Hi Magnus,

  First let me say that I'm a big fan of the Bad Old Ones toy, and an everyday user of it.

  My concern about the automated deletion of "bad old ones" is that sometimes I find that the nsd/nld templates were not well added to the image; i.e. there are no reasons to use that templates, the image can be saved with a simple edit completing the missing info, or the uploader has not been notified.

  I wonder if an automated deletion based just on the existence of a template that anyone can add will delete valid pictures. Of course, deletions can be undone, but the error has to be detected, and will be difficult to know where was the image used at the time of deletion.

  I think that the "burden of proof" on source and license is on the uploader, so it is valid pushing him to specify without ambiguity that data. But deleting images without at least a simple human review could not be convenient. Perhaps we can find an intermediate solution: reviewing with Bad Old Ones and when clicking "delete" on that tool having a bot delinking the image also.

Barcex

2006/11/15, Magnus Manske <magnusmanske@googlemail.com>:
When I just read about admins getting scolded for deleting an image
that was long past its "due date", I thought about the nature of the
templates and the message they convey.

Currently, they say something like "this image needs more source info"
etc., and give the date the template was added. If nothing changes,
the image *may* be deleted after, what, a month? This would be the
equivalent of "best before" - in reality, it might last a lot longer
than that.

What if the attitude of the templates were changed? "This image lacks
this and that. It will be deleted on XXXX-YY-ZZ unless this
information is provided." My tool [2] can be used to find images that
have reached their final use-by date, and could be deleted with good
reason.

Theoretically, one could write a bot which could do the deletions, so
no admins get scolded. The idea of a deletion-bot with admin rights (a
virtual equivalent of [2];-) might sound scary, but setting it for "no
edits for a month since addition of the template", combined with the
image resurrection capability, should calm this.

Magnus


[1] http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/bad_old_ones.php
[2] http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/samsung_develops_machine_gun_sentry_robot_costs_200k.php
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