Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-04-08/Wikizine

Welcome to the new Wikizine, a monthly component in the Signpost exploring Wikimedia's sister projects and the movement's direction as a whole. As previously discussed, Wikizine held the role that the Signpost does today—a Wikimedia movement-wide community news outlet—but has fallen into decline in recent years. We see this merger as upholding the Wikizine legacy while expanding the Signpost's coverage.

We are excited to present this new endeavor, but are still experimenting with the format and content. Please provide comments and suggestions in the comments section below. Wikizine is looking for regular contributors and suggestions for stories to cover. Let us know at the Signpost's suggestion page.

Wikimedia Foundation scales back feature deployment after community outcry
Numerous Commons editors have made comments about the Foundation's deployment of mobile uploading, a new facility in its mobile website. Allowing anonymous users to register and upload pictures for use in an article, the feature was placed prominently at the top of Wikipedia articles in multiple languages.

The mobile uploading was deployed near the end of March, and Commons editors patrolling the uploads noticed a steady stream of incorrectly sourced images that violated copyright. Since Commons does not accept fair-use media as some Wikipedias do, editors have promptly tagged and deleted many of these images.

Associate Product Manager Maryana Pinchuk, an employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, is responsible for the mobile web product. On April 4, she notified the Commons community that uploads from the mobile web were not tagged with author or source information and that a patch from the WMF would be deployed the next day.

Yet editors continued to object: the feature did not adequately instruct users on Commons policy and led to numerous copyright violations. Commons editors suggested adding an interactive wizard, rather than the existing warning messages. Commons editor Rillke criticized the Foundation's experience with developing upload tutorials, saying that he is skeptical that the WMF could even design an effective wizard.

The Foundation has since disabled this feature for brand new users via mobile. This is not the first reversal of a feature deployment by the community: an English Wikipedia discussion recently led to the partial removal of the article feedback feature.

This week's best
A handpicked gallery of our favorite images featured on Commons this week, judged on educational value and visual appeal.