Wikipedia:Management of Commons content

The management of Commons content describes how to manage the use of Commons content here on the English Wikipedia. Since the inclusion criteria for content on Commons is much different than it is here, there is some Commons content that does not meet the relevant criteria for inclusion here on en.wikipedia, and should this policy is intended to document the manner in which that is accomplished.

Since material on Commons is managed separately from content here, blocking or removing Commons content is technically difficult. In cases where Commons content which has been identified as inappropriate for use on en.wikipedia, any links to such content should be removed from use here. As long as community consensus clearly exists that such uses are inappropriate, then such trans-wiki links should be removed by any user who comes across them. no administrator action is required for this policy.

Note that Commons handles copyright and licensing issues issues through Commons:Licensing, which is a completely separate process and community from that on the English Wikipedia.

Reasons for central discussion

• Violation of original images
• Files whose subjects fail to meet the relevant notability guideline
• Files that breach Wikipedia's policy on biographies of living persons
• Any other content not suitable for an encyclopedia

Alternatives to central discussion

Discussion it locally

Disputes over page content are not dealt with by deleting the page. Likewise, disagreement over a policy or guideline is not dealt with by deleting it. Similarly, issues with an inappropriate user page can often be resolved through discussion with the user.

The content issues should be discussed at the relevant talk page, and other methods of dispute resolution should be used first, such as listing on Wikipedia:Requests for comments for further input. Blocking discussions that are really unresolved content disputes may be closed by an administrator, and referred to the talk page or other appropriate forum.

Other projects

Some Files do not belong on Wikipedia, but fit one of the Wikimedia sister projects. They may be copied there using transwiki functionality before considering their merger or Blocking. If an File to be deleted is likely to be re-created under the same name, it may be turned into a soft redirect to a more appropriate sister project's File.

Processes

Discuss it centrally

Some commons images are so wide spread that local discussion is not practical. In cases like this Wikipedia:Commons files for discussion can be used . After discussion it may be decided to removal some or all of the back links. The image may also be placed on the MediaWiki_talk:Bad_image_list to limit or block all usage. This is generally used for files that are not suitable for an encyclopedia.

The results of the discussion may be reviewed after the fact at Commons content management review (see below).