Galleries need to be encouraged to higher degree, these galleries work well as a guide but also as a way for potential contributors to identify areas where theres a short fall in available media.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Banksia --- which then links to the species categories directly http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Western_Australia then steps down to; http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Perth,_Western_Australia What about a bot reading descriptions identifying keywords then adding it to those categories as a way to reduce the reliance on editors to select the categories. The other thing is the search results try commons search for canoe http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=canoe google images search for canoe http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1680&bih=869&q=canoe&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= Commons search returns a list most people will see the category link and only 4-6 images initially, compared to google 32 images and 5 alternative search options -- the layout of the results on commons could be alot better. Even simple things like the first return is a link to the category:Canoe the information it gives on the category is "*28 B (1 word) - 04:37, 27 September 2009*" thats not really enticing people to even look there, then click on the link and you hit a soft redirect to "Canoes" another click then returns 196 images, plus 8 subcat with a further 10 subcats and 290+ photos. That initial search should have return the category of Canoes(because thats what is used) and the descrition should be something like "*196 images, +27 subcats containing 472 images*" now that would entice people to explore the category If you search for the intiial example of Genetics<http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=Genetics>you get first on the list a link to the category its description is "2 KB (19 words) - 11:05, 10 November 2009" it does nothing to indicate the depth of information available, click on the category it lists just 5 subcats but theres 14 more if you page to the next 200 each with multiple subcats including one cat that has 25256 files. We need a search result screen that coveys the availablility information when a search occurs so that people are able to understand whats actually available. Whie the M/P issue is annoying most people once they are enter past the differences wont encounter it again. Commons could benefit with an address that is uniquely commons but commons function is as a repository to all projects maybe call it "Wikilibrary" to On 29 October 2010 10:11, John Vandenberg <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 12:11 PM, Neil Kandalgaonkar > <[email protected]> wrote: > > As for the Wiki(p|m)edia thing, I have to say I agree 100%, although I > > don't know what other complications there might be. > > > > > > On 10/28/10 1:21 PM, Lars Aronsson 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. > > > > I was just talking about this with some other people at the WMF... I > > don't fully understand the ramifications of the debate, but it seems > > obvious to me that categories as implemented are not useful. > > > > The debate I see on Commons and elsewhere focuses on trying to fix > > Categories, but frankly IMO it would be better to migrate them to some > > other systems entirely. > > I agree. > > > I've been mumbling about creating a design doc or mockups for my ideas > > to a few people at the WMF... is anyone else interested in working on > this? > > IMO, the problem is not how it looks, but the utility of the information. > If the metadata was more accessible, more people would fill it in. > see e.g. > > http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Dublin_Core > > -- > John Vandenberg > > _______________________________________________ > Commons-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/commons-l > -- GN. Photo Gallery: http://gnangarra.redbubble.com Gn. Blogg: http://gnangarra.wordpress.com
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