Wikipedia:WikiProject User warnings/Testing/ImageTaggingBot

Getting all images on Wikipedia to have proper source and licensing information is a high priority for the free encyclopedia. Thus, the messages we send to uploaders is of the utmost importance, since it should encourage them to provide this information.

Please read: our theories to test with template variations: Currently, most of these templates include relatively lengthy detailed instructions on how and why file metadata should be improved. We'd like to test two variations for each template:

1. Draft 1: which retains direct instructions and tries to pare the message down to the clearest set of directives possible.
2. Draft 2: which simply informs users about the fact that images need such information or may be deleted, and lets them know they can add the necessary information themselves.

The general theory here is that we know improving the clarity of instructions may help, but we're not sure how many new editors are turned away from doing good work for the encyclopedia by language that sounds like marching orders. A softer approach might be more effective.

Both templates aim to encourage fixes to appropriate files so that they are retained in the project, but take different approaches to doing so.

Templates

Uses {{z131}} to {{z142}} for tracking.

No source, no license

(Randomizer)

1. User:OrphanBot/nosource nolicense-current which is the same as User:OrphanBot/nosource nolicense
2. User:OrphanBot/nosource nolicense-test1
3. User:OrphanBot/nosource nolicense-test2

No license

(Randomizer)

1. User:OrphanBot/nolicense-current which is the same as User:OrphanBot/nolicense
2. User:OrphanBot/nolicense-test1
3. User:OrphanBot/nolicense-test2

No source

(Randomizer)

1. User:OrphanBot/nosource-current which is the same as User:OrphanBot/nosource-new
2. User:OrphanBot/nosource-test1
3. User:OrphanBot/nosource-test2

Untagged

(Randomizer)

1. User:OrphanBot/untagged-current which is the same as User:OrphanBot/untagged-new
2. User:OrphanBot/untagged-test1
3. User:OrphanBot/untagged-test2

Notes and other things to do

• Can we test whether seeing the bot's signature encourages or discourages actually fixing the images, by having Draft 1 with a sig and Draft 2 with a hidden comment instead? It is possible that receiving instructions from a bot makes people mad, annoyed, or just plain confused. This would also redirect people with questions to the media copyright questions noticeboard linked in all templates, rather than Carnildo's talk page.
• We intentionally did not link to the single list of all license tags, for several reasons. First, it includes licenses that are disallowed, which makes no sense if we want to encourage people to find the correct license. If they uploaded a copyrighted image, then there is no point in pretending they should improve the file description – it should just be deleted. Second, the page is far too TL;DR so we alternately just described/linked to appropriate free or public domain license tags, or fair use rationales.
• We often see feedback from new editors that they cannot find their contributions, since they don't know how to use find or use MediaWiki's tools for doing so. Thus, in all versions, we include a direct link to the edit window for the relevant file.
• In version 2 Drafts, we added a personalized greeting and a more specific thank you right up front. As described in the intro to these drafts, we intentionally removed all lists of instructions, in favor of a general invitation to edit or ask for help.

Replies and comments

• I'm not entirely comfortable with promising "your image will be available for years to come". A large fraction of the images uploaded to Wikipedia get deleted (about 90% of this batch of uploads from July 31 2006 has been deleted), and it's not just because of a lack of documentation: many of the images simply shouldn't have been uploaded in the first place.
• The English Wikipedia has been tending to use the phrase "non-free media" rather than "fair use", because our policies are more restrictive than the legal concept of "fair use" (and most people don't understand fair use in the first place).
• I can have the bot sign the "draft 1" templates and use a hidden comment with the "draft 2" templates, or I can have the bot use all four variations ("draft 1" with and without signature, "draft 2" with and without signature).

--Carnildo (talk) 01:46, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

•  Done. I changed the "years to come" bit to "If you follow these steps, your image can help enhance Wikipedia." and replaced fair use with non-free. Steven Walling (WMF) • talk 01:57, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, Carnildo. Let us know if you have any more suggestions. If you're happy with these as they are, do you think we could start the test at the beginning of next week? Maryana (WMF) (talk) 02:39, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I can start the test then. --Carnildo (talk) 02:24, 19 December 2011 (UTC)