occur some weeks earlier. How do I prevent that (except choosing the medium at last)?

--Mattes (talk) 09:11, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

This occurs sometimes for me too when editing very very long (30 minutes+). Just save again then. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 14:13, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Help with U.S. Goverment photograph

Can this photograph use public domain? The contributor of the photograph is National Park Service Photograph, so is this U.S. federal government make photograph and can I use it in article? I'm little busy right now so my English is probably very poor... ;)-Henswick - Diskuto 12:30, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Cant upload pdf for wikibooks

  • I cant upload a pdf of a wikibook that I made using only the print version of that wikibook.
  • The book is called This Quantum World.
  • I would also like to upload a odt version of the wikibook so that it is easier for people to edit it.
  • I would like it if someone can upload these files for me or show me how, as I have failed before and cant spend more time figuring it out.

Thanks.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Glich (talk • contribs) 18:15, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

I have just edited the text for Standing Stem harvesting and I have a whole series of pictures that I have already uploaded to Flickr. I have highlighted the words [[ ]] in the editing but I do not know who to make the hyperlinks live Can you help me please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Voyageur46 (talk • contribs)

Is your question about flickr? This is then the wrong place to ask. Here is Wikimedia Commons. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 14:10, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
You can't hyperlink images from Flickr directly in Wikipedia articles (e.g. en:Heli-logging).
You need to upload the images here (at Commons) first .--  Docu  at 21:13, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

Panorama Pics

Is there a template or macro for creating scrolling panoramic pictures? 68.46.20.249 23:29, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

Disregard. Got an answer on the Village Pump! Thanks. LoreMariano (talk) 00:41, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

Uploading brand image

I am working for and on the creation of a brand wikipedia page. As such, I need to use the brand image to illustrate the page. The image in question is not "free", it can be use by the brand and on the brand communication but can not be reproduced or modified by others.

Could you please help me and tell me how to upload and use the image for the page I am creating.

Thank you in advance.— Preceding unsigned comment added by FERREIRA.I (talk • contribs)

Hi! Do you mean File:GENERIQUE POSTER HD 600x700.jpg? Short answer: You cannot use and should not upload such images. Additionally you might want to read: en:Wikipedia:Conflict of interest - sorry I could not find the French version, but I will apply in roughly the same way to fr.wikipedia. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 13:06, 6 September 2010 (UTC)
The long answer is that you can upload the image here, if the copyright holder (your company) agrees to license the image under a free license and that permission is properly documented.  Docu  at 20:05, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Possibly misattributed image: Commons admin help requested

ResolvedAn enwp problem. Angus McLellan (Talk) 17:28, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

There's a question at the Wikipedia Help desk involving an image uploaded to Commons from Wikipedia and then deleted from the latter, which appears to have had its authorship incorrectly reattributed in the upload process. Input from a Commons admin and/or someone knowledgeable about image uploads would be appreciated. Thanks. en:Wikipedia:Help desk#change of the auther's name. Karenjc (talk) 13:18, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

Please move photo to become update of other photo

Hello, since I just created a Commons account I wasn't allowed to update an image. This is the image I mean to update - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chopin_1846_daguerreotype.JPG

And this is the image I wish to update it with - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chopin_1846_daguerreotypefix.JPG

Thank you. Cloak (talk) 14:01, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

An image should only be flipped with good reason; why did you reverse this one? Powers (talk) 15:35, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
Because this was the original perspective. If you compare with this photo which is the right way around, you can see his hair is exactly the same as the other photo (my one) if it is flipped the correct way. Cloak (talk) 18:13, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
Given the description here, I think we're better off keeping both orientations around, and letting individual projects decide which to use. Powers (talk) 00:19, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
Some time ago I created Category:Flopped images to make it easier to identify reversed/flipped/inverted/negative images. This works fairly well for recent photographs, but for older images, we might want to add a way to identify whether we know that it was (not) reversed or whether we aren't sure. Docu  at 05:07, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

Water treatment plants in Germany

We need the names and co-ordinates/postcodes of all sewage (wastewater) treatment works in Germany, These sewage works are involved at every stage of treatment: screening, de-gritting, sedimentation, filtration, and final settling. Would appreciate your thoughts or advise Ianblack33@gmail.com

That would be good thing to have, can you compile a list and place it at en:List of water treatment plants in Germany. Please leave a note here when completed. If you have images available you can make available under a free license, you can upload them here. Please add them to Category:Wastewater treatment plants in Germany.  Docu  at 12:11, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
According to destatis we had 9,933 wastewater facilities in 2007. The list will be long ;) Wastewater treatment is duty of the municipality, <10% of the municipalities operate their own facilities, most charge third party contractors. You should start with a list of municipalities, ~11,500. Many municipalities are organized in cooperations with other municipalities to reduce costs. --Martin H. (talk) 18:00, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
Sounds like quite a project. Imagine once we have an image of each!  Docu  at 04:15, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Transfers from Wikipedia

I have noticed that a number of images I created have been transferred to Commons, example. None of them have kept the "attribution" field from the original licence template. Is this acceptable practice?, and if not can someone stop it happening please. SpinningSpark 23:57, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

w:WP:TRANSFER? Maybe a glitch in Commons Helper. Wknight94 talk 01:18, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
Ok, but who is going to fix it? SpinningSpark 06:44, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
Um, the person who maintains Commons Helper? Ultimately transfers are the responsibility of whoever transfers the file. Wknight94 talk 11:02, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
In that case I would like to request deletion of files created by me and uploaded by User:KeepOpera to Commons on the grounds they are incorrectly attributed. I am really tired of having my work deleted from Wikipedia and then coming to Commons only to find it is not properly attributed, or in some cases in the past, not attributed at all leading to it being deleted from Commons as well. SpinningSpark 16:10, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
Well I don't think that's going to happen either. If all you need is a certain text added to a certain set of files, I'm sure someone could write a bot to fix them. How many files are we talking about? Wknight94 talk 17:37, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
No idea, since copying to Commons does not trigger my watchlist on either site. I noticed a group of 6-8 from User:KeepOpera. SpinningSpark 00:31, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
It would seem they've all been fixed already (with the exception of File:Stripline stub matching.svg which is different here than on en.wp - that one is a bit confusing). Incidentally, I'm curious why you don't just upload the images to Commons yourself? Wknight94 talk 02:59, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
FAQ SpinningSpark 09:59, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
Well there aren't many specifics in that essay so it is difficult to refute. E.g., I don't see a Commons version or deletion of w:File:Miller cir.png so I have no idea why it was deleted. All I can say is that managing both en.wp and Commons, as you are doing, does indeed sound far more complicated than just uploading to Commons alone, so I'm not sure why you do it. If you upload here and watchlist your creations, there is a setting so that you will be e-mailed whenever your watchlisted uploads are modified or deleted. I have over 3,000 uploads here and have no difficulty. Wknight94 talk 12:29, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
Well I'll probably eventually get tired of playing King Canute, but in the meantime, the Miller deletion is definitely in the log here. SpinningSpark 18:09, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
The FAQ essay is not difficult to understand, but as usual, Commons and the Foundation do not really care. Because how difficult can it be to program a bot notifying original uploaders and talk pages of where an image is used of imminent deletion? /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 18:20, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
I'm not so quick to say they "do not really care", but it does seem that technical advances happen fairly seldom. I'd recommend finding a better venue to make technical suggestions, but it probably wouldn't matter anyway - for whatever reason. But if you want a bot within the current technical constraints, there is always good ole COM:BR. Wknight94 talk 00:16, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Using Book Creator.

how do i access book Creator so that i can put articals int a book form — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pdavies38 (talk • contribs) 2010-09-10T20:40:50 (UTC)

Hi Pdavies38, first: please sign your comments on talk/discussion pages.
Regarding your question: You probably mean the pdf book from Wikipedia articles: see en:Wikipedia:Books. By the way: here is Wikimedia Commons not Wikipedia itself. Here is just the media repository. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 23:30, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

PLease replace image with newer one

Could someone please replace http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_Marshal_Leigh-Mallory_Briefing.jpg with this one http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_Marshal_Leigh-Mallory_Briefing-hr1.jpg and also delete this one http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Air_Marshal_Leigh-Mallory_Briefing-hr.jpg

Ydorb (talk) 21:44, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

received a warning telling me that information is missing

I have uploaded a photo named Tami_small.jpg and to the best of my understanding provided all the necessary information.

Nevertheless I have received a warning telling me that information is missing and the picture may be deleted.

The problem seems to be that my user name Eliahustern is not recognized although this is the name I use.

Please advise— Preceding unsigned comment added by Eliahustern (talk • contribs) 2010-09-08T07:09:30 (UTC)

User:Yann commented in the file's history: "File has no source". I have asked him to explain.
Obviously you gave a source: You made the photograph by yourself, didn't you? - But I cannot see why this should be doubted.
General: Could you please upload higher resolution images? This image you have uploaded is very small. Maybe this and the date not matching the date watermarked in the image seemed strange to Yann. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 10:08, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
Yes, as Saibo said, could you upload the original picture? And please try to keep the EXIF data, that's a valuable information about pictures. Thanks, Yann (talk) 10:23, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
The file is available here: http://www.tamarelor.com/. I receive a mail from the uploader, and I think now that he's the author. He uploaded a bigger version: File:Tamar El Or.jpg. Do we need further confirmation? Yann (talk) 07:30, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Contribution page and missing images

I have uploaded the following images, but I can not see them on my contribution page. I have not got a message on my talk page about the images being deleted or nominated for deletion. Why can I not see the images on my contribution page?:

--Fanoftheworld (talk) 02:16, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

I removed the duplicate posting of this question. See the file pages File:Freemasons_hall_london_arp_B.jpg etc. You uploaded downscaled duplicates with the claim that you created them entirely yourself. You only technically processed someone else work, that not gives you any authorship. Duplicate or downscaled uploads are not needed, the software can downscale images. Uploading someone else work without attribution (although the license allows you to reuse the image as long as you attribute its copyright holder!) is a license breach. You can see the images in your upload log, thats the relevant contribution page for uploads. --Martin H. (talk) 02:26, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
I have not got a message/notice on my talk page about the images being deleted or nominated for deletion. Why?
The two images
are cropped versions of the originals. Therefore these two images shall be re-uploaded.
--Fanoftheworld (talk) 02:54, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
File:House of the Temple - Scottish Rite.JPG cropped 5-10% on the sides, terribly blurred, pixel number reduced to only 3% of what it originally was, distorted, false claim of own work and therefore a breach of the basic license requirement... No, that file should not be restored or reuploaded. File:Masonic Memorial grounds 2.jpg ~1% cropped on the left side but completely ruined in quality (96% loss) and blurry, again with false author claim and therefore license breach... no. I was about to reblock you for again declaring other peoples work your own, be glad glad that I not informed you. --Martin H. (talk) 03:12, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
I understand, that you are an administrator on Wikimedia Commons. I have not got a message/notice on my talk page about the images being deleted or nominated for deletion. Again why? As I understand you have broken the guidelines or rules.
Regarding the false claim of own work, that you keep saying, please remember that I very clearly wrote in the box "Other versions", that there were other versions of the same images. It is clear, that my intention was not to break any guidelines or rules this time.
I understand, that you have deleted the images, because of also the quality. Where do you read about the exact quality, that are required to images on Commons? I do not se it in any guidelines. --Fanoftheworld (talk) 03:21, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
'other versions' is not enough, attribution is not a nice courtesy but an legal requirement, this files are not yours and they are not public domain. Read the license (#7). Quality etc. are side effects, would be very nice if you can pay a little attention to them too, this projet is not a dump for low quality trash. Otherwise simply use the original image - if you can use anything on Wikipedia. But especially and finally pay attention to copyrights. --Martin H. (talk) 03:31, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
I understand, that you are an administrator on Wikimedia Commons. I have not got a message/notice on my talk page about the images being deleted or nominated for deletion. Again again why? As I understand you as an administrator have broken the guidelines or rules.
I understand, that you have deleted the two cropped images, because of your own opinion about quality, and not because of a quality requirement according to guidelines or rules. --Fanoftheworld (talk) 03:51, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Duplicates (your 1st sentence) and copyright violations (your 2nd sentence) dont require a discussion. I answer your question here but I regulary prefer not to communicate with you, you know the reasons. --Martin H. (talk) 03:56, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
– I do not understand the sentence "Duplicates (1st question) and copyright violations (2nd question)...".
– I have asked a question ("I understand, that you are an administrator on Wikimedia Commons. I have not got a message/notice on my talk page about the images being deleted or nominated for deletion. Again again why? As I understand you as an administrator have broken the guidelines or rules."), which I do not see should be wrong behavior. I do not require a discussion and do not understand what you mean by "...dont require a discussion". --Fanoftheworld (talk) 04:06, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
I corrected my explanation. You will not get a warning if you upload duplicates or copyvios. For the second you had warnings enough. --Martin H. (talk) 04:08, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Sorry, that does not help me to understand what you mean. --Fanoftheworld (talk) 04:16, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Perhaps this will be clearer: (1) if a picture is a simple duplicate, we almost always delete it without bothering to inform the uploader. Typically, the deletion log should indicate that this is the reason for the deletion. (2) If a picture is a blatant copyright violation, pretty much the same happens. However, if one account is often uploading blatant copyright violations, that is considered a pretty serious problem, and they will probably be warned and, if they persist, blocked. One example of blatant copyright violations is cropping someone else's photo and claiming sole authorship of the resulting work. - (User:Jmabel 05:17, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Okay, but as I know, it is a guideline/rule, that the uploader always must have a message/notification telling the uploader, that his/her image is deleted or nominated for deletion. As I see it, User:Martin H. has broken the guidelines/rules, which must be considered a serious problem, because of his status as an administrator. You tell me, that the administrators in some situations "... almost always delete it (an image) without bothering to inform the uploader", which I think also must be considered a serious problem, because of the same reason. But maby I am wrong... (And again, one of the five deleted images was a very cropped version, and should therefore never have been deleted, as I see it). --Fanoftheworld (talk) 16:20, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Whether or not it's a rule, I think it's a good idea to leave the copyvio notice on a users page when deleting an image. When tagging an image as a copyvio, it asks you to do so, and it helps editors notice users with a problematic history of copyvios.--Prosfilaes (talk) 18:33, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Made an error but don't know what the error exactly is.

Made an error but don't know what the error exactly is. I have uploaded a svg file: File:Maffiabendes.svg. I have used a png-file as the basis of the svg-file. Problem is that the png file doesn't appear in the picture.

When I press enlarge to 200 px, I get the following errormessage: "Error generating thumbnail

Error creating thumbnail: librsvg-ERROR **: _rsvg_acquire_xlink_href_resource called for external resource: file:///home/ecmpeek/Afbeeldingen/Inkscape/Italy_location_map_a.png base: (null)

aborting..."

It should look like this: http://s938.photobucket.com/albums/ad223/flyingdutchman12/?action=view&current=Italy_location_map_c.png

Citypeek (talk) 15:21, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

It refers to a file that is only on your computer: xlink:href="file:///home/ecmpeek/Afbeeldingen/Inkscape/Italy_location_map_a.png" /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 15:22, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
yes, but why? I mean, when I save a file as svg, then everything should be included. Why the referral? Citypeek (talk) 15:26, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
That is something in the Inkscape settings, which I do not know much about. It should be better to start out from an SVG map of Italy. /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 15:30, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
Just deleted the external reference using a simple text editor. Now it works. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 16:43, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
Still cannot see the map. Citypeek (talk) 16:54, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
There is no map inside - maybe you mean the png file which was embedded. Embedding does not work. Garb a svg map of italy and paste it in your file. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 18:35, 10 September 2010 (UTC)
You need to embed the image in the Inkscape file see this page of the manual. The embed command is a python extension under the "effects" drop-down menu under "images". Alternatively, you can create an svg version of the png with the "trace bitmap" command under the "path" drop-down menu. SpinningSpark 13:31, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
Thank you all for answering. Citypeek (talk) 07:50, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Is there a policy on when to not diffuse a category?

Creating a bunch of subcategories by year when the decade had only 5-20 entries seems counterproductive. The resulting subcategories are very thin. Are there any guidelines or policies that apply? Dankarl (talk) 01:54, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

There should be guidelines (probably) in COM:CAT - but I cannot find anything there.
Keep in mind that Commons is growing and growing. It could be useful to create categories even before they are needed if it can be assumed that new files will be uploaded in the not too far away future. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 02:16, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
The problem is, if the subcategories exist, then policy or guideline says they should be used in preference to the higher-level category, even if a larger set would be more convenient.
I'm not sure if decade categories are generally of much use (unless the year isn't clear). There is some discussion about year categories on the talk page of the page Saibo mentions.  Docu  at 05:33, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
It may be a question of working style, but a decade category with 20 entries seems to me a lot easier than looking through 10 year categories with 0 to 4 entries. I am pretty sure Wikipedia has such a guideline, but can find nothing on commons. Dankarl (talk) 16:01, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Commons is more interested in descriptive categories and doesn't really care about the number of images in a category (IMHO). We got CatScan instead: there is a link on every category.  Docu  at 17:28, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
It would be nice to have a software feature that could dynamically merge thin subcategories into larger galleries, on the viewer's request, without disturbing the actual subcategorization. In any case, any user can create a gallery page by hand, to arrange images in any way convenient, independently of how they are categorized. --Teratornis (talk) 08:03, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
the software solution would be good, but a policy or guideline would be useful in the interim. Dankarl (talk) 16:01, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
Lots of things would be useful, but nothing happens until someone does whatever work is necessary to make it happen. In the meantime it might be easier for you to create gallery pages to solve whatever problem you are trying to solve, since you won't need to get the attention of large numbers of other people and get them all to agree on a policy change or addition. You did not mention what problem you are trying to solve. If subcategories are thin, exactly what problem does that cause for you? Categories are not the only way to find images; there are also some search tools. Perhaps the most important thing for making search tools work is to have good text descriptions on every image file page. Incidentally did you try CatScan? --Teratornis (talk) 20:32, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
This started with an inquiry whether there was a policy or guideline I had missed which could be cited to justify reverting some changes which I regarded as excessive. Both the replies I got and the further digging I have done suggests that there is no such guideline or policy. I am not the only contributor annoyed by excessive or premature diffusion but we seem to be the minority. This is not the place to discuss the specific issue.
Thanks to all who respondedDankarl (talk) 21:44, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

File:POxy1084_Hellanicus_Atlantis.png

I would like to either contact the author of the above page, or find a translation for it. I cannot find on the page, where to contact the author. Thank you. Merrymary (talk) 15:30, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

I think the author is dead.  Docu  at 20:50, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

I realize the ORIGINAL author, Hellanicus of Mytilene, has been dead for about 2400 years!! I meant, I wanted to contact whoever posted the article to Wiki, to see if that person could interpret what the document says. I don't see anywhere on the page that person's "My Talk" link. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Merrymary (talk • contribs) 2010-09-14T21:10:29 (UTC)

User talk:Bender235 Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 21:24, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Rotating problem with picture

I'm not sure where to post this (maybe this should be at Village Pump?), but I figure this isn't a major issue so I'd drop a line here. I recently uploaded this image, a work that I created, but I can't figure out how to get it rotated properly. On my Mac, the image appears to be the correct rotation, but when I rotate it back to normal, it reverts to sideways when I upload it again. Can anyone take a gander and try to help me out? Sorry about this. Nomader (talk) 23:15, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

I added "{{Rotate|90}}" to the description page, and User:Rotatebot will fix it for you (within 6 hours max.). ;-) - Erik Baas (talk) 23:36, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
Thanks a bunch! Nomader (talk) 19:24, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Can i upload this to wikipedia without any problems with the licenses etc. ?

i want to add this Anime Logo to the angel beats wikipedia entry. i cut the logo out of a screenshot of the original anime and edited everything so that i look like the result. is this ok to upload? — Preceding unsigned comment added by MaurizioCav (talk • contribs) 12:24, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

This is Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. We require all media uploaded here to be completely free of copyright restrictions (beyond a very small subset of acceptable restrictions). There is a case that could be made that this logo is ineligible for copyright protection, which would allow it to be uploaded here, but I'm not sure if it would qualify. Your safer bet is to upload it to the Wikipedia on which you want to use the image. If that's the English Wikipedia, try en:Wikipedia:Upload. Thanks! Powers (talk) 13:12, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
See Threshold of originality and COM:CB#Trademarks. Compare to examples in Category:Logos, but there is no guarantee that other logos uploaded by other users do not violate copyright. You could also contact the original creator and ask them to explicitly license their logo with a free license, or release it to the public domain. See COM:EIC#Permreq. If you cannot get permission and the logo meets the threshold of originality (only your attorney knows for sure), you may be able to upload it to a particular language Wikipedia which allows fair use images; see COM:FAIRUSE and WP:NFCC. --Teratornis (talk) 17:03, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Licensing problems with images from Italian wiki

Hello all--I'm working on the Wikipedia article for Pippo Franco ([1]) and find that the images from the Italian wiki ([2]) do not seem to be available to me; the files themselves all have a warning, "Do not move this file to Wikimedia Commons without adequate review!"

Can someone help me with this review? I'm interested in three images: [3], [4] (which is very stupid, I admit), and [5]. Your help is greatly appreciated--the English wiki simply should not continue to exist without a well-illustrated article on this seminal Italian artist! (A note on my WP talk page would be greatly, greatly appreciated.) Drmies (talk) 18:33, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Well, according to the license templates (paste the text in gTranslator - but be careful) the images are all in public domain in italy (20 years after production). Probably we cannot use them on commons. Maybe we can, does anyone exactly? Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 01:02, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
IIRC, the last time this came up, the decision was this wasn't a valid license for Commons.--Prosfilaes (talk) 01:38, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
So--the answer is no? That would be a real shame... Drmies (talk) 01:40, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
That problem exists all over Wikipedia - the lack of suitable freely-licensed images to illustrate many articles. Hopefully, if several billion people find this shameful, they will elect politicians who will create copyright laws that advance human progress instead of retarding it. --Teratornis (talk) 04:21, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Grace Noll Crowell - Photo Copyright

Some time ago I fleshed out the Wikipedia article for Grace Noll Crowell. There are no pictures of Ms. Crowell on the net that I could find, but recently I came across a nice on the back cover of this book, which I have scanned and stored here. Could anyone help me figure out if this image could be added to the Commons, so I can insert it into the Crowell article?Ccdesan (talk)

Chances are it's copyrighted. Your best bet is to upload it to Wikipedia as a fair use image rather than to the Commons. Bob the Wikipedian (talk) 02:16, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
See COM:FAIRUSE and the links therefrom. --Teratornis (talk) 00:02, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much.Ccdesan (talk)

Hello, I'm trying to improve an article about a band, i'm trying to add a picture, i don't own the rights to this image but i have contacted the band (who own the rights) and they say they're happy for the image to be used on wikipedia,"as far as I'm concerned we own the rights to photos and I'm happy for them to be used." however i get the impression that wikipedia only permits the use of copyright free files, is this true?, does the permisson override this or not? In other words, can i upload this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bwriggers (talk • contribs) 21:02, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

See Commons:Project scope#Must be freely licensed or public domain, COM:EIC#Permreq, and COM:OTRS. This is Wikimedia Commons rather than Wikipedia. Media licensing requirements are more stringent here than on some of the Wikipedias. See COM:FAIRUSE. There are at least three ways to approach the problem:
  • Upload the photo to one of the Wikipedias under a fair use rationale.
  • Request permission from the copyright owner and document it according to the OTRS procedure.
  • If the band has an account on Flickr they could upload the photo there and license it under a suitably free license such as {{Cc-by-sa-3.0}}. Then you could upload the photo from Flickr to Commons. See COM:FLICKR.
None of the three methods are entirely hassle-free. You can thank the politicians who wrote the copyright laws we must obey. --Teratornis (talk) 00:10, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

I would like to upload the logo of the CardRunners company to their wiki page, but am confused by the whole process. This is the logo I want to upload:

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/2012/cardrunnerslogo.jpg

How do I start the whole process of uploading and getting permission to host it?

You should ask company permission (see Commons:Email templates as example) and send it to Commons:OTRS. --EugeneZelenko (talk) 15:08, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

new account

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PlanckianLocus.png

Looked like a good candidate for compression. I saved 112 KB using pngout to this

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PlanckianLocus-pngout.png

I'm too new to replace the original. Will someone take care of it for me please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by E144539 (talk • contribs) 2010-09-18T02:09:46 (UTC)

Hi and welcome to Commons! I posted a speedy deletion on your file. This is not needed. png out is wasting server space instead of saving it. Every new version is saved separately. You can use pngout before uploading files created by yourself - but please do not for already uploaded files. Additionally it is consuming human time. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 04:42, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for the warm welcome.
It isn't about storage space, but bandwidth. The smaller the images that are linked to, and viewed, the less bandwidth is used... which should lower server costs. I wonder why Wikimedia hasn't implemented an automatic script to further losslessly compress all uploaded PNGs. It wouldn't change the original work in anyway, except for making it smaller.
It has been done before.
Commons:Help_desk_archive/2007Mar#Replace_image
I just found this.
Commons:Preparing_images_for_upload
"It is normal for image editing programs to produce poor PNG compression, even when run with their maximum compression choices. As a result, there are a variety of tools to compress PNGs without any loss of quality. However, if the image will be scaled by Mediawiki before viewing, then these steps are pointless."
...but fail to see how it could be pointless. Won't a few people always view the original? --E144539 (talk) 17:44, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
Hi again! I guess, but I am pretty sure, that only very few people really watch the orig. Most views will be in the Wikipedia articles (thumbnails) and a few views will be the image on the preview image. I guess in most image requests the image is scaled down by Mediawiki. Then pngout is useless. Best would be if pngout would be implemented at server side during the scaling process but as far as I know it isn't. Maybe the effects on bandwidth are not worth the hassle.
At least doing this pngout stuff manually for already uploaded images is not worth the effort. Let our technicians deal with this and (for example) help categorizing files: Category:Media needing categories. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 20:52, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

Kristin George and info and picture

Some information posted is incorrect and the picture posted does not look like her or is one of the worst taken. (Kristin George) — Preceding unsigned comment added by S00mag (talk • contribs) 2010-09-19T05:31:24 (UTC)

I moved your comment into its own topic, since I think that was your intention. When posting a new topic, please use the link at the top of the page for a new topic or section. If your comment is about another topic, please post again, but to the intended topic, and you can usually do that by clicking the "edit" link next to the topic title. Thanks. Nick Levinson (talk) 06:15, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
Hi Kristin. Please tell us the file name of the picture you are talking about. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 14:34, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
This may refer to the Kristin George article on the English Wikipedia, which has the picture w:File:Kris & crown 3.JPG (which is not yet on Commons). If that is the worst picture of Kristin George she must be incredibly beautiful. --Teratornis (talk) 00:51, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
There is also File:KristinGeorge.jpg in Category:Kristin George.  Docu  at 03:43, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Error: provide suitable license and source information

It is my first day at Wikimedia Commons. I tried to upload an image created by myself and I have been received the message: provide suitable license and source information. Could you help me to find where the mistake is? {{Information |Description={{es|1=Cubierta de libro de la novela Memoria del Silencio de Uva de Aragón, publicada en formato ebook por Eriginal Books}} |Source={{own}} |Author=[[User:Eblancomoleon|Eblancomoleon]] |Date=2010-08-28 |Permission= {{self|cc-by-3.0 }} |License = {{self|cc-by-3.0 }} |other_versions= }} [[Category:Cubierta de libro]] Thank you— Preceding unsigned comment added by User:Eblancomoleon (talk • contribs)

For one, you need to be more clear what you were doing when you got this message. I don't know why you got that message; but you don't need to fill in the License block if you've already filled in the Permission block. Furthermore, if you really did create the cover, you'll need to file a notice with OTRS; if you merely scanned the cover, then it's unlikely that you can upload it here, and certainly can't claim copyright over it.--Prosfilaes (talk) 20:01, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Video not working

Anyone have any idea why this video displays like an audio file? I know it uploaded completely because I can view it at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Catching_a_brown_recluse_with_a_jar_and_paper.ogv Bob the Wikipedian (talk) 14:06, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

I'm still wondering what's going on...anyone? Bob the Wikipedian (talk) 15:21, 17 September 2010 (UTC)
ResolvedThe video encountered an error during the conversion using FireFogg. Reconverted and reuploaded. Bob the Wikipedian (talk) 02:28, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

about watchlist: 3 questions

1. My watchlist is showing only the latest edit, not all the edits within a selected time period. I did two edits about ten minutes apart to the same page but only the latest is listed. The only variables I see offer the option to Hide, so it should be showing everything (minor edits, etc.) How do I show everything?

2. I want it to remember the time period selected. Every time I log in, it goes back to a 3-day display. However, my en.wikipedia.org watchlist remembers that I like 7 days. How do I get the Commons watchlist to remember my preferred time period?

3. Is there any way to combine all my watchlists into one display?

Thank you very much. Nick Levinson (talk) 01:29, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

1: Do you have an arrow left of the entry? Click on it. Otherwise: refer to next answer. Maybe there is a wrong option set.
2: Special:Preferences Tab watchlist.
3: Do you mean e.g. enwiki and commons watchlist? Yes: http://toolserver.org/~luxo/gwatch. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 03:26, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
No. 2 solved no. 1 and no. 2 and I'm sure that when I get no. 3 to work it'll be fine.
Perhaps someone can add your advice to the Commons help page. When I did a search for "watchlist" I didn't get anywhere.
I moved the comment in this topic that was either by or about Kristin George into its own section, following.
Thanks muchly. Nick Levinson (talk) 06:15, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
2: I Do not know the right help page for Questions regarding the watchlist. However, Special:Preferences is linked in Commons:First steps/Account and it is explained that you can customize Commons there.
3: Just be aware that this is a external tool and not integrated inside Mediawiki. I do not use it - but maybe it is fine for you! Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 14:47, 19 September 2010 (UTC)
Because gWatch requires importing the list of pages to be watched in each Wikimedia project, it occurs to me it's likely that gWatch does not automatically update that list of page names. So if I edit a page I haven't considered earlier and as a result of its default I begin watching it, gWatch won't know that I've added it to a watchlist within a Wikimedia project. That means I'll have to update gWatch often, which takes away the time savings of using gWatch instead of separate Wikimedia watchlists. This isn't Wikimedia's responsibility, since gWatch is someone else's effort, so I'll just hope that someday Wikimedia will offer a way I can merge watchlists automatically. Unfortunately, I don't know how to write that kind of a program. Thank you for your help. Nick Levinson (talk) 02:04, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
AFAIK it does not automatically update these lists. There is a snippet of javascript which can be pasted in your monobook.js/vector.js. It gives you a gwatch button to click on to import the currently viewed page to gwatch. Don't ask me why this is not linked at the gwatch page: remember, this is a project by a single person.
You can find it here: de:Benutzer:Luxo/gwatch.js. To automatically include (so you receive updates if there are any - the user is not active anymore and only maintaining his toolserver tools) it in your monobook.js you can use this code.
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="' 
 + 'http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benutzer:Luxo/gwatch.js' 
 + '&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s"></script>');
See also the bug regarding a global watchlist. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 11:58, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

reusing GFDL pics

I'm trying to make sense of the legalese governing GNU and it's subdivisions if that's what there called. Some art photos I need to use as visual examples in my 1,000 page analysis of Western Civilization to be published soon are designated GNU or are Yorck Project images, which Yorck states are all GNU-FDL. But Yorck also states plainly that "derivative" works, if that's what my book is, containing GNU images must also be under the same license. But Wikimedia reports (at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia) that:

“When using a photo placed under the GFDL licence as part of a larger work, the larger work *does not have to be* released under GFDL for usage to be within the license terms. . . . Now, the [creator of] GFDL says "When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document.” So, the larger work doesn't (always) have to be released under GFDL.”

There seems to be a contradiction between Yorck and Wikimedia. Two questions: http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons:Help_desk&action=edit&section=10 1. Because, out of the 400+ images I am using to illustrate my original 350K word text, 5 images are GNU-FDL is my book inescapably a "derivative" (or is it an aggregate) work of these few images requireing me to copyleft in the same way?

2. No way I'm leaving my text open for plagiarizing. So If I copyright in the usual way can I use a few GNU images or not?

Thanks, Dan — Preceding unsigned comment added by Danieldepriest (talk • contribs) 2010-09-18T23:33:51 (UTC)

This is really a question for a copyright lawyer. - Jmabel ! talk 00:58, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

delete my file

Please delete <File:Annika Johansson CV 2010.jpg>. I uploaded it. I now want it removed, but I don't see that I have the access or horsepower to remove it myself. Richard David Ramsey (talk) 23:44, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

I created an own section and linked your file. I put a {{speedy|your_reason_here}} on the file to ask for deletion. That's the way you are able to do this normally. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 01:20, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Oops!

Can someone please fix output.png, it defaulted to upload there, and I thought it'd go to Georgette 2010 track.png. Now it thinks I did some copyright thing... Help! Syntheticalconnections (talk) 03:29, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

If you upload new image over the already existing one, you can revert this action by pressing revert link in the File history section at the bottom of the page --Justass (talk) 10:57, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

"redirecting article titles"

Hi -- I just published an article on Wikipedia that could be searched for by a number of different names (that is, the article is entitled Sophia "Chat" Sanduval, yet it's possible that a browser could be looking for it by typing "Sophia Sanduval" or just "Chat"

Can anyone tell me how to add possible alternate titles so those kinds of searches will lead to my article? I know that in past wikipedia searches my articles are "redirected" to the page I'm looking for even though the phrase I typed wasn't the same thing word-for-word. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Talkstoanimals (talk • contribs) 11:37, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

I think you have in mind article Sophia "Chat" Sanduval that is on English Wikipedia, not here at Commons. You should make redirect according to Wikipedia:Redirect guideline, the very basic example would be to create new article "Sophia Sanduval" with the text #REDIRECT [[Sophia "Chat" Sanduval]]. Also please try to avoid generic names like "Chat" in redirects as they can have many meanings --Justass (talk) 10:54, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

WWII records

My wifes father died in a Stirling bomber which was one of three which crashed in Ludwigsfelde on night of 31/8/1943.Can you advise where we can obtain any records or find out where the bomber crashed.The aircraft was a Stirling 111 EH905 AA-R from 75Sqn. Regards Charles Shutt

I'm not sure where to suggest you ask this, but certainly not on the help desk for using/working on this site. Anyone have a suggestion for this guy? - Jmabel ! talk 14:54, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
Ask the competent military authority. --Martin H. (talk) 21:45, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Reference desk would be (at least) a better place to ask. I just found your older request at another site. I would guess it is best to ask the airforce for which he was working. Or maybe the authorities at Ludwigsfelde. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 00:59, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

FOP-US

Hi, I have uploaded a few photos from a public exhibition called "sukkah city", [6], in order to put them on the hebrew wikipedia home page as "photo of the day". I was wondering if the fact that the objects will be eventually removed from the NY union square (in 5 days), could raise some license issues and then to deletion of the files? according to their website, the will probably be selling them to public institutions such as museums etc. --Jys (talk) 21:46, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Please see Commons:FOP#United_States: “For artworks, even if permanently installed in public places, the U.S. copyright law has no” FOP! If you photographed art by artists not more than 70 years dead the photos need to be deleted: tag it with {{speedy|your reason here}}. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 01:11, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
Ah, architecture or artwork? I'd say it was a specifically architecture competition, regardless of permanence. After all, whether occupied or not during the time period, a "sukkah" is intended for occupation as a structure, it is a building albeit an intentionally temporary one. I've already had a number of the architects contact me to use the images. --Jys (talk) 01:34, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
They're buildings, IMO, so they should be fine.--Prosfilaes (talk) 03:17, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Welcome explosion

I was going to try uploading some images here to put into a couple of articles when my talk page was exploded upon. Why not a single line welcome message from a human and a few links? I thought my talk page had morphed into the Wikimedia Commons Welcome page. It was confusing. I had a message soon after coming here, I clicked on the message, and it took me to the Welcome page, so I assumed I didn't really log in.

A bot can't welcome someone! If it's a bot, it's spam! And spam is not welcoming.

Why would you scare people off by spamming them automatically for the crime of checking into Wikimedia?

No one welcomed me. A bot spammed my talk page. That's not welcoming.

Ewww. --JaRoad (talk) 05:52, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

I welcome you to Wikimedia Commons. Welcome! If you would like to help out, take a look at the community portal.
Maybe this would be better? :-) ZooFari 06:13, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
Yes, this would be nice, a greeting by a human, with a link to a useful page. The whole thing was insulting. It was put there by a bot that the user can't respond to, making it, essentially, spam. There's no human interaction. And it dumped so much stuff on my page, within seconds of my logging on, that I thought I had gone to the wrong place, rather than thinking I had been greeted--which, of course, I wasn't. And, then, creep factor, it spammed my page when I checked in to see if I could practice uploading on my talk page--someone decided to monitor new users and attack their talk page with spam when they log in? So, being stalked by a bot and getting your talk page spammed by a bot, is not a greeting! It's so bad, it's almost hostile. Maybe it is impersonal enough to be hostile.
Please, if it's a bot, a link would suffice, like you suggest. Better would be to wait until a new user uses Wikimedia before spamming their talk page. Better: small greeting after the human user has made a contribution rather than a bot stalking log-ins. More better: don't bot spam a new user's talk page at all, but at least wait until they've logged in.
Please change this. --JaRoad (talk) 19:23, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
The {{Welcome}} template displays the small text at the bottom:
  • P.S. Would you like to provide feedback on this message?
which links to Commons talk:Welcome log. Most of the comments there are from people who weren't quite as offended by the automatic message as you are. However, most users who see the welcome message probably do not provide any feedback, so the feedback page probably samples only a tiny bit of the full range of user reactions. The reason for providing the wall of text and links on every new user's talk page is to persuade new users to read the friendly manuals before plunging ahead and making all the stereotypical new user mistakes. Wikimedia Commons, like the other Wikimedia Foundation wikis, is highly unintuitive. Most people who guess what to do (without reading lots of manuals) will guess something wrong. Of course a personal greeting from a human would be better, but humans are expensive. For Wikimedia Commons to be free of charge, it has to find efficiencies such as automating the welcome message and expecting users to tolerate these shortcuts, and read the manuals themselves rather than expect hand-holding from another human, to keep costs minimal. --Teratornis (talk) 20:55, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Account too new to replace an image

Hi guys, I wanted to refresh a coat of arms of my municipality I originally made years ago and uploaded to Wiki, now I found it reuploaded on Commons and I cannot edit the file because my account is too new, please could you do me a favor and replace the old one: File:Visokogrb.png with the new one: File:Opstina_visoko_grb.png -- Koljenovic (talk) 13:00, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

The simplest solution is to wait a few days when you will become autoconfirmed. --Teratornis (talk) 20:57, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Localisation of sidebar

The links from the sidebar to 'Community portal' and 'Help' lead to empty pages in both cy and sw. Can this be fixed? Lloffiwr (talk) 18:28, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Probably. You or someone else would need to create pages for the empty pages now linked to, assuming the links are pointing to the page names that would be correct for those languages. If you look at a page such as Commons:Community portal, at the top it lists the other language translations of the page that we have so far. For example, the page in French is Commons:Portail communautaire. To get more language translations, we need multi-lingual users to create them. As I have only edited in English, I am not familiar with the details of translating into other languages here. Incidentally, you could add Babel boxes to your user page to list the languages you know. --Teratornis (talk) 21:13, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Question about languages

Good Day!

I am in the process of editing text and uploading pictures for articles both in spanish and english, have reviewed the instructions and help provided.

Please clarify if pictures must be uploaded in the specific article language, or if you can use pictures uploaded in spanish, for articles in english, and vice-versa.

I have many, hundreds of bilingual articles on archaeological sites within the american continent, could use some help on facilitating the process.

Thank you and regards

Raul Gutierrez — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gumr51 (talk • contribs) 17:38, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

An image you upload to Wikimedia Commons (this site) is usable on all the Wikimedia Foundation project wikis such as the English and Spanish Wikipedias. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by uploading pictures "in the specific article language." This could mean several different things:
  • An image itself may depict text in a given language. A common example is a map which has captions for city names and geographic features. In that case, the preferred solution is to create the image in SVG format so you or other Commons users can create language-specific versions by editing the text labels into other languages. See: Commons:Translation possible/Learn more.
  • You may have uploaded an image to one of the language Wikipedias rather than to Commons. In this case the image is only usable on that particular Wikipedia. To use it on other Wikipedias, you have to upload it to Commons. See Wikipedia:Moving images to the Commons.
  • You may have uploaded an image to Commons, and given it a filename and description in a particular language. In this case there is no problem using it on a Wikipedia in a different language. However, to help Commons users in other languages understand the image, you can add description fields in other languages to the image page on Commons, in the description field of the {{Information}} template. For example:
    • English: A description in English.
    • Español: Una descripción en Español.
--Teratornis (talk) 21:25, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Publish my own picture of my own statue

Hello there,

I want to publish a scan of my own picture of my own statue. I authorized someone else to do so under a free license but a bot removed it so I was asked to do it myself, still I'm unsure how to proceed to be 100% certain that it won't get removed again, as in some places it says that if the author is alive it just can't be published, but then this clearly shows clearly shows that if an author authorizes it it can be done, I just want to be ceirtain of the correct process so that my picture of my own sculpture can be freely used. --Yandi (talk) 00:19, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi Yandi, welcome to Commons! Just upload it (Commons:Upload) and provide all the information you have in the fields. You do not need to provide your real name if you do not want to publish it - just use your name "Yandi" then. Help is also at Commons:First_steps/Upload_form.
Just to assure: is the statue made by your hands? Are you the artist? Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 16:20, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

change the title

Hi all,

I have uploaded about 15-20 photos in commons.

For one file in particular, I would like to change the title because there is a typo (in French) but I do not know how to proceed. Please advise, thanks!

For the all the photo files uploaded, I would like to insert them in the text of an article pubished on Wikipedia main library. I could put some of the photos as a general gallery (below the main text) and some photos inside the text (actually aside the text). Please advise how to do, many thanks!

Best,

Marc — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mdafax (talk • contribs) 2010-09-28T09:05:08 (UTC)

(I addded a section title for you) I guess you want to rename a file. Please see COM:RENAME how to do this. In short: you need to add a template on the file's page requesting for rename. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 16:01, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

moved from COM:VP --Saibo (Δ) 16:05, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi, Marc. To rename files, place a {{Rename}} tag on them (click on the name of the tag to read the instructions for its use). To use a Commons image in a Wikipedia article, just refer to it in the same way as you would refer to an image that is at Wikipedia, like this: "[[File:Harbour in Singapore, circa 1870.jpg|thumb|A harbour in Singapore, ''c.'' 1870]]". To see the wikitext needed to create a gallery, visit the page "Religious buildings in Singapore" and click on the edit link. For more information on images, see "Wikipedia:Picture tutorial". (Oh, and please sign your messages by typing four tildes after them ("~~~~"). Thanks.) — Cheers, JackLee –talk– 10:51, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

End - moved from COM:VP --Saibo (Δ) 16:05, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

SVG font rendering is a mess

SVG font rendering is a mess. A real time waster.

I created a chart in Excel 2007 and saved it to PDF which looks fine in Acrobat reader. I then used Inkscape to convert the PDF to SVG. It seemed to work best when saved as "Plain SVG". (If saved in the "Inkscape SVG" default, there were problems with the fonts when previewed under Firefox.) I then uploaded the image under WikiMedia and included it in an article in Wikipedia.

The preview version of the chart was just awful. All the fonts were over-sized and truncated. It looked like a moron designed the chart. So after much searching I found that most common fonts on the PC are not supported in Wikipedia. So then I had to download Deja Vu fonts and Bitsream Vera fonts and go back and edit the Excel chart to use only those fonts. Then I had to repeat the Excel -> PDF -> Inkscape -> SVG -> Wikimedia -> Wikipedia pipeline.

The result still sucks. The preview bitmap that Wikipedia renders for the article from my SVG still sucks. If you click on it you get an even worse version. The PNGs are a little better but buggy. Only the final SVG when viewed directly under Firefox or IE 8 look good.

I'm sorry, but this it a lot of editing, massage, and modification. Far more than a person should have to do to post an article. Wikipedia is just a horrible user interface (text editing with bizarre commands that are similar to, but not exactly like, HTML). We need some sort of WYSIWYG editor that will correctly show an image in the editing article as well as the final article. Wikipedia article creation seems to cater too much to "expert" users, even though most articles are not written by computer science experts. And the system is just quirky enough that stuff you know from other systems won't exactly apply to Wikipedia.

Oh, and I still get the famous "bad CSS property or descriptor declaration" error anyway--which may, or may not, be an actual error.

This is the article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2010

(mine is the Comparison chart).

p.s. The Graphics "Village Pump" is so poorly organized it's nearly impossible to post over there. — Preceding unsigned comment added by NateOceanside (talk • contribs) 17:55, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

See Librsvg bugs etcetera. /Pieter Kuiper (talk) 18:17, 28 September 2010 (UTC)
The workaround we use to use at the GL here and on Wikipedia:Wikipedia:GL/I is to convert all texts to paths in the svg file. It can be done using Inkscape. It takes a very short time to do and avoids most of the complications that can occur using text objects. It enables for instance the use of any font on your computer with a correct rendering once on Wiki, or putting some text along a path with no trouble.
Two drawbacks though : a bigger file (the paths generated are complex and made of a whole bunch of points) that becomes harder to translate (the text itself is not kept in the file). Arnaud Ramey (talk) 19:18, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Picture plant (Nepenthes Sanquinea)

I am in Awe no one knows how to start a new plant from a cutting off one. We tried to start a root in water, but it did not work. Could you please tell me how to start another plant?

Second question do these pants like to be root bound? If not how and when should I re-pot it.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.82.168.121 (talk • contribs) 00:20, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

This help desk is a forum for questions and help on how to use Wikimedia Commons - this project. You may search for a more general help desk to ask questions or search for a plant forum. --Martin H. (talk) 12:42, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Tiempo magazine cover

I want to add an image of the front cover of Tiempo magazine to the page "Tiempo (programme)". The image is freely available online from http://www.tiempocyberclimate.org/newswatch/latest.htm. The magazine itself is freely available to distribute. I was the original designer of the page, and have the permission of the Tiempo organisation to use this image. What license tag does it require if I want to upload it to Wiki Commons? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rc524 (talk • contribs) 2010-09-29T20:09:27 (UTC)

Hi Rc524, welcome to Commons! Please sign your posts on talk pages.
We need to have the permission of the photographer or the holder of full copyrights on the photograph depicted on the title page. The license can be choosen from several licenses. All allow that everybody can use the picture if he obeys the restrictions of the license.
Do you know the photographer? Just answer again here! Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 00:21, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

List of media in a category

I'm interested in the Commons category:Analytic Hierarchy Process. Other than the display of thumbnails, is there a way to get a list of the media in this category? (I want to check its contents against several other lists of images. This is very tedious if one has to look through all those thumbnails.) --Lou Sander (talk) 12:54, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

(I linked the cat in your question) what about this? You can select the format at the bottom. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 14:56, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

page title with misspelling

Apparently it is not possible to edit a page title. However, this one contains a misspelling: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Princeton_University_Nassua_tigers.jpg#file. "Nassua" should be "Nassau." I'll let you deal with it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.27.18.180 (talk • contribs) 2010-09-30T19:30:51 (UTC)

Done. Please see some sections above for how to do it next time: Commons:Help_desk#change_the_title. Cheers --Saibo (Δ) 23:03, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

License?

I have tried to upload a self-produced scan of a banknote printed in 1916, but Wikimedia refused to upload the image, telling me: 'You must give the original source of the file, the author of the work, and a license.'

As far as I know I did give my name, but I don't have a clue where I should make mention of the source (And what then? Should I answer: 'My banknotes collection'?). And what do you mean by 'a license'? What am I supposed to do to grant myself permission to upload the scan?

All this is very frustrating and user-unfriendly! Sijtze Reurich (talk) 19:58, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

I think I found out how to do it: tick 'Public Domain' in the bottommost box. But the upload procedure is still user-unfriendly. Sijtze Reurich (talk) 20:55, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi Sijtze, please see Commons:First_steps/Upload_form. Use the help inside the upload form: just click on the "?" beneath "source" and you will get the explanation.
Source: In your case you should fill in self made scan of a banknote from my banknotes collection. Just like you mentioned above.
License: See Commons:Licensing. The license is the license the copyright holder of the work your file depicts has granted. In case of a photo photographed by you and showing just nature I are the only copyright holder and can select a license of your choice under which you allow others to use your photo. In case of your banknote you will need to add a public domain license tag - if the note is in the public domain. See Commons:Currency.
The upload form needs to be "complicated" as it is a legal act concerning copyrights.
I have looked in your uploads:
I corrected the licenses - fine now.
--Saibo (Δ) 23:31, 30 September 2010 (UTC)
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