Browse Wikimedia Commons for photos to insert into new posts

[brainwane]

Title:
Browse Wikimedia Commons for photos to insert into new posts

Area:
entries

Summary:
On the New Post and Edit pages, give the user the ability to browse freely licensed photos from Wikimedia Commons to insert into their posts. Use the MediaWiki API https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:FAQ and the example of http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/PhotoCommons as a prototype (it's a WordPress extension).

Description:
It would be nice to give users the ability to dress up their more text-heavy posts with graphics. Wikimedia Commons is a useful source of freely licensed graphics.

I don't know how this should be implemented in the UI. I imagine there would be some kind of search functionality, to search Commons for photos matching a keyword and then to display thumbnails and then choose them for insertion. Inserting the photo should probably also automatically add a caption with attribution.

Poll #8850 Browse Wikimedia Commons for photos to insert into new posts

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 64

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This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
5 (7.8%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
4 (6.2%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
26 (40.6%)

(I have no opinion)
27 (42.2%)

(Other: please comment)
2 (3.1%)

Comments

[matgb]

FWIW, I like the basic idea and it's inspired some thoughts I'll get back to later-I'd definitely like an easier way of putting appropriate pics in some of my posts if I ever get back to writing regularly again, and the idea of an image library searchable from within the 'insert image' bit of the post page is good, it just needs to be sorted out as to why (and possibly have a few DWy bells and whistles).

I'm also thinking of some way of making it easy to insert existing icons intot he body of posts, just need to figure out what it is I'm thinking of before I try and write it down.

(and FWIW I'm a former dial up user who regularly browses on mobile platforms, relevent images in posts can be scaled by good mobile browsers and a good interface would work with the image placeholders for dial up users so they're just implementation issues not objections really)

[azurelunatic]

Thinking about this bit, if the image already has thumbnail-sized versions of it available from the source, it could be really shiny to have a placeholder setting which is "use thumbnail versions for placeholder image when available" -- I am not suggesting that globally, since one very valid use of placeholders is to block images of unknown provenance for possible content issues, rather than size issues -- but for people whose use of placeholders is strictly for size, and the image is hosted from somewhere Known that does thumbnails in a way acceptable to DW, I think it could be very useful.

[matgb]

Ooh, I like this. I had to use placeholders when I was on dial up, but really hated it (and there's someone on my reading page now that's posting full screen size pics and force reducign them, thinking that it's a good thing, need to mention how bad it is at some point).

Auto thumbnail use could be really cool if it's workable, and it ought to be.

[musyc]

Now that I would like. I am one of those "placeholders for size not content" people, so auto-thumbnails would be awesome for me. (And save some swearing every time I forget and have to research how to use the thumbnail from PB as an anchor, which is every time. Which goes first a href or img src ahhhhhhhh;lkajsd;fkjasdf.)