Hey, I recognize it hasn’t even been two weeks since the new photo upload tool took the place of the old one, but I was wondering if we could have the old way of searching for Flickr images back on the Special:Upload page at least? It was much easier trying to find images for articles and UIBs through Flickr when I didn’t have many (if any) on my own. I do like the speed of the new tool, but perhaps for those looking for additional options or need to find “just that right one” perhaps a former method of searching could be added back to the search tool on Special:upload, please consider this.
Also, would love to see the new tool keep that last licensing that was used last from upload-to-upload. When I tend to upload screenshots, it was always easier to keep the last licensing version, but this one we are mandated to reselect the same license and that’s quite a pain up my wazoo on top of all the other clicking I have to do to get my screenshots out there on an article. Not advanced user user-efficient, and sooooo not cool with me.
Also, can we fix the Special:upload tool so that once the file is uploaded to the system but not “published” (in the process of getting just the right licensing on the article) the filename to upload so that it doesn’t contain a bunch of underscores? The old system on articles used to use great spaces? Not a #rightnow
fix, but something down the line perhaps #rainydaystuff
?
Anna
2
I’ll be honest that bringing the built-in Flickr option back is fairly unlikely - it was a good tool for wikiHow at one stage, but now that we have other mechanisms for getting images that really are step-by-step for the actual method on the page (Wikivisual, people using their cell phones to snap images as they go, etc), as well as reader feedback to suggest that this is really more helpful to them than generic images on many topics, it’s probably best that we embrace that best practice, really, and not shuffle engineering resources to upkeep of very old tools that aren’t as helpful for readers in the end. I will say, too, that all too often I’ve seen Flickr used as a way to add random images of all different sizes to topics - like, recipes with inconsistent images of, say, a pot, a tomato, a chicken breast, etc, instead of step-by-step instructional pictures. This just doesn’t tend to go down so well with readers once they get to actually using the articles. There are a few cases out there where topics don’t need custom images, but in that case I’d probably suggest reusing existing wH images that are uniform in size/layout/etc; folks seem to like that consistency. Of course, if someone feels very strongly about adding images from Flickr or another source, they still can; that’s why we’ve kept the Special:Upload option there, too, rather than removing it altogether. But the move to take out Flickr was based on a few different factors, including engineering upkeep and what readers are telling us helps them, as well as the fact very few community members actually use it anymore - so we wouldn’t want to ignore those factors. I can ask about the ability to remember what license you last picked on that same page- might be doable! I think I’m missing something on your last point though- is there an issue with underscores instead of spaces/hyphens? It’s probably that way because that’s how Wikipedia/Mediawiki did it in the first place, but I’m not seeing the downside in this case, since you just copy and paste the tag either way. Let me know if I’m missing something though!
That last point wasn’t a major fault, but it was worth mentioning. It doesn’t affect upload-ability, but it looks awkward when you move the text over from page to page. It adds a second worth of server space when it adds extra characters into the mix for the image text. The space makes it more “pretty” and more inline with the remainder of the articles’ images (on lots of other pages).
Just keep these ideas in mind. I’m really annoyed about losing the Flickr upload ability. On such articles (such as the theme park articles I used to begin), it was easier to find already made pics really quickly after viewing the title and looking and comparing to what it should look like on other pages. Going to Flickr to find images, you have to flick down the drop-down and add in the Creative Commons license search and thereby taking more time to find just that right image - and having several could take more time than it was really worth in the end. Gosh. It wouldn’t be an out-right replacement. How about this: Flickr searching could be added back for those who have NAB/Admin/Staff rights, perhaps? Most of us have the knowledge of what images work in what place so things don’t go cockeyed in the end.
Uploading images is no longer an intuitive process to find images that the user does not have but can legally obtain access to (with Creative Commons licensing).Please consider this case as my standpoint on the issue when developing.
I wasn’t asked, but I’ll chime in anyway.
I have to be honest, as a Booster, I would not want the Flickr search added back, even if just for the Boosters and above. The tab got in the way too frequently and I never found myself with a need for it, and judging by what Anna says, not many other people did, either. If you also consider that the engineering team is rather small (and therefore doesn’t have a lot of people or time to devote to working on the Flickr search), I really do think it might just be better to spend that extra time going through Flickr - or just not adding images to begin with, if it’s really that much of a hassle.
Anna
5
I’m really sorry this change annoyed you, Byankno1! That’s always a bummer to hear. I really wish we had the resources to support features that individuals like, even if they’re not used very regularly (and used well even less so - though I do know you used it well!), but we just don’t have that kind of engineering support. Every tool we keep on the site requires maintenance and upkeep, so in order to keep the stuff that really has a big impact running well, we sometimes have to make rougher decisions like this. I did file a request for the second part of your post, though - about having the Image Upload tool remember your last selection. Hoping that’ll be doable and help smooth out certain parts of the process for you!
I know that you already request visuals or do screenshots for a lot of your topics, so that shouldn’t be negatively affected (speedier, actually, for uploads!), but I get that the theme park articles you’ve written in the past have benefited in particular from free photo use. Have you tried a site like Pixabay? You might find that easier to search around than Flickr, since I think all the photos on that site are CC0 and fair to use, so you don’t need to select from any menus. I’ve only poked around it briefly, but it seemed fairly easy to use!
If you do more theme park content in future, another option might be to email me images that are along the lines of what you’re thinking (even if they’re not freely licensed) and I can ask our visual folks to use them for inspiration in creating illustrations; they obviously wouldn’t be exactly the same, but the inspiration might help with accuracy if it’s a theme park they’ve never been to
Anna
6
This part should be fixed now, @Byankno1
! Within one uploading session (ie when you stay within that edit window, not if you reload or go to other pages), it should remember your last license used so you can be more efficient. Hurrah
