[Foundation-l] Free license templates

Sat Apr 19 19:55:49 UTC 2008

On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 9:43 PM, Michael Snow <wikipedia at verizon.net> wrote:

> White Cat wrote:
> > Local projects should try to be as commons compatible as possible.
> Different
> > names for free licenses should be discouraged. I can provide bot
> assistance
> > to make the necesary changes.
> >
> > I do not feel it is not feasible to ask commons to continuously clean up
> > after wikis. Thats a constant waste of time. We can solve the issue as
> early
> > as the upload.
> >
> > It is not too late to make such a change. However if fewer and fewer
> wikis
> > agree to use a standarised template name the problem will become
> > increasingly difficult.
> >
> While I don't disagree that we should try to facilitate working across
> multiple projects, two observations:
>
> 1. Ultimately, Commons exists to serve the remaining projects, not the
> other way round.
> 2. Ultimately, the purpose of content (including templates) is to make
> things intelligible to humans, not bots.
>
> --Michael Snow
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>

You are absolutely right. But this can work both ways. Helping commons
better serve is of benefit to every wiki.

I really think dealing with over two million media and over 5,000 daily
uploads, commons people have their hands full as it is. People working in
commons aren't machines and making their job more difficult than it already
is is of no benefit to anybody.

All wikis (except de.wikipedia which adds a bild- infront of template names)
as far as I can see use the same template name for creative commons
licensing. We can use similar naming conventions (abbreviations) for other
free licenses such as GFDL or Public Domain (PD). On English wikipedia as
well as others when people refer to a policy they tend to use abbreviations.
Same practice can be applied to license templates.

The template name no matter how well or long worded it may be will mean
little to a human. The human should be reading the content of the template,
not its name in wiki code. Template names are for the most part read by
machines not humans. Humans read what is transcluded by the template.

    - White Cat