[Foundation-l] Fwd: [Commons-l] Making Wikimedia Commons less frightening

Tue Dec 9 16:09:41 UTC 2008

Hoi,
If you want to hear that Commons is not completely useless because people
can use a dictionary, I grant you that. However Commons is still considered
to be useless by several Wikipedias who do not promote its use. I also
consider this argument lame.

When the categories of Commons are shown in the language selected in the
user preferences, when the search engine is dependent on this same
selection, Commons actually provides a service for people who do not read
English. By enabling people to make effective use of Commons you create the
base for people to put up with all the perceived nonsense from Commons.

Perceived nonsense because Commons has to walk a different thin line between
what is acceptable to it and what is acceptable elsewhere The "Virgin
killer" picture cannot be found on Commons because Commons does not accept
"fair use". Just one of the differences between the en.wp policies and the
Commons policies.
Thanks,
       GerardM

2008/12/9 Magnus Manske <magnusmanske at googlemail.com>

> Please don't puts words (or notions) in my mouth.
>
> At the moment, Commons works best for you when you can read/write English.
> But if you don't, you can still do simple searches using a dictionary,
> and find many useful images.
> This fact contradicts your earlier statement that Commons is useless
> to non-English speakers.
>
> That's what I said, nothing more.
>
> Magnus
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 10:27 AM, Gerard Meijssen
> <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hoi,
> > An answer like that justifies and inforces the notion that Commons is
> only
> > for those that can read / write English. To me this is not acceptable
> > because it degrades Commons to less then what it should be, what it could
> > be.
> > Thanks,
> >      GerardM
> >
> > 2008/12/9 Magnus Manske <magnusmanske at googlemail.com>
> >
> >> On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 7:23 AM, Gerard Meijssen
> >> <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Hoi,
> >> > When people from other projects tell me that this is one of the
> reasons
> >> why
> >> > they do not bother with Commons, I have to disbelieve them? Try to
> find
> >> > "paard" and you will not be served in the same way as with "horse" the
> >> > search result is inferior. Dutch is not the worst option, try "ίππος"
> >>  and
> >> > you find nothing. This is Greek and it also means horse.
> >>
> >> They might not be able to find "ίππος". However, they might be able to
> >> use this big list of word pairs called a dictionary to translate
> >> "ίππος" into English "horse" and search for that.
> >>
> >> Not very comfortable, but hardly impossible as you claim.
> >>
> >> Magnus
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