English synonyms can now be used in MediaSearchTracked in Phabricator

Task T301559
Hi all! I have a new announcement to make, this time regarding MediaSearch:
research with the new engine will now be easier, since now also English synonyms
can be used to find results.

MediaSearch already leverages Wikidata items to find images that depict entities
that match the search criteria. Now, MediaSearch will make another step forward, by
including also those items that match English labels or aliases on Wikidata for the
original search term. We expect this to be helpful in discovering media for
subjects known under multiple names (for example, scientific and common names), as
well as in other languages where we often don�t even have descriptions.

Just to make an example: when a user searches for �bat�, MediaSearch will also show
media where searchable text includes the word �Chiroptera� (their scientific name,
and also an alias on Chiroptera (Q28425)) - and this even if the text doesn�t
include �bat�. Another example would be a Somali user searching for �fiidmeer� (the
Somali word for �bat�) that will get media, through Chiroptera (Q28425), that
include either �bat� or �Chiroptera� - again, even if the text doesn�t include
�fiidmeer�.

For the time being, the feature will include only English labels and aliases,
because of the possible clash in meanings between words across languages,
increasing the odds of false positives. For the same reason, the current
implementation will be very conservative in its searches, when using aliases.

I am here in case you have any questions or requests for more information. --
Sannita (WMF) (talk) 13:14, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

@Sannita (WMF): How does one turn this off? (Yes, terrible idea, but hey, the myth
of eternal improvement needs to be fed�) -- Tuv�lkin ? ? 21:29, 23 February 2022
(UTC)
@Sannita (WMF): - yes, this definitely needs an option to switch off. In the
example above, if you were looking for "bat" (as in the item used to play cricket
or baseball with), you definitely don't want the search results cluttered up with
hundreds / thousands of Chiroptera files... - MPF (talk) 09:20, 25 February 2022
(UTC)
@Sannita (WMF): crickets were mentioned above, but there�s no need to be so
litteral. -- Tuv�lkin ? ? 15:12, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
@Tuvalkin and MPF: thanks for your messages, and I'm really sorry for the late
reply. Unfortunately, the feature cannot be turned off individually, nor at the
moment is it possible for single users to tweak this feature individually (as in
disabling individually the option for synonym search). I will rely your request to
the dev team, but I cannot promise you a positive answer. Will do my best though.
Anyway, data from the tests conducted showed no particular negative effect on
searches - and definitely none of the ones that were cited in the previous replies.
Scores for synonym matches are very conservative, meaning that they will not
usually overtake direct matches, and that will usually just appear near the end of
the results.
I hope it was a sufficiently clear answer, but please ping me if needed for any
need! Sannita (WMF) (talk) 17:37, 1 March 2022 (UTC)
February 23
Your edit was saved
Suddenly a �chiclet� stating this pointless report started to appear on my upper
right after each edit. It�s similarly annoying, though not exactly identical, to a
feature in pt.wp I never managed to get rid of. Is this new in commons?, and, more
importantly, how does it go away? -- Tuv�lkin ? ? 21:27, 23 February 2022 (UTC)

I've been seeing such notices for years - I don;t recall the date but from memory,
roughly round the time the Visual Editor was introduced. Andy Mabbett
(Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:05, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
@Tuvalkin and Pigsonthewing: This is popup "Your edit has been saved." You may hide
it by using MediaWiki:Gadget-HidePostEdit.css by checking checkbox "HidePostEdit"
in section "Interface: Editing and uploads" of Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-
gadgets. Thanks for the gadget, Kwj2772! � Jeff G. ? please ping or talk to me
13:52, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
Thanks, @Jeff G.: I do have the HidePostEdit gadget ticked on in my Commons
preferences, and have had for years � that�s why, unlike Pigsonthewing, I have been
spared this annoyance in Commons. But not in pt.wp, as said, where, however, unlike
I said above, its looks (text style and position on screen) are now changed to
match what�s in Commons. I presume that this annoyance was recently revamped at
global level and is now annoying all users in all projects in a IU consistent
manner; that change might have caused @Kwj2772: �s gadget to stop working, sadly.
-- Tuv�lkin ? ? 15:11, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
February 25
Numerical sort keys
User:Oursana and I are in dispute, after I reverted their use of the sort key "006"
on this image (i.e. they used [[Category:Saint Peter's Basilica in views of Rome|
006]]).

Their justification is "I used a sortkey to place it at the beginning of Saint

Peter's Basilica in views of Rome. This is not so difficult to see. Without sortkey
files are sorted by their name, which are not created with view to later sorting. I
sorted the whole cat grouping views and sorting in general from remote to close"
and, after I asked them to desist, "006 is a very clear sortkey meaning Position
006 from remote to close, numeric, I did improve the gallery, at least not disturb
because there is no other sorting and my sorting is better than sorting by files
name... let's say more than 99% other users do not complain".

They also say they have used this method in other categories ("my sorting of
Hamburg photographs is appreciated. Sometimes with paintings I mention the sortkey
on the Category page.").

I contend that this is not the intended purpose of sort keys; that sorting on some
arbitrary characteristic ("from remote to close") is not conducive to understanding
by other users; or to the categorisation of other images in the affected category.

What does the community think? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's
edits 13:44, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

I think that sort keys should always sort by a criterion that is immediately and
intuitively visible. For files this is the file name. If you want to group files by
a criterion, say "views with surrounding buildings", "full views", "detail views",
we have a mechanism for that: categories. Categories can be given names and
descriptions to make it immediately clear what they are about. If you want to group
files and sort them within the groups, create a gallery. For example, we have
Circles, disc and annulus which sorts circles by the color wheel, something that
couldn't be done very well with sort keys.
As for other users not complaining: if you don't look at the file names, files
within a category will usually seem to be sorted randomly. Sorting them by some
special criterion does not really change this. I think that few people complain,
because few people notice or care. --rimshottalk 16:55, 25 February 2022 (UTC)
@Pigsonthewing and Rimshot: I've seen them used in numerous files in a lot of
botanical categories to sort by month (with |01 for January, |02 for February,
etc.); I can see it has some value but don't find it an especially helpful sorting.
I've used it myself in many species categories with very large numbers of files to
make a distribution map file easily findable (by adding | map; the space puts it to
the top of the category; see e.g. Category:Phylloscopus trochilus for an example of
its use), and more rarely, to push down low quality files which have a character in
the filename that sorts them to the top (e.g. for a file File:"My grotty pic".jpg,
I'll add |My to push it down from the top to its expected alphabetic position). -
MPF (talk) 00:39, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
Backup Commons files?
Is there some existing script for making backup of Commons files?

I would like to make backup of

files that I uploaded

files that are in use on https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/ and are referenced
Wikimedia Commons images
Storage is quite cheap and that would reduce losses just because something went
Wrong with Wikimedia Commons Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 17:40, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

You might want to check out

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mirroring_Wikimedia_project_XML_dumps#Media C933103
(talk) 18:59, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
February 26
Mis-categorized images in Category:Highlights
Images unrelated to each other were mixed up in this category: Category:Highlights.
I just couldn't invest my energy on fixing this mixup. --George Ho (talk) 00:29, 26
February 2022 (UTC)

If this is a recurring issue (which is very likely given the very common term in
photography), then turning the category into a disambiguation may be in order, e.g.
directing users to Category:Highlights (band), Category:Highlighting, Category:Hair
highlighting, etc. and distinguishing them from the mainainence
Category:Highlighted content. --Animalparty (talk) 02:49, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
Monuments database/Images without id

The workflow behind everything explained

Hello! I'm a crat from SqWiki. Every so often I see in the recent changes
ErfgoedBot do some edits in our project. Apparently we have forgotten to flag it as
a bot and I intend to do so soon but before I do that, can someone explain to me in
simple words what its job is? I've already read the documentation pages associated
with it but... I also have the impression the number of images it's the same for us
for many months, if not years now. Can you explain by a concrete example how can I
help? - Klein Mu�i (talk) 01:12, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

@Jean-Fr�d�ric: . - Jmabel ! talk 02:18, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

@Klein Mu�i: I assume you found Commons:Monuments database? Did you have a look at
the infographic? Commons:Monuments database/Images without id lists for example
Wikipedia:WikiProjekti Vende Historike/Kosov�/Foto pa nr. unik. These photos are in
Category:Cultural heritage monuments in Kosovo, but don't have {{Cultural Heritage
Kosovo}} with an identifier. You can look if you can find the right identifier at
sq:Lista e Monumenteve n� Kosov� and add it. Some photos (like for example
File:Nusja nga Malesia e Prizrenit.jpg) probably don't belong in Category:Cultural
heritage monuments in Kosovo and should be removed.
The page sq:Wikipedia:WikiProjekti Vende Historike/Kosov�/Foto t� pap�rdorura lists
suggestions of photos to add to sq:Lista e Monumenteve n� Kosov�. If the suggestion
is correct, you can add it to make the list more complete. Multichill (talk) 13:52,
26 February 2022 (UTC)
@Multichill, I understood what to do with photos which are currently unused but I
don't understand what I should do with photos lacking their id number. Can you give
me a bit more details on that? I must disclose I'm rather new to the whole Wiki
Loves Monuments thing so... - Klein Mu�i (talk) 23:11, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
Flagging digitally upscaled images
I'm surprised that I've not been able to find a file template or COM:POLICY link
regarding the use of digitally upscaled images on Commons. Is there a template to
add to such files to warn the viewer that what they're looking at isn't an original
photograph (explaining that it may have introduced elements not present in the
original, etc), or is it enough to just say in the description or filename that an
image has been "upscaled" and trust that they'll know what that means? --Lord
Belbury (talk) 17:42, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

Since writing that I've found {{RetouchedPicture}}: would that be sufficient

warning to the viewer, or does it merit a more specific template? --Lord Belbury
(talk) 18:13, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
We probably need to create a more accurate way to mark the images, we also have the
various AI coloring programs and the AI retouching programs from websites like
MyHeritage. I added them as categories, because they have a watermark. We need more
general ones for those with no specific software mentioned. --RAN (talk) 02:24, 27
February 2022 (UTC)
Is File:Pizza Hut Veneto Layer Pastry.jpg actually a food of Venetian origin?
The name of the food suggest so, but I cannot find any relevant information online.
Any body know more about this food? C933103 (talk) 17:52, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

In the absence of any information to support this, no. Andy Dingley (talk) 18:40,
26 February 2022 (UTC)
Format of 3D models
Currently, the only accepted form of 3D model on Wikimedia Commons is .stl.
However, there are a number of 3D models uploaded in other non-model formats, for
example in GIF rotating animation, or in static image with either side by side or
color-differentiated stereoscopic form. Is there anyway to request and ask the
creator of these models or someone else to recreate them in STL format, much like
how static graphs are now being asked to be converted into SVG format with a
dedicated template? C933103 (talk) 17:52, 26 February 2022 (UTC)

The template {{Convert to SVG}} does not ask specifically authors, it asks any
person who has the necessary skills. Probably such a template should created for
the stl format as well. Ruslik (talk) 20:06, 26 February 2022 (UTC)
Like {{Convert to STL}} which I just created? C933103 (talk) 21:33, 3 March 2022
(UTC)
February 27
Best practice for indicating when an image is part of a set?
In {{Information}} I've used the |other_versions= parameter for derivative works
like when there's also a cropped, color balanced, or whatever version. But
sometimes an image is part of a set of related images. What's currently the best
way to indicate "hey, this photo is just one of several in a closely related set"?
The documentation for |other_versions= says "very similar content" so I suppose
that counts but it seems unsatisfactory. Jason Quinn (talk) 02:44, 27 February 2022
(UTC)

@Jason Quinn: They might fall within the concept of Commons:Image sets, in which
case it seems that the usual thing is to have a category for the set, tagged with
{{Set}}. Looking through Category:Image sets I haven't spotted any other way that
files in a set are linked together. --bjh21 (talk) 12:36, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
@Jason Quinn: Alternatively, if the set is small you can do what I've done here:
File:Parkour 01-1.jpg. - Jmabel ! talk 16:49, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
Import file from en.wiki to commons
I'm trying to export this file
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FrankRijkaard2.jpg) to commons but i always
shows:

Import failed
Can't import file because at least one of its revisions is missing an image file.
anyone know what the problem is? FMSky (talk) 06:42, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
From the file history, it appears that the original had a watermark in 2006 and
someone cropped or replaced the original image with a non-watwrmark version in
2008. At some point, an admin deleted the original version. To use the automated
transfer, check with an enwiki admin if they are able and willing to undelete the
original revision in the history. I am not an admin, so I can't see if there is
anything in the original file to prevent it. If the image is fixed, you can then
try using the automated transfer tool again. If an admin can't or won't restore the
history, you will have to use the manual process described at en:Wikipedia:Moving
files to Commons. From Hill To Shore (talk) 09:53, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
@FMSky and From Hill To Shore: The original as of 17:17, 11 August 2006 (UTC) is
lost -
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/4/4a/20080312163712%21FrankRijkaa
rd2.jpg reports "File not found:
/v1/AUTH_mw/wikipedia-en-local-public.4a/archive/4/4a/20080312163712%21FrankRijkaar
d2.jpg". You may ask an enwiki Admin to delete it or file a task via phab:. �
Jeff G. ? please ping or talk to me 14:15, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
Deprecation of unused files, "Category:Superfluous images"
I have an ongoing discussion with one user about Category:Superfluous images and
moving images into it only because they are not used anywhere for the time being.
When for example searching for a broken link in a chain, I can no longer find
Broken link.png because it is no longer in the Category:Icons of broken chains
where it should be. Taylor 49 (talk) 11:47, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

That seems to be some personal project. We have {{Superseded}} for this. Taking
perfectly valid images outside of the category tree is not acceptable. Just revert
the bot and tag the category for deletion. Multichill (talk) 17:21, 27 February
2022 (UTC)
@Taylor 49: Commons:Categories for discussion/2022/02/Category:Superfluous images.
Multichill (talk) 17:25, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
It's unclear why a bot account, Sarangbot, was used for these edits, and
Commons:Bots/Requests/Sarangbot sheds no light. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk
to Andy; Andy's edits 17:51, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
Pictogram voting comment.svg Comment We regularly delete unused JPEG and PNG logos,
even if there is no SVG available. These files fall in the same category: unused
poor quality non-SVG images, and should be deleted. Regards, Yann (talk) 22:18, 1
March 2022 (UTC)
Category for Free food pantries?
Blessings of Hope, Mayo.jpg
Is there a category for free food pantries besides just putting it under
Category:Pantries? --Mjrmtg (talk) 16:44, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

@Mjrmtg: Category:Giveboxes. you might want to create a more specific subcategory.

- Jmabel ! talk 16:52, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
February 28
Coming soon
Several improvements around templates
Hello, from March 9, several improvements around templates will become available on
your wiki:

Fundamental improvements of the VisualEditor template dialog (1, 2),

Improvements to make it easier to put a template on a page (3) (for the template
dialogs in VisualEditor, 2010 Wikitext and New Wikitext Mode),
and improvements in the syntax highlighting extension CodeMirror (4, 5) (which is
available on wikis with writing direction left-to-right).
All these changes are part of the �Templates� project by WMDE Technical Wishes. We
hope they will help you in your work, and we would love to hear your feedback on
the talk pages of these projects.
- Johanna Strodt (WMDE) 12:38, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
How to download a single shape from OpenStreetMap to upload to Commons?
Hi all

I'm working on using Kartographer to create a maps for Wikipedia articles for
species. I'm getting stuck trying to download shape files for countries and other
areas individually from OSM to upload to Commons, does anyone have experience in
downloading from OSM who knows how to do it? I've read
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Shapefiles but it doesn't explain how to
download a single shape file. Any ideas? I'm really hoping there's a simple way to
do it...

Thanks

John Cummings (talk) 14:01, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Why are you posting the same question in multiple venues? Answered at
wikidata:Wikidata:Project chat. Multichill (talk) 21:18, 28 February 2022 (UTC)
March 01
Extremely contentious category
Category:Gifts Ukraine Needs (Ukraine War)

I would like to see this category removed as quickly as possible, but felt it would
be too precipitous for me to do it unilaterally with no consensus at all. CFD seems
too slow. While I personally wish Ukraine the absolute best outcome, and I despise
Putin, this category amounts to taking sides in a war, which Commons should not be
doing.

Pinging @Lupus in Saxonia as category creator.

Jmabel ! talk 19:23, 1 March 2022 (UTC)

And more or less the same for Category:Gifts that Ukraine does not need (Ukraine
War). - Jmabel ! talk 19:25, 1 March 2022 (UTC)
Why? Can the truth in this matter not be tolerated on Wikipedia Commons?-Maybe the
world feels better if truths are not mentioned here either? What is the point of
what you do? Heartfelt greetings from - --Lupus in Saxonia (talk) 19:38, 1 March
2022 (UTC)
I agree, these kinds of categories are not helpful for organization and are created
reflecting recent events rather than memorializing useful information about media
on Commons. I'm in support of getting rid of them. aismallard (talk) 21:34, 1 March
2022 (UTC)

Commons is a repository of media. It is not an advocacy organization, not a

directory, not an encyclopedia, and not a magazine of opinion. --Animalparty (talk)
07:29, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
@Lupus in Saxonia, while I understand your sentiment und your well-meant intention,
this is not the purpose of our category-system, as well summarized by Animalparty.
Therefore tagged for speedy deletion. You might consider creating a
paragraph/section about this subject in :de/:en Wikipedia article about this
terrible war. --T�relio (talk) 07:41, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
(After edit conflict and possibly redundant now the categories are flagged for
speedy deletion) I also support removal. If Commons takes sides in one war, what is
to stop another editor causing Commons to take sides in the next war? This will
inevitably lead to contentious category trees as the supporters of opposing sides
in any conflict turn Commons into an extension of their information war
battleground. As stated by others, the remit of Commons is to store files that
enable others to present meaningful information, such as news outlets or
encyclopedias. Commons must not take on the role of the news outlet or encyclopedia
itself. From Hill To Shore (talk) 07:52, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
I support deletion as a bizarre unsourced category. People are just going to make
up which belongs in which and I agree, fight on it. Either way, I'm doubtful that a
Commons admin will speedy this so I suggest a DR on both. And Commons is very minor
is contrast to the various wikis of various languages. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 07:57,
2 March 2022 (UTC)