Project:Requests for permissions/RfC/Restrict local uploads on mediawiki.org

Restrict local uploads on mediawiki.org

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T217523

I propose to add mediawiki.org to the commonsuploads.dblist to restrict local uploads to administrators.

As you can see at Special:Log/upload most of the local uploads are deleted either as off-topic or due to copyright infringements. This wastes time of patrollers and administrators to hunt down inappropriate multimedia content.

There's not much of a need to upload files locally. The not-policy page Project:Image policy provides that local uploads should be used to describe MediaWiki extensions. Those uploads can happen without any issues at Wikimedia Commons, which allows freely licensed screenshots of freely-licensed extensions (cfr. c:Template:Wikimedia screenshot, c:Template:Free screenshot, etc.).

There is also no Fair Use / Exemption Doctrine Policy in mediawiki.org as mandated by the Board Resolution on Licensing Policy so we cannot legally host non-free content here (Project:Fair use policy is tagged as {{not policy}} and never achieved consensus).

Multimedia content is better curated at Wikimedia Commons where there's an active and dedicated community for this tasks. Restricting local uploads to administrators will also reduce the workload of patrolers and administrators.

Thank you, --MarcoAurelio (talk) 16:07, 15 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Shouldn't be a problem in theory. Maybe create a Uploaders group if it's actually needed like we do at en.wikibooks? Leaderboard (talk) 17:20, 15 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Could be an option just in case there's anything that needs to be uploaded locally, yes. We did the same at Meta-Wiki. Thanks. MarcoAurelio (talk) 17:28, 15 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds fine by me. I see no compelling reason that extension documentation screenshots or other screenshots be hosted locally compared to on Commons. --Skiz zerz 21:08, 19 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Using Commons is fine by me too. The only possible advantage I see with local uploads is that inexperienced editors (mostly WMF staffers) can upload mock-ups and other images with poor descriptions and it might be easier to see them and help them if they're uploaded here. On Commons I usually end up using SQL queries to find whatever hundreds of devs have uploaded and left uncategorised. Nemo 19:52, 3 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Request initiated on Phabricator. Leaderboard (talk) 20:06, 3 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Done Changes have been implemented. Leaderboard (talk) 14:34, 7 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]