Commons:Addumannati friquenti
Addumannati supra lu pruggettu n ginirali
Zocch'è stu situ
Wikimedia Commons è n'archiviu di file multimidiali (mmàggini, sònira, vìdiu) ca ponnu èssiri usati ntê vari pruggetti Wikimedia, comu Wikipedia n lingua siciliana, Wikizziunariu, Wikibooks e li sò currispunnenti n àutri lingui.
What is the scope of this project?
See Commons:Scopu dô pruggettu. The page Commons:What Commons is not may also be of interest.
Pozzu agghiùnciri matiriali nta stu situ?
Certu ca poi! Anzi, chistu è zocchi vulemu tu fazza. Sulu hai a tràsiri cô tò nomu utenti, si nun l'hai ancora fattu (abbasta taliari ntâ barra n àutu, a manu dritta) e quinni utilizzari lu culligamentu Càrrica ntô menu a manu manca.
Chi tipu di matiriali pozzu carricari?
Qualegghiè cosa pò èssiri usata ntê pruggetti Wikimedia, lu chi voli diri na varità di file particularmenti ampia, pirchì li pruggetti stissi sunnu ntra li chiù disparati. N ogni casu hai carricari file ca ricàdinu sutta una dê licenzi cunzintuti (cunzurta prima Commons:Licenzi, si nun sî nu spertu). Esempi di licenzi cunzintuti sunnu la CC-BY-SA e lu duminiu pùbblicu.
Can I upload mobile apps that are suitable for teaching or demonstrating a concept?
No. See Commons:Scopu dô pruggettu and Commons:File types. Commons is not intended to be primarily a repository for software, it's intended to be a media repository. There are other projects (for example F-Droid, but see Category:Mobile software distribution platforms for more options) that may be much more suitable for sharing apps you have created.
Can I upload text of which I am the author?
Commons is about multimedia content (images, video, sound), not text. Text may, depending on form and content, fit into some other Wikimedia project, such as Wikibooks, Wikipedia, Wikisource, or Wikiversity. However, please note that you must not copy and paste text to these other projects unless you are willing to release it into the public domain or license it for use under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike (CC BY or CC BY-SA) licenses. For example, to use text from a website—even your own—that external website must exhibit a clear statement of such public domain release or CC BY-SA licensing.
What are 'gallery' (main namespace) pages for? How should they be designed?
Galleries are a complement to categories (primary way to organize and find files on the Commons), as another way of displaying media. They allow files to be annotated with captions, shown at better sizes than the category default, organized in tables, etc. Typically they begin with short captions that briefly introduce the topic in many languages (these can be automatically generated using MultiDesc), followed by headed sections that typically use the <gallery> tag (see meta page for guidance).
The files should be followed by interwiki links (also generated by Sum-it-up) and at least one category. Gallery pages must be in at least one category.
A good way to design a new gallery page is to adapt an existing one from a similar topic. Species (plants/animals) pages will necessarily be different to location (cities/countries) pages.
When should I use a gallery or category?
Files should always be added to descriptive categories, since if they are only added to galleries, they can be easily removed from them and thus "lost". Categories are useful as indiscriminately large "containers" of images on a topic. Galleries (on article pages) are useful as showcasing the best, most illustrative, informative and interesting images of a category. They are also useful for presenting material in a logical order, something categories have a limited ability to do. For example, compare Tennis to Category:Tennis. Information on gallery pages can be presented in a hierarchical manner, such as Pronunciation of Dutch municipality names and United States.
This is just advice for if you feel totally lost. Some topics have specific guidelines for the organisation of media, such as plants and animals which fall under the WikiProject Tree of Life. Unless you are interested in helping out with such projects, don't worry too much about finding out what the 'rules' are until someone tells you -- the people who take part in the project will fix things up.
Addumannati supra lu copyright
Pozzu fotugrafari un munumentu o n'edificiu ca s'attrova n Sicilia?
Talìa Commons:Libbirtà di panurama. Nunostanti sia prisenti pirmanentimenti ntôn locu pùbblicu, ô paru di qualegghiè àutra òpira d'arti addipenni dâ data di dicessu di l'auturi di l'òpira stisa. Si dicidìu chiù di 70 anni fa, si pò fotugrafari. Autrimenti, ci voli lu pirmissu scrittu di l'artista o di l'architettu (o comuegghiè di cui nni pò auturizzari la ripruduzzioni fotugràfica). Teni prisenti ca divieti evintuali arriguàrdanu esclusivamenti lu rapportu ntra tìa (fotògrafu) e la stituzzioni ca punìu lu divietu di fotugrafari; Commons nun teni cuntu di st'aspettu. Quinni, poi carricari li tò fotu nta Commons, ma teni prisenti ca prubblemi ligali evintuali ca putìssiru dirivari n sèguitu dô nun aviri rispittatu tali divieti arriguàrdanu sulamenti a tìa. Noltri, ci putìssiru èssiri dê vìnculi ligati ê suprintinnenzi ê beni culturali: lèggiti cu attinzioni lu cuntinutu di l'avvisu {{Suprintinnenza}}.
Pozzu fotugrafari l'òpiri ca s'attròvanu ntôn museu?
Si l'òpiri sunnu abbastanti antichi (auturi mortu di chiù di 70 anni), sì. La prisenza di divieti evintuali ntô museu arriguàrdanu esclusivamenti lu rapportu ntra tìa (fotògrafu) e lu museu; Wikimedia Commons, puru ncuraggiannu sempri di nun viulari li normi viggenti n ogniduna nazzioni, nun teni cuntu di st'aspettu. Quinni, è pussìbbili carricari tali fotu nta Commons. Teni pirò prisenti ca prubblemi ligali evintuali ca putìssiru dirivari dô nun aviri rispittatu divieti evintuali rèstanu a tò càrricu esclusivu.
È pussìbbili carricari la fotu dûn quatru anticu scarricata di Internet?
Quannu si ntenni carricari la ripruduzzioni fotugràfica di n'òpira pittòrica bidiminziunali ci voli tèniri prisenti ca sunnu cuinvolti dui copyright: chiddu supra lu dipintu (ca, essennu l'òpira antica, è scadutu) e chiddu supra la ripruduzzioni fotugràfica. Puru si st'ùrtima nun è dispunìbbili cu na licenza lìbbira, è pussìbbili carricàrila lu stissu n quantu la Wikimedia Foundation cunzìdira la mera ripruduzzioni fotugràfica dûn dipintu n'òpira talmenti sìmplici di èssiri ntô duminiu pùbblicu. Va utilizzatu {{PD-Art}}. Purtroppu la chistioni, macari si pò appariri banali, prisenta nummirusi sfumaturi ligali, n particulari pi l'utenti italiani: si nun s'è sperti, è sempri megghiu addumannari prima ô Cìrculu.
È pussìbbili carricari lu logu di n'azzienda o di na squatra spurtiva?
Pê règuli supra lu copyright di Commons, un logu nun è àutru ca n'òpera dii l'arti figurativa (comu pò essìrilu na llustrazzioni, un disignu, un quatru). Quinni, addipenni dô logu:
- si è sufficientimenti origginali e criativu di supirari l'accussidditta "sogghia d'origginalità" (threshold of originality), lu logu è prutiggiutu pi 70 anni doppu la morti di l'auturi. Nta stu casu lu carricamentu havi a èssiri effittuatu n lucali ntê pruggetti c'accèttanu stu tipu di file prutiggiuti: p'esempiu, nta en.wiki veni sfruttatu lu "fair use" (Wikipedia:Logos), nta scn.wiki lu còdici dâ prupità nnustriali (WP:CI#Marchi riggistrati).
- si è un logu assai sìmplici, pò èssiri carricatu nta Commons. Talìa Commons:Threshold of originality p'esempi di loghi sìmplici/nun sìmplici. Ntô dubbiu, aspetta a carricari e addumanna cunzigghi e opinioni ô Cìrculu. Nta stu casu, va usatu lu tag di copyright appòsitu, {{PD-text-logo}} e va agghiunciutu l'avvisu {{Trademark}}.
Sutta quali licenzi hannu a èssiri li file ca càrricu?
Anything that you upload must be in the Duminiu pùbbricu, or under a free license such as GNU Free Documentation License or CC BY/BY-SA. For more, see Commons:Licenzi and Commons:Copyright tags. Please do not invent licenses out of thin air. Most things on the Internet are copyrighted. Don't assume otherwise unless you have a good reason. When publishing your own work, you can release your work into the public domain ({{PD-self}}), or under specific licenses: {{self|license name}}, {{self|license 1|license 2}} etc. You may also choose one of the options from the drop-down menu license selector at Special:Upload under "own work".
Can I upload scans and images of others I modified?
Only the producer of an original work, or those who have been granted the right to license that work, can license the work. A scan or a modification does not automatically make a document become (or transform into) your own work. This means that you cannot just grab a file from the Internet and put a GFDL or CC license on it. See also Commons:Copyright rules by subject matter.
Why doesn't Commons include fair use content?
One of Wikimedia Commons core principles is that content stored here should be freely reusable in any context, anywhere in the world, in the same way that the (CC BY-SA licensed) encyclopedia content is. This restricts us to free content only. This principle, like the NPOV policy at Wikipedia, will never change. Also, fair use applies only to usage in an editorial context – it simply doesn't apply to a media repository. Copyright law also varies from country to country. Thus, Fair use laws will also vary: each country has its own interpretation, and many jurisdictions have no fair use at all. As a result, fair use content is seldom going to be usable outside the United States.
- Vedi anche : Commons:Fair use
Pozzu utilizzari lu matiriali nta stu situ fora di Wikimedia?
Certu ca poi. Pirò prima hai a cuntrullari la pàggina di discrizzioni dô file (pi cunzurtàrila abbasta fari clicchi ntâ mmàggini o ntô vìdiu) pi taliari sutta quali licenzi fu pubblicatu. Ntâ maiuri parti dê casi nun c'avissi a èssiri nuddu prubblema nta l'utilizzari lu file, purchì vennu citati l'auturi e li nfurmazzioni di copyright ogni vota ca veni ripubblicatu. Talìa Commons:Riusu dô cuntinutu fora di Wikimedia pi chiossai dittagghi.
C'è nu standard pi na discrizzioni ottimali dê file?
Sì, cunzurta Commons:First steps/Quality and description#Good file descriptions (n ngrisi).
Where do I get credit for my images?
Some of our accepted licenses require attribution. This means that a photographer has to be given credit every time their picture is used. Please make sure you put the name you want to have mentioned in the description page of the image. Within Wikipedia articles, people who click your image in order to enlarge it will see your name.
What happens if a Flickr license changes?
See also : Commons:Flickr images. Authors may change their Creative Commons licenses and sometimes do, but their license at the time of verification cannot be revoked. (See the Creative Commons FAQ: What if I change my mind about using a CC license?) If an upload from Flickr has a verified CC BY or CC BY-SA license, the file remains on Commons. However, the template {{Flickr-change-of-license}} might be added. Works identified on the image page as a new version of a verified file also remain. Verification appears in a FlickreviewR, administrator or trusted user notice on the image page.
I have uploaded an image, can I revoke the license later?
The short answer is "No".
Free licenses are designed in such a way that once you release the work under them, you cannot later demand that people stop using that particular license to distribute the work. This is done to protect the users from putting their time and energy making what you upload better or developing something around that work, only to find out later than their work cannot be distributed at all because you have changed your mind. Also see the official Creative Commons FAQ topic “What if I change my mind about using a CC license?”, more info.
Please think hard before you upload images to Wikimedia Commons.
Having said that, on some occasions, such as when it is clear that a mistake was made, and the uploader requests the deletion right after the upload, images are deleted. But this is not a loop-hole that you can use if your upload has resided on Commons for a week or more.
I am not the author, but I have permission
If you are not the author but you have their permission to distribute under a free license (COM:L) please see Commons:Volunteer Response Team#Licensing images: when do I contact VRT?"
Addumannati tècnichi
Does Commons use a special wiki engine?
No. It is the same MediaWiki as for most other Wikimedia sites, but with galleries instead of articles in the main namespace (see the question above). But this site has many heavily customized gadgets and most templates are unique to Commons and developed locally.
Chi risuluzzioni avìssiru a aviri li mmàggini ca càrricu?
See also : Commons:Preparing images for upload. È graduta la risuluzzioni chiù granni dispunìbbili.
However, scaling of images may fail if the image is very large and rendering takes too much time or memory (in that case, either no scaled image is shown, or the full image is served to the browser, often causing it to lock up). For PNG images, a hard limit of 25 megapixels is in effect. Large JPEGs are only problematic if they are saved in progressive mode, since the entire image has to be processed at once. Use baseline mode instead.
In case the full scale original is too large to process for the software, upload it anyway, but then please overwrite it with a scaled down version (around 6 megapixels in size); the full scale version will still be available in the upload history, and you can add a reference to it in the image description.
Nta chi manera pozzu utilizzari sti file supra l'àutri pruggetti Wikimedia?
Esattamenti comu si lu file avissi statu carricatu direttamenti nta ddu pruggettu.
How do I link to an image without showing it?
Use [[:File:Example.jpg]]. That shows up as: File:Example.jpg
Comu si trasfirisci un file di n'àutru pruggettu Wikimedia a Commons?
See also : Commons:Moving files to Commons.
È pussìbbili rinuminari un file?
See also : Commons:File renaming. If you are the uploader and recently uploaded the file, review Commons:File naming and add the following template to the file description page: {{rename|1=new name.jpg|2=1|3=uploader request: please rename to fix .. }}, where |2= is a number from 1 to 7 (with 2=1 being for Uploader requested).
Talìa Commons:Rinuminari file.
Gallery and userspace pages can be moved by logged in users by using the "move" link usually shown at the top of the page (this depends on the skin you use). Note that this feature may not be available to new users; if needed, just ask someone to do it for you.
How can I rename or move a category?
How do I put a page / image into a category?
To add an image or page to category Foo, add the following link to the page (resp. the image's description): [[Category:Foo]]. This is a "magic" link, which will a) appear in the category box at the bottom of the page and b) cause the image to show up in the category. See Commons:Categories for more information.
How do I best categorize my own pictures?
Categorization should answer "W-questions", most importantly: What is it? Where is it? A file should be put in the most specific category/categories that fit(s). We don't use general keyword tags like "nature" or "architecture" to organize files.
There are several ways to find appropriate categories (or gallery pages).
- Look at Main page and at the categories given there, and go to the one that best fits your picture. Then look at subcategories and pages in that category, and again choose the one that fits best. Repeat until you find no more specific place that fits your picture.
- Type the name (or location, or a short description) of the depicted motif into the search box. In the search results, look for a suitable category or pictures of the same motif that have already been properly categorized.
- If your picture is suitable to illustrate a specific Wikipedia article, find out if there is a link to the corresponding Commons category (or gallery) in the article's "In other projects" or "External links" sections, and follow that link.
If unsure, choose a more general category. However, unless a picture has additional important elements to it that are currently missing their own subcategories, avoid categorizing pictures into both a subcategory and one of this subcategory's more general parent categories. See Commons:Categories for more information.
Why might a category list not be up to date?
Sometimes, pages are placed in categories not manually by Commons editors, but by means of a special editing tool called a template, which can be used to place identical information (including category membership information) on many different pages at once. When the information on such a template is edited, the pages containing that template are not necessarily updated immediately. This means that pages might not always appear in the most current categories. However, this problem usually affects project maintenance categories rather than the categories used for browsing.
Various other temporary delays may sometimes mean that lists of category members or subcategories, or the page counts given, are not completely up to date. So if you are editing Commons and find that your page hasn't yet shown up in a category or been removed from an old category, don't panic! The problem will probably resolve itself within minutes, or after a longer time in rare cases.
How should categories be organized?
See also : Commons:Categories. Try to copy the existing structure when expanding categories. Make sure each new category has at least one parent category. See if your area has a category scheme, or if there is one you can model yours on. Especially for species and countries, the structure should follow the conventions set by existing structures. For more information about categories on Commons, see Commons:Categories.
How do I best make a gallery of my own pictures?
You can create a user gallery either as a subpage of your user page (so if you are user Foo, put your gallery page at User:Foo/gallery), or as a category (called something like Category:Pictures by Foo). All user galleries should be in Category:User galleries, all user categories should be in Category:User categories – see Commons:User-specific galleries, templates and categories for details. To find all the pictures you have uploaded, you can use the upload log.
How do I create a gallery?
See meta:Help:Images and other uploaded files#Gallery for information on how to create galleries the easy way – with the <gallery> tag. The page Commons:Galleries might give you information on common conventions of galleries here on Commons.
Why is the old picture and not the new uploaded picture on my screen? (Or-- my thumbnail is wrong.)
Commons uses "caching" to display pages more quickly, which occasionally makes it show copies of pages and thumbnails which are not up to date. "Purging" is a way to force Commons to recreate a page from its database, rather than relying on the cached version of the page.
See Help:Purge, en:WP:BYPASS, and en:WP:PURGE for more details.
Can I upload video and/or audio?
Why can't I see some images?
It might be a thumbnail problem (see the question above), or you might run an ad-blocking software that mistakenly thinks the image was an advertisement. Can you see File:D-fructose.png? If not, then that's the likely cause of your problem. That image resides at the URL https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/D-fructose.png which contains the string "/ad/". Your ad-blocker is probably configured such that it considers all images with a URL containing this string to be advertisements. Change the configuration such that this rule does not apply to the .wikipedia.org and .wikimedia.org domains. That should cure the problem.
The file may be too large to give a thumbnail (e.g., a large JPG in progressive mode). See: Commons:File types#Size and scaling.
How can I search for images?
Look at Special:MediaSearch or Special:Search and follow the links there. For more advanced searching see Help:Searching and Commons:Tools#Search. You can also go to related articles in the different Wikipedias and look at what pictures they are using. Some may already be on Commons, and they should be categorized, giving you a hint where to look for more.
How will the software be adapted for this project?
See Commons:Tools, Commons:Gadgets and Commons:Bugs.
I have a lot of files. Can I do a batch upload, rather than one at a time?
See also : Commons:Upload tools. Yes. The UploadWizard allows you to upload a batch of files at the same time.
There also is a number of popular standalone batch-upload tools that you can install on your computer.
If you use Lightroom, Darktable or Digikam, there are even extensions for directly uploading (batches of) images from within your editing software available.
For those comfortable with the Unix command line or Python, there is a number of upload scripts for batch uploads available as well.
A file or page needs to be renamed or moved. Can this be done?
Galleries and other standard pages: yes. Accounts older than four days can rename articles by using the 'move' tab at the top of the page. Note that for different language titles, redirects should be created rather than moving a page.
Files (Images): Yes, but only by administrators or users with the filemover permission. Please see § How can I rename/move an image or other media file?.
Categories: no. If the badly named category is still a likely one (rather than a misspelling), the badly named one should be converted into a soft redirect by tagging it with {{Category redirect}}. The images in the category have to be manually changed to belong to the new category. (Cat-a-lot is a gadget which makes such mass recategorisation easy.) Note that due to technical restrictions, categories should all be in English.
When I tried to upload my file, I get this error: "." is not an allowed file format. See Commons:File types for more information.
Make sure that the file you're uploading has an extension and that it is one of the allowed types. Make sure also that you have not left a space either before or after the point.
Be sure to include an extension in the Destination filename: field as well. For example, write "Orange grove in summer.jpg" not just "Orange grove in summer".
What does the upload error This file contains HTML or script code that may be erroneously interpreted by a web browser. mean?
The file you tried to upload contains some HTML code in its metadata. Most likely, you tried to upload a JPG file, and the HTML is contained in the file's Exif data. Because of security concerns, such files cannot be uploaded.
You'll have to remove the HTML code from the file's metadata. You will need to have access to software that allows you to edit such metadata. One way to do this is via exiftool. This is a very powerful command-line program to edit image metadata. If you're using a computer running the Windows operating system, there is also a graphical user interface to that tool called ExiftoolGUI.
If the file you tried to upload is from Flickr, you can view (but not edit) the metadata on Flickr. For instance, this Flickr image does have HTML in its metadata and will thus provoke this error message. You can view the metadata by appending "/meta" to the URL: this image's metadata. The "Caption-Abstract" metadata entry contains HTML-code: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier,_New_Zealand#1931_earthquake">Wikipedia</a>. That's the bit you'd need to remove. (Yes, that's just a harmless link. But with HTML, one could try to do more nefarious things, and thus our software simply forbids any HTML in image metadata.) Download the Flickr file to your computer and then remove the HTML from the metadata.
Once you have removed the HTML from the image's metadata, you should be able to upload the file. (Do not upload this sample file from Flickr, though, it already exists as File:Central Hotel, Napier 05.jpg.)
I want to use a Commons image, but there is already a file at my local wiki with the same name which is blocking it. How can I access the Commons file?
Unfortunately at this time, the only options are to have the local file deleted, or re-upload the Commons image under another name, or ask for either the local image or the Commons image to be moved to another name. If the local image is renamed, the leftover redirect may need to be deleted as well.
How can I upload a new version of a file?
Firstly, you can only do this if your account is older than 4 days.
Secondly, consider uploading to a separate file unless the changes are relatively minor. See Commons:Overwriting existing files.
If you are still intent on uploading a new version of a file, you should have the new version of the file saved to your computer, then navigate to the image page here on Commons. Under the subhead "File history", there is a link that says "Upload a new version of this file". Click on this link. You will be taken to a page titled "Upload file". Scroll down to the middle of this page to a box labeled "Source file". Next to the words Source filename is a button marked Browse.... Click on this button and browse your computer to find the new version of the file. Do not alter the entry under Destination filename:. Under File changes, indicate what changes you have made (e.g., "hi-res version" or "removed background noise" or "fixed colour balance")— just one line is enough to say what changes your new version contains. Lastly, click the Upload file button. A warning will appear telling you that you are replacing an existing file— as that is what you want to do, you should continue.
Avoid overwriting images with different images of the same topic.
Where can I see where my file is being used?
Below the "File history" section are two "file usage" sections, one titled File usage on Commons and another titled File usage on other wikis. These two sections will list all instances on Wikimedia Foundation projects where your file is currently in use.
Why is the text of my new uploads corrected soon after upload?
In last couple of years Wikimedia Commons has been working hard on localization or internationalization (aka. i18n) of most of the text a user might see on any page. The goal is to show the content in the language of the user's choice. The current upload process, which creates a lot of new text visible on each page, was written before the current push for internationalization and creates all the headers and other standard texts in the language of the uploader, and since the software supports many different languages, new images are created daily with text in all those languages. In order to correct the problem, some automatic processes (aka bots) patrol new uploads, changing the text to code which will automatically show the text in the language of the user's choice. Some of the changes you might expect to see on files uploaded (using English language for these examples) are:
Summary→{{int:filedesc}}[[Commons:Copyright tags|Licensing]]→{{int:license}}Own work→{{Own}}
Can't the upload process be fixed so it creates the correct wiki-text?
As explained in the above section, the wiki-text of the new file uploads is created directly by the server-side upload program (a php script). It can only be fixed by changing the Mediawiki code. The problem is well known, but it is unclear if there are plans to fix it (as of Nov 2009). Some recent discussions on the subject can be found here.
Why did my image rotate after I uploaded it?
This is most likely the result of an error in the file's EXIF data (also called its "metadata"). See Commons:Rotation for information about fixing this problem.
How do I fix the orientation of an image?
If your image appears upside down or needs to be turned by 90°, click on the Edit tab on the top of the file page. Then scroll down and type {{Rotate}} somewhere in the edit window. This will add a "rotation" template to your file (if you know exactly how you would like the image rotated, add that information to the template per the instructions below). Finish by clicking Save page at the bottom of the page. After a couple of hours, a bot will automatically rotate the image (losslessly, if possible).
RotateLink is a default gadget to add a link “(
request rotation)” to file pages, which allows you to easily (automatically) request any rotation.
Manual way:
| Template | Rotation |
|---|---|
| {{rotate|90}} |  90 degrees clockwise
|
| {{rotate|180}} |  180 degrees
|
| {{rotate|270}} |  270 degrees clockwise (90° anticlockwise)
|
If you request a rotation by another value (e.g. 5°), the image will be placed in Category:Images requiring rotation for processing by humans. Maybe an editor will take the time to rotate it – can take some longer time.
My camera puts a timestamp on photos. Good?
No. Not good. Turn it off. It's much better to just let your camera store things like this in the file's Exif data – most devices will do that automatically.
What are the strangely named components in file paths?
And how are they computed?
If you go to some file on a MediaWiki installation, say File:Spelterini Blüemlisalp.jpg, and you click to view the full version, you may discover that the file resides at the URL https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Spelterini_Bl%C3%BCemlisalp.jpg. (The "%C3%BC" part is just the result of url-encoding the Umlaut "ü".)
- Where does that "/a/ae" part come from?
- The "a" and "ae" denote some subdirectories that are used to avoid problems with directories containing too many files. Imagine all the millions of files at the Commons in one directory! Some operating systems have problems dealing with directories with many files. (Try working with a folder containing a few thousand files on Windows…)
- Can it be calculated from the file name?
- Yes. It's the first and the first two characters of the MD5 hash of the filename (blanks replaced by underscores) without namespace part. The file name "Spelterini_Blüemlisalp.jpg" has the MD5 hash "ae1a26d34d6a674d4400c8a1e6fe73f8".
- MediaWiki installations can be configured on how to generate these filenames and directory structures. Any MediaWiki installation has one or more file repositories, which may be local or not. First, such subdirectories are used only if the global server-side configuration setting $wgHashedUploadDirectory is
true(or $wgHashedSharedUploadDirectory for shared repositories). Then, for each file repository, there is a property calledhashLevelsthat determines how deep the directory structure shall be. If zero, no such intermediary directories are used. If set to e.g. 3, three levels of directories are used; for the example above, one would get "/a/ae/ae1". - This method of storing files has been in MediaWiki since version 1.1 (and possibly even earlier), though it became a bit more configurable over time; initially, it was hardcoded to use two hash levels.
- You can check what the file URL for a given file name will be at Special:FilePath. The file path can also be queried through the MediaWiki API using e.g. a query like https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&titles=File:Spelterini_Bl%C3%BCemlisalp.jpg&prop=imageinfo&iiprop=url. Both these methods, however, work only for existing files.
- Online MD5 calculators differ in the way they treat UTF-8 input. Two that return values consistent with the way MediaWiki hashes UTF-8 strings are helloacm.com/md5/ and md5.cz.
How do I translate the subtitles on a video?
You can create a copy of the timed text page containing the transcribed subtitles, changing the language code in the timed text page to your language code. Then you simply translate the text. See Commons:Timed Text#Internationalization.
Internal error: bad token
When uploading a file you may see an Internal error: Bad token. error message. This will usually be fixed by logging out of Commons, closing your browser, and starting again. If not, you may additionally delete all cookies (or just the wikimedia.org cookie) and purge your browser's cache before trying again. If this still does not solve the issue, try turning off ad blockers or network filters (sometimes the token could look like an advert URL).
How do I close my account?
If you want to stop using Commons, then no special procedure is needed: simply stop visiting the site. Accounts cannot be removed completely, but some measures can be taken for privacy. See Right to vanish.
How do I request file deletion?
See the pages listed at Commons:Deletion.
Why can't I upload?
In some cases, uploads can be blocked by Commons:Abuse filter.
Questions about the Commons community
Zocch'è n'amministraturi e comu lu pozzu addivintari?
Talìa Commons:Amministratura.
Unni pozzu addumannari aiutu?
Addumanna ô Cìrculu.
Comu travagghia Commons cu àutri pruggetti sìmili?
Commons is very interested in working with projects that have similar aims. See Commons:GLAM for details.
Zocch'haiu a fari si m'addugnu ca na pàggina o un file hannu a èssiri cancillati?
Why don't all images from Wikimedia projects get uploaded here by default?
Most importantly, some Wikipedias have a less strict licensing policy than Commons, as some pictures that would not be acceptable to Commons would be okay on them. Commons does not (and cannot) allow fair use content, as some Wikipedias do. See Commons:Fair use.
Chi lingua haiu a usari ntô situ?
Talìa Commons:Lìnia guida supra li lingui. La lingua ufficiali di Commons è lu ngrisi, ma pi tuttu zocchi nun arriguarda lìnii guida ufficiali o numinclatura di catigurìi sintuti lìbbiru d'utilizzari lu sicilianu (puru pê noma dê file).
Unfortunately, users who don't know English well may have a harder time on Commons. Commons tries to supply information in many languages, but non-English pages tend to be incomplete or outdated. Also, some things, like the names of categories, can't (yet) be localized. Sorry.
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