On 28 October 2010 21:21, Lars Aronsson <lars(a)aronsson.se> wrote:
Now, the second part. Finding pictures in Commons
is really hard. It seems that categories and textual
descriptions are added by the uploader, and rarely
modified or enhanced by others. Finding a map of bird
migration paths across Europe might be easy, but
finding a plain and simple map of Europe is hard.
Images that appear directly in top categories (such
as Category:Maps of Europe) are a very random mix,
and not the most useful generic maps of Europe.
The relevant search term is "blank map of europe".
In practice if you are thinking of commons as wikipedia pictures by
far the best attack line is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blank_map_of_Europe_%28polar_stereographi…
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blank_map_of_Europe_%28polar_stereog…
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Blank_SVG_maps_of_Europe
The "next 200" navigation is a total
disaster,
that not a single newcomer understands. Anything
that is beyond the first 200 (e.g. subcategories
that start with M-Z) are not found.
That can I think be addressed through {{category tree}}
Is there any topic category on Commons that is
actively maintained for easy searching, i.e.
where subcategories are well defined and where
new images are systematically monitored and
recategorized with enhanced descriptions?
Not categories. Any attempt to do that gets flooded by bots.
Closest would be
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flowers
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Felis_silvestris_catus
--
geni