Commons talk:File requests

Guidelines

I added a set of guidelines adapted from en:Wikipedia:Requested pictures (where I do a lot of work, which i would like to expand to the commons). These are, of course, up for discussion. I tried to use simple english/easy words, since not all editors on Common may be fluent in english. -- Chris 73 00:16, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Explanations: separated pages, Requests: in a unified page

I think that it would be good if we separate the explanation of what "Picture requests" is and the Picture requests itself. In that way we may explain the procedure of picture requests in different languages: each language in a page different, but i would link them all to the same list of Picture requests, so that all requests are unified. The requests could be organized in a kind of table with different columns:

1st column: name of the image requested

2nd "  : description of the image (in original language)

3rd "  : translation of description.

nth "  : translation of description

--Javier Carro 02:44, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I have given it a try, and split Commons:Picture requests into the english page Commons:Picture requests and the requests for all lanuages Commons:Picture requests/Requests, which is included as a template in Commons:Picture requests. I also created a Commons:Bilderwünsche, which includes the same Commons:Picture requests/Requests with a german explanation. To tie it all together I also created Commons:Picture requests/Menu as the top level menu. I think this is best. The actual request can be addedin any language, or even with multiple languages in the same request. Does this look good? -- Chris 73 09:38, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

When I make an edit to the Commons:Picture requests/Requests, it doesn't seem to be reflected in the Commons:Picture requests when I reload it. Paranoid 20:49, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• I have noticed that as well. It does update if you remove the template and then put it back in, but it's kind of a pain to have to do that everytime. Actually, I think this may be a documented problem with MediaWiki, but I can't remember where I saw it before. Josh 00:27, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Do you live in this city section

In order to make it easier for people to contribute, it often is a motivator to point out how individuals are uniquely qualified to make a contribution. To this end, we are saying- "hey- you are lucky for living in your place- you know, a lot of people in the world would like to see something that is unique in your city, I wonder if you would be willing to help out." Maybe we could even ask folks willing to take pictures to list themselves under their cities so that requesters could make direct talk page contact with particular folks. I know I would take pictures if I know what people wanted.

Anyway, that was the thought behind my addition of the section. -Mak 20:14, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Users adding their location to their user pages would probably be the best method. Richard001 00:22, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I've created Category:Users by country and added myself to it. Hopefully other people will do the same thing. Saying more precisely where you live on your talk page is always a good idea though. Richard001 09:27, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Spliting up?

What about splitting the sections into various pages e.g. things, locations, people or something like that? --Flominator 18:55, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Methods for requesting

Would it also be possible simply to list requests on category talk pages, which also add a template to place the talk page inside a requests category? For example on the page for a wasp I could request an image of a wasp in flight, then add the page to a requests category using a template. This seems far tidier than such a long list like this, and easier to maintain. I'm fairly unfamiliar with how requests are dealt with on Commons, I assume this page is currently the only means of making requests. Richard001 00:20, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea. But what about the discussions, that already exist on these talkpages? --Flominator 08:17, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

It would just be a template that goes at the top. If there are any discussions, they won't be affected. Richard001 05:48, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

But don't you think that people won't fullfill requests when they're not able to scroll the list? --Flominator 14:26, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Lakes

At en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Lakes/Galleries/Image missing, there is a list of lake articles lacking an image in the infobox. It's sorted by country. -- User:Docu

Flickr

Is there some way we could advertise things like this on Flickr? There are a lot of people who have access to things and would love to take pictures for us if they just knew that we wanted them. — Omegatron 02:40, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

There is a picture request group at http://flickr.com/groups/79462785@N00/ and another at http://flickr.com/groups/31153946@N00/ I posted the request list there. // Liftarn

Image Transfer Questions

I uploaded a series of world history maps to Wikipedia, starting in August of 2007. Some of the maps have been updated several times, and previous versions can be found on each map's homepage (conveniently allowing readers to see previous revisions of the maps, helpful for showing that the maps evolve as errors are corrected).

Several users have requested that I transfer those maps to Wikimedia so they are available for other language Wikis. I'd be happy to do so, but I want to make sure the previous versions of the files are still available, like they are on Wikipedia now.

Is there any way I can transfer the maps to Wikimedia ALONG WITH their previous file versions? Thomas Lessman 07:02, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Clean Up this page

Is anyone maintaining this page. It seems to contain a bunch of requests that have either been fulfiled or are very old. I guess more people would use this page if some sections where cleaned up. --Inkwina (talk • contribs) 09:44, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I've recently moved some things to more appropriate headings (people seem to add new sections to the bottom for individual requests) and noted some requests for which we do have images. I guess they should be removed with a helpful edit summary after a week or so. I think the problem is more a lack of a clear maintenance procedure rather than volunteers to maintain it. —LX (talk, contribs) 14:03, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Import from en:

Where do I request images from en: to be imported in/moved to Commons? In this case: How do I get the rest of the sports kits somewhere where fy: can use them? Aliter (talk) 01:54, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

You could go to the English page and add {{Move to Commons}} to it. // Liftarn (talk)

In that case: Is there a bot service that will put {{Move to Commons}} to a whole list of pages? (Kits, not exact, but you'll get the idea.) You're right, though: If there's no procedure on Commons to go get them, it might be possbile to solve the problem from the en: side. Aliter (talk) 21:55, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

As you can see on en:Category:Copy to Wikimedia Commons you can tag an entire category, but if you have to create a category then you might just as well tag the individual files. You can also use CommonsHelper to transfer the images directly. // Liftarn (talk)

Importing a whole set from Flickr

Is it possible to automatically import a whole set from Flickr? I'm looking at [1], and more than two thirds of these pictures would fill an empty gap straightaway; moreover, they're all cc-by. Classical geographer (talk) 12:45, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

@Classical geographer: https://flickr2commons.toolforge.org/#/ Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 07:00, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

separate pages

Hi, I'm just browsing this page as an outsider to this project but I noticed the list is incredibly long. I experience some lag going through it all. Maybe the subjects could be split into separate pages. Like all of the requests for Africa on an "Africa" page, or European requests on a "Europe" page. Flora and Fauna could be included too on their own. I think it's cool to have all of the requests together, it's just sort-of hard for me to browse and I'm wondering if it's affecting others too. Would like to hear all of your thoughts on this. --Turn685 (talk) 19:10, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

The page is already made up of individual subpages like Commons:Picture requests/Requests/Africa, Commons:Picture requests/Requests/Europe and Commons:Picture requests/Requests/Nature. —LX (talk, contribs) 09:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Wow! Those lists are huge :) --Turn685 (talk) 04:08, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Requesting a sound file

How can one request a sound file? I have a new pronounciation of the name of Bulgaria in mind, since the current one ([2]) has a strong (US) accent and a RP pronounciation would be more appropriate. --Kreuzkümmel (talk) 21:05, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Cross-wiki idea: Crowdsource photos (discussion at Wikidata)

I've started a discussion at Wikidata about a better way to integrate photo requests across all the Wikiprojects. Please contribute to the discussion if you're interested. Thanks! Wikimandia (talk) 00:43, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Notify about nearby request in Commons app

If latitude/longitude were clearly indicated, we (the Commons app developers) could make a notification pop up to people who happen to come nearby. Syced (talk) 07:43, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Maintanance strategy

Something needs to be done here. There is no clear strategy for maintaining this page. It is the same situation as when this topic was discussed 13 years ago in 2008. So what can we do? I would prefer turning it into a discussion page like Village pump with a bot archiving posts older than e.g. 180 days. Any constructive opposite views? --Indeedous (talk) 10:40, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

As nobody seems to care I moved this page to from Commons:Picture requests here. It is now redesigned based on village pump. I will see what happens and work on subpages etc. afterwards. --Indeedous (talk) 22:03, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

i set up two archiving schemes. in addition to the original setup, now sections not closed with {{Section resolved}} will be sent to /Archive/Unresolved/... maybe they would be interesting for future users. RZuo (talk) 07:53, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

I don't want to request a file so much as I want to request a source, "what do"?

I have quite a few files that I know would be compatible with Wikimedia's criteria for reusability due to being US Government works, but I have issues with how said files do not seem to be available from a source that actually acknowledges their status as US government works in terms of their (lack of) copyright status (fig. 1, fig. 2) or are being rehosted someplace that does grant unfettered access but at the same time doesn't document the original US government source (which is something that I would like to acknowledge in addition to the actual source) with the possible exception of any VIRINs or similar metadata identifiers (fig. 3).

At first I thought about asking a fuller version of this on the copyright village pump but ultimately felt like that place isn't really geared for what I want to ask. I then came across this, the file request page, but as my title indicates I'm not actually looking for files so much as I'm looking for a proper source for said files. So which venue is best placed for the sort of query I want to make? - Dvaderv2 (talk) 04:06, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

Dont turn back to old format

@Jmabel this page was turned into the current format a few years ago, because a by topic format makes it impossible to maintain. old requests stay on the page forever.

i've been designing Commons:File requests/Map and Template:File request that makes use of User:DB111's https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:DB111/Tools#WikiMap . the goal is to have a map that shows all coords of "file requests" waiting to be done. i havent had time to finish it but that's on my plan. RZuo (talk) 14:00, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

@RZuo:

Feel free to come up with something better, but the way it was was pretty much unusable. No quick way to find out what is even on your continent!

Things cwould still age out within each section, no? And really: should an unfilled request ever age out?

Anyway, those are my thoughts, but if you feel more ownership over it, go for it. I almost never look here; saw it referenced on (I think) the help desk and came over to see if there was anything I had half a chance of shooting, decided to fix what looked like a mess to me. I don't really care. - Jmabel ! talk 18:53, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

see sections above.

"should an unfilled request ever age out?"

yes. check page history and see sections above to see what it becomes when requests accumulated to the point of being impossible to manage. RZuo (talk) 09:28, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Commons:File_requests/Archive/2004-2020. RZuo (talk) 09:36, 18 December 2023 (UTC)