User:OgreBot/Commons instructions

What

As of December 2010, there is a very large backlog at Category:Wikipedia files with a different name on Wikimedia Commons. I (User:Magog the Ogre) created a bot to deal with the problem. There are several steps that an administrator must take before deleting an image on en.wikipedia:

• 1) Verify the image on commons is a) the same image (or higher resolution) and b) same file type.
• 2) Verify attribution is properly given.
• 3) Verify the image is in fact eligible for commons.
• 4) Verify that there isn't an image superseding the commons image (e.g., en:File:Example.jpg exists, which means we can't access.commons:File:Example.jpg).
• 5) Delink all instances of the image on en.wp.

Why

The community has decided a bot cannot do steps 2 or 3; it just requires too much human review. However, steps 4 and 5 can take more time than either 2 or 3. As such, I've written a bot script that:

• Does step 4
• Does step 5
• Does step 1b (trivial)

Instructions

All you have to do is

• Be an administrator.
• Make sure the commons name parameter is correct on the {{Now Commons}} template.
• Tag the image with {{User:OgreBot/approved}} (if there is any interest in this bot, I will create a script to considerably quicken up the process - or I might create one anyway).
• Wait for the bot to perform the delinkage and mark the image deletion.

A few things to note before beginning

• If you're not an administrator, and add this template, the bot will not perform the delinkage. Message me if it's a big deal for you.
• Beware of images with Non-ASCII characters; BotMultichillT had a bug where it misreported the filename (e.g., File:Žaliakalnio.jpg instead of File:Žaliakalnio.jpg [1]). If OgreBot can't find the image in the {{Now Commons}} template, it will look for an identical image on commons on its own.
• I'll be doing some rescaled images manually, but don't worry about it, just tag the images as you see them.
• The bot doesn't run all the time; it only runs when I start it up, so it might take a few days before the image is marked ready for deletion.
• This bot is only meant to run for images with a different name on commons than on English.

How much times do you expect to save clearing out the backlog this way?

It depends on which of the categories. Most of the images in Category:Wikipedia files with a different name on Wikimedia Commons as of unknown date are already delinked; most of the images on the dated categories are not. I expect about 10% of the former, and 50-70% of the latter. I've noticed quite a large difference when I alone have been the one using the bot.

Where do I go to report a bug or if I have a question?

To my talk page, of course!