Proposal:Change upload form

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The status of this proposal is:
Request for Discussion / Sign-Ups

Strategic Priorities

This proposal is associated with the bolded strategic priorities below.

1. Achieve continued growth in readership
2. Focus on quality content
3. Increase Participation.
4. Ensure that the underlying project infrastructure is secure, stable, and sufficient to guarantee the permanence of the projects and support ongoing growth.
5. Encourage Innovation.

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Summary

MediaWiki's upload form needs to change. YouTube, Facebook and other websites provide better functional and useful upload forms.

Proposal

Currently people can upload files without requiring a license and license information. Sometimes people do not understand copyright and licensing. This proposal suggests ways to address both issues.

The current default upload form allows users to pick an optional license and only includes a textbox field for additional information. Wikimedia Commons adds functionality to their upload form by allowing uploaders to enter license information such as the author of the work directly within the form and using that information to fill out a template. Wikimedia Commons's approach is limited to javascript-enabled web browsers. I propose providing similar functionality that can be enabled through a configuration option such as "$wgUploadInformationRequired = true;" without requiring javascript to use.

Changes to the upload form should include:

• Adding an author(s) field.
• Adding a copyright date field.
• Adding a source field.
• Reject uploads that don't have these fields filled out.
• Reject uploads with invalid dates and dates that are in the future.
• Reject uploads with "no license" selected when this upload would create a new File: page.
• Treat author(s), copyright date and source as meta data that can be searched.
• Maintain automatic categories of files by author(s), date, source and uploader.

Motivation

Help frustrated users upload files with less hassle later. Also less maintenance work for wiki administrators.

Key Questions

• Will changing the upload form result in less or more hassle?
• Are there better ways to ensure files use acceptable licensed that are less of a hassle for uploaders?
• Are there better ways to educate people about copyright and licensing?

Potential Costs

• Time for developers to implement the changes.
• Time for users who have to relearn the system.
• Time for document maintainers who will have to learn the new system and document the changes.

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