[Commons-l] Principles of organisation - who do we serve?

Tue Nov 14 23:56:44 UTC 2006

On 11/14/06, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
 > I oppose this on Commons, for the reasons I have given in this thread
> when this was previously brought up:
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-June/044555.html

>But I
>think it's OK for Commons to be "harsh", because it follows a very
>strict standard of freedom and it's important for people to learn
>that.

But does the fact that some wikis are now disabling local upload
change the rules at all?
If no, then I suppose we can go on being harsh... but will we always
have to endure David telling us that we are a failure because we've
decided to be harsh?  :)

>Given that there's currently not central user database, having to
>confirm an e-mail address again for Commons strikes me as an
>unnecessary barrier to entry, particularly since our practice is
>generally to simply delete files without a clear source.

I agree.  SUL will reduce this barrier substantially.

I expect with SUL a user which confirms their email on any wiki where
they have an account will have a confirmed email once they arrive at
commons.

Would you consider the confirmed email requirement to be more
acceptable once SUL is implemented?

There is a lot of pressure on commons to not 'simply delete' except in
the most obvious cases, even more than I felt on enwiki... because on
commons the media is often used on dozens of Wikis and multiple
languages create communications barriers.  None single person on
commons us speaks all the languages we serve.

> On Commons,
>I'd rather wish for special processes to educate new users about the
>meaning of "free content" (see the discussion on commons-l about a
>licensing tutorial as a mandatory sign-up step).

I've agreed with these proposals for a copyright quiz ... but it's not there.

Do we need to make a push to complete these?
What is in the way?