Wikipedia:Deleting from Commons

This essay, Deleting from Commons, is a reminder to (when appropriate) speedy delete images, videos, audios, or other files from Wikimedia Commons. Most images seen in English Wikipedia (or the other-language Wikipedias) are actually stored in the Commons project, with a link-through from the image name. In past discussions, there have been concerns that improper images have been left in Commons, and any talk about the numerous valid images has been seen as "avoidance" of the real copyvios or problem images. Instead, remind people how easy it is to request speedy deletion of many improper images. If an image is to be changed from Commons into a local wp:Fair_use version, then it should be deleted from Commons before it can be re-uploaded as a local image.

Tags

Consider the following templates, on Commons, to request the speedy-deletion of images which have been displayed inside enwiki pages.

• On Commons, use {{copyvio|1=Copyvio from webpage www.xxxxxxx.com}} - to edit an image and request speedy deletion of a copyrighted, non-free image pinpointed in the named webpage. There is little need to debate deletion, if an image can be shown to be non-free, in another webpage, unless a later alternate source reduces that former copyright to allow display.
• On Commons, use {{duplicate|File:Other_file_name.jpg}} - In many cases, Commons has been bloated with duplicates, or resized images, almost identical to another image, and just cluttering the collection.

Categories

Those 2 sets of requested speedy-deletion images are continually checked by Commons admins, for quick deletion. See Commons category:

• Commons:Category:Copyright_violations - index of images to delete

• Commons:Category:Duplicate - index of images to delete as duplicates

In that category, images will appear after tagging with "{{duplicate}}" and within a few hours, most tagged images will disappear, as having been deleted. The fact that "Category:Duplicate" is almost empty, at any given time, is evidence of how quickly the requested images are processed, where even rejected requests will be edited to become valid image style. Anyway, users on enwiki should beware invalid, but rare, images on Commons, and help to get them quickly deleted, such as using the Commons templates explained above.

Response speed

Although there often have been more than 150 images tagged for {{copyvio}} in Commons:Category:Copyright_violations, on any given day, many files seem to be deleted within a few days, although some were uploaded in 2008, 2010, 2011 or such. With so many images tagged each day, then the logistics tend to keep over 150 images in process, each day.

It is best to avoid the commons:Commons:Deletion requests process, which can be quite slow. If it is a copyvio or a duplicate, tag it for speedy deletion instead, which is much faster.

See also

• WP:Wikimedia Commons - overview of the Commons project