Commons:Turning off local uploads
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This is a short guide on what steps are necessary in between setting up a Wikimedia wiki, and moving to Commons-only uploads, and advice on what is necessary to ensure a smooth transition. "Project" here refers to a language version of a larger project such as "Latvian Wikipedia" or "German Wikisource" or "Tibetan Wiktionary".
Ideally, all projects would turn off local uploads and use Commons only, and Commons would be inundated with helpers. We can make progress on the first point, but not without progress on the second as well.
For more information see meta:Local upload configuration.
Projects that have turned off local uploads[edit]
Wikipedia[edit]
| Language | Bug | Discussion | Help/notes | Special:Upload | Toolbox upload link[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cs: Czech Wikipedia | bugzilla:24448 | the vote | disabled by non-standard means[2] | cs:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:UploadWizard, with ?uselang=cs
|
| es: Spanish Wikipedia | bugzilla:6408 | the vote | es:Special:Upload | Commons: Special:UploadWizard/es (Bugzilla:34566) | |
| eu: Basque Wikipedia | bugzilla:28609 | the vote | eu:Special:Upload | Commons' Commons:Upload/eu, with ?uselang=eu
| |
| gu: Gujarati Wikipedia | disabled by non-standard means[2] | gu:Special:Upload | |||
| ms: Malay Wikipedia | discussion | disabled by non-standard means[2] | ms:Khas:Muat naik | Commons' Special:UploadWizard, with ?uselang=ms
| |
| pt: Portuguese Wikipedia | bugzilla:7742 | the vote | their help page | pt:Special:Upload | pt:Wikipedia:Carregar ficheiro |
| simple: Simple English Wikipedia | discussion | simple:Special:Upload | none | ||
| sv: Swedish Wikipedia | bugzilla:11954 | 1: No local uploads 2: No local EDP |
sv:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:UploadWizard, with ?uselang=sv
|
Wiktionary[edit]
| Language | Bug | Discussion | Help/notes | Upload page | Toolbox upload link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cs:wikt: Czech Wiktionary | disabled by non-standard means[2] | cs:wikt:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:UploadWizard, with ?uselang=cs
| ||
| ja:wikt: Japanese Wiktionary | bugzilla:11775 | ja:wikt:Special:Upload | |||
| sv:wikt:Huvudsida Swedish Wiktionary | bugzilla:7977 | sv:wikt:Special:Upload | sv:wikt:Hjälp:Ladda upp filer, which points to Commons:Upload/sv |
Wikiquote[edit]
| Language | Bug | Discussion | Help/notes | Upload page | Toolbox upload link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cs:q: Czech Wikiquote | disabled by non-standard means[2] | cs:q:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:UploadWizard, with ?uselang=cs
| ||
| en:q: English Wikiquote | discussion | disabled August 2005 | en:q:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:Upload | |
| es:q:Portada Spanish Wikiquote | bugzilla:9728 | es:q:Special:Upload | none | ||
| is:q:Forsíða Icelandic Wikiquote | bugzilla:11317 | disabled by non-standard means[2] | is:q:Special:Upload | ||
| it:q: Italian Wikiquote | bugzilla:12012 | it:q:Special:Upload | it:q:Speciale:Carica, but local Common.js adds an additional "upload to Commons" button, pointing to Commons:Upload/it | ||
| pl:q:Strona główna Polish Wikiquote | bugzilla:4697 | pl:q:Special:Upload |
Other[edit]
| Language | Bug | Discussion | Help/notes | Upload page | toolbox upload link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Wikinews wikis, except en:n:Main Page, it:n:Pagina principale and pl:n:Strona główna | en:n:Special:Upload | Default: Commons' Special:Upload. Zh-hans: Commons:Upload/zh-hans. En, he, it, pl: none. | |||
| wikispecies: | wikispecies:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:Upload | |||
| cs:b: Czech Wikibooks | disabled by non-standard means[2] | cs:b:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:UploadWizard, with ?uselang=cs
| ||
| is:b:Forsíða Icelandic Wikibooks | bugzilla:11318 | 'sysop' has 'upload' right | is:b:Special:Upload | ||
| cs:s: Czech Wikisource | disabled by non-standard means[2] | cs:s:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:UploadWizard, with ?uselang=cs
| ||
| ja:s:メインページ Japanese Wikisource | bugzilla:3572 | ja:s:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:Upload | ||
| cs:v: Czech Wikiversity | disabled by non-standard means[2] | cs:v:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:UploadWizard, with ?uselang=cs
| ||
| d: Wikidata | Never enabled | ||||
| es:voy: Spanish Wikivoyage | Never enabled | es:voy:Especial:SubirArchivo | |||
| pt:voy: Portuguese Wikivoyage | Never enabled | pt:voy:Especial:Carregar_imagem |
Projects that have restricted local uploads[edit]
The Wikimedia default, set by Bugzilla:12556 in March 2008, is for only autoconfirmed users to have upload rights: Commons is the only exception to this, allowing all registered users to upload. Some projects have retained local uploads but limited the [upload] permission to higher usergroups, such as sysops.[3]
A live list of the wikis using this configuration exists.
Wikipedia[edit]
| Language | Uploads restricted to | Bug | Discussion | Help/notes | Special:Upload | Toolbox upload link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bg: Bulgarian Wikipedia | sysops | bg:Special:Upload | bg:MediaWiki:Uploadtext, which at bottom of page points to Commons:Upload/bg | |||
| de: German Wikipedia | autoconfirmed users | bugzilla:12391 | de:Special:Upload | de:Spezial:Hochladen | ||
| fo: Faroese Wikipedia | sysops | bugzilla:11669 | fo:Special:Upload | |||
| it: Italian Wikipedia | autoconfirmed users | bugzilla:10640 | discussion | it:Special:Upload | it:Speciale:Carica, but local Common.js adds an additional "upload to Commons" button, pointing to Commons:Upload/it | |
| la: Latin Wikipedia | sysops | bugzilla:13190 | la:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:Upload, with ?uselang=la
| ||
| pl: Polish Wikipedia | autoconfirmed users | bugzilla:6303 | discussion | 0 local images exist. With many discussions, Special:Upload has been kept enabled locally. | pl:Special:Upload | Points to a page sending people to Commons. |
| ru: Russian Wikipedia | sysops, 'uploaders', filemovers, and 'closers' | bugzilla:12334 limited to autoconfirmed users | ru:Special:Upload | |||
| sr: Serbian Wikipedia | autoconfirmed users | sr:Special:Upload |
Wiktionary[edit]
| Language | Uploads restricted to | Bug | Discussion | Help/notes | Upload page | Toolbox upload link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| en:wikt: English Wiktionary | sysops | bugzilla:5033 | en:wikt:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:Upload | ||
| es:wikt:Portada Spanish Wiktionary | sysops | bugzilla:7152 | es:wikt:Special:Upload | Commons' Special:Upload, with ?uselang=es
| ||
| is:wikt:Forsíða Icelandic Wiktionary | sysops | bugzilla:11187 | is:wikt:Special:Upload | is:wikt:Wikiorðabók:Hlaða_inn_skrá | ||
| it:wikt: Italian Wiktionary | sysops | bugzilla:12466 | it:wikt:Special:Upload | it:wikt:Speciale:Carica, but local Common.js adds an additional "upload to Commons" button, pointing to Commons:Upload/it |
Other[edit]
| Language | Uploads restricted to | Bug | Discussion | Help/notes | Upload page | Toolbox upload page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| en:b: English Wikibooks | "uploaders" group and sysops | bugzilla:21011 | discussion | en:b:Special:Upload | Commons' Commons:Upload | |
| incubator: Incubator | bureaucrats | bugzilla:11168 | incubator:Special:Upload | incubator:Incubator:Upload | ||
| ja:v: Japanese Wikiversity | sysops | ja:v:Special:Upload |
Advice[edit]
- Firstly, develop an image use policy. It should contain general advice and also specific advice on the countries that most editors are from. Have it approved by the community. Ideally it will match Commons:Licensing. ie no fair use, no logos, files must be sourced and licensed.
- If they don't exist, create translations and help pages for the language used by your project. See Commons:Help page maintenance.
- Write material on your project encouraging editors to upload free media to Commons with a friendly guide, and links to users who can help them if they have trouble.
- Create a formal or informal working group (eg a WikiProject) to systematically check uploads on your project, possibly transfer suitable media to Commons, and generally encourage the use of Commons.
- Encourage users from this working group to seek adminship on Commons after gaining some experience here. These users can act as a "bridge" between the project and Commons, especially if there are no other admins who speak the language used by the project.
- If the image use policy does not already match Commons:Licensing, seek community approval to change it to match this, with the express intent of turning off local uploads and only uploading to Commons.
- If this request seems likely to succeed, inform the Commons community by posting to commons-l or the Commons:Administrators' noticeboard. Advertise yourself as someone to be contacted with any problems arising from new uploaders from your project.
- Depending on the size of the wiki and the language used, more people to be nominated for adminship may be encouraged. If the project is small and there are already some active admins who speak the language, none may be necessary. If the language has no active admins in Commons already, at least two will be wanted (otherwise it is a big burden for one person). If the project is also large, then definitely more will be wanted. While the community will be happy to "wash its hands" of the boring task of dealing with uploads, it is important to realise that this responsibility is simply being transferred to Commons. If some of the helpers are not also transferred, then the experience will be frustrating for both the existing Commons community as well as the new uploaders here (who may not understand what is expected of them, or why).
Useful examples[edit]
Here are some examples of things people have done to help educate their project's users and make them feel more comfortable using the Commons.
- Template:Lmbuga-contact - A Spanish-speaking admin User:Lmbuga created this template when Commons seemed to have few active Spanish admins and many active Spanish newbies. When he contacted a user with a problem about their uploads, he also put this template on their talk page. Something like this can be a very good idea if you are an admin for a language that is not widely spoken by admins here.
- fr:Aide:Importer sur Commons un fichier provenant d'un projet Wikimedia A French help file explaining how to upload at Commons.
- fr:Aide:Importer un fichier A licensing-focused guide to uploading.
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Can be set via $wgUploadNavigationUrl, controlled via the Wikimedia settings file, or via MediaWiki:Upload-url, or via MediaWiki:Sidebar (see eg sv:MediaWiki:Sidebar)
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i The standard method is to set $wgEnableUploads to false. Here, the setting is left in the Wikimedia-default 'true', and instead 'upload' permissions are set to 'false' for the only usergroups which have it by default.
- ↑ This is controlled via the Wikimedia settings file. MediaWiki default settings are to assign [upload] permission to all registered users.
See also[edit]
- m:Non-free content
- MediaWiki:Uploaddisabledtext - the MediaWiki message shown at Special:Upload if uploads are disabled.
- MediaWiki:Permissionserrorstext-withaction - the MediaWiki message shown at Special:Upload if a user with insufficient permissions visits the page (this applies to the wikis with restricted uploads).