Commons:Category scheme Commons maintenance/en

Local schemes in other languages (Not translations of this page):

This page is for the English descriptions of the Wikimedia Commons' global common categories (Category:Commons) and is also for the local English category scheme (Category:Commons-en). Local category descriptions should go directly on the category page since these are translated.

Every "Category:Commons-ISO-LANGUAGE-CODE" contains only "Commons:" and "Help:" pages in its language and no other language pages of these namespaces.
Subcategories below these language categories should be created only if it is too populated and never in advance.
The structure of Category:Commons-en is the sample hierarchy for every other language subcategory.
Possibly for the sake of internationalization consistency, the hierarchy of each language category (such as "Category:Commons-ISO-LANGUAGE-CODE") would be better to keep the similar category scheme without getting further away from Category:Commons-en.

Wikimedia Commons' global common category structure

Click the link to see the definition.

This way of documenting categories is deprecated and the category scheme presented here was completely outdated.
Please add descriptions directly to the category pages. Internationalisation should be done with {{Mld}} or {{LangSwitch}}.

To display all subcategories click on the "▶":

Commons maintenance content‎ (16 C, 9 P)

Commons-en

To display all subcategories click on the "▶":

Commons-en‎ (28 C, 41 P)

Wikimedia Commons' common category definition

Commons

This category should only contain sub-categories, never articles/galleries or images directly here.

This category is the global common root of categorizing Commons' maintenance tasks and pages (Commons:-, and Help:-) except for media files. The translated pages in each language should be categorized under the each language category such as "Category:Commons-ISO-LANGUAGE-CODE" style . The structure of Category:Commons-en is the sample hierarchy for every other language sub category.

There is a sub category Category:Commons maintenance content, which is for the special maintenance of Wikimedia Commons' global common contents and which does not get translated. ALL media files should be categorized under these 4 categories, but ONLY if there are files having problems and needing to be fixed, they should be also in the sub-category Category:Commons maintenance content.

Commons maintenance content

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Candidates for deletion

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Candidates for speedy deletion

This category contains candidates for speedy deletion.

See subcategories for a breakdown of all candidates:
- Category:Copyright violations — tag with {{copyvio|optional URL}}
- Category:Duplicate — tag with {{duplicate|other file}}
- Category:Other speedy deletions— tag with {{speedydelete|reason}}

Note: {{Speedydelete}} is deprecated for most usages (files tagged with it get auto-categorized to Category:Other speedy deletions instead).

Before adding or deleting any file here, you must understand the speedy deletion guidelines. Please read them in your language of choice:

Copyright violations

This category contains files that are not permissible by the Commons Licensing Policy. As such, these files are subject to speedy deletion.

Admins can use the Bad Old Ones tool to assist deletion. (Not mandatory)
If a file is not an obvious speedy deletion candidate, please move it to normal Commons:Deletion requests. That will be faster for everyone.
Before adding or deleting any file here, you must understand the speedy deletion guidelines. Please read them in your language of choice:

Duplicate

This category contains files that are exact duplicates of other files. As such, these files are subject to speedy deletion.

Use the Dupes tool to easily compare files listed here and their "duplicates".
Before adding or deleting any file here, you must understand the speedy deletion guidelines. Please read them in your language of choice:

Other speedy deletions

This category contains various candidates for speedy deletion.

Note: {{Speedydelete}} is deprecated for most usages (files tagged with it get shown up here).
You can use Bad Old Ones tool to assist deletion. (Not mandatory)
Before adding or deleting any file here, you must understand the speedy deletion guidelines. Please read them in your language of choice:

Deletion requests

Pages or files in this category have been tagged with {{Delete}} and listed on Commons:Deletion requests. Please see that page for justifications and discussion. See also the Commons:Deletion guidelines for a set of guidelines for deletion.

Incomplete deletion requests

In this category, many pages are gathered which have been suspended from deletion due to unclear reasons.
ALL pages bearing {{Unclear reason}} are listed automatically in this category.

Admins can either delete the page, follow regular deletion request procedure, or remove the tag (if it was placed inappropriately).

Unclear reasons:

The page has been tagged with {{Delete}}, but the deletion request have NOT been listed in the Deletion Requests yet.

Many of these may be misplaced speedy requests. (Keep in mind that on English Wikipedia, "{{delete}}" is a speedy delete tag.)

The page has been tagged with {{Speedydelete}}, the other Speedy or "Missing legal info" ({{No source since}}, {{No license}}), but doesn't seem to match the proper reason. It may be interpreted as a bulk nomination.

NOTE: For internationalization:
You can create a translated category or page for the language reference under your language category (ex. commons-ISOCODE), but please keep in mind ALL incomplete requests should be gathered here to be controlled under this category.

Missing legal information

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Images with disputed copyright status

These images have a source and/or license, but it appears dubious. The template for this category is {{Disputed}}, which says that the copyright tag is disputed so the image shouldn't be spread under the assumption that it is correct.

There is no distinct time limit for how long these images should be here, but...

If the opposite happens, that the license is proven correct, then the {{Disputed}} can be removed, and the image can be kept;
If it is found out that an image is clearly a violation of copyright then the image should be listed at Commons:Deletion requests or on the SpeedyDelete {{Copyvio}} for obvious case.

Unknown

In this category are all images whose license-status is missing. Images that have been in this category for more than a week can be speedy deleted according to the deletion guidelines.

Please also have a look at the list at Commons:Untagged images - there are more than 3700 images there that have no license info. Please Help!

You can add files to the proper subcategory of this page with one of the following templates:

{{subst:nsd}}, which gives {{no source since|month=June|day=9|year=2024}}
{{subst:nld}}, which gives {{no license|month=June|day=9|year=2024}}
{{subst:npd}}, which gives {{no permission since|month=June|day=9|year=2024}}

Be sure to notify the uploader if you tag an image! Tag the image with the day you discovered it, not the day it was uploaded.

Temporarily undeleted files

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Maintenance data structures

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Quality assurance

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Articles to be merged

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Disputed diagrams

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Blurred images

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Extracted images

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File series

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Flickr review needed

Images in this category are from the photo sharing website Flickr.com, but have been uploaded directly to Commons and not through the FlickrLickr system. As Flickr allows the uploaders to change their licensing at any time, this is provided as a method to confirm the copyright status of these images as acceptable on the Commons. Images coming from Flickr not originating from FlickrLickr should be tagged with {{Flickrreview}}, which adds them to this category for review.

Review process

Images can be reviewed by administrators or by the bot FlickreviewR. The bot automatically scans this category and reviews the images listed here. So there is no need for manual review by administrators for the images in this category. However there is need of manual review in the category Flickr images needing human review, which lists the images that couldn't be reviewed correctly by the bot.

Commons:Category scheme Commons maintenance/en

See also

Wikimedia Commons' global common category structure

Commons-en

Wikimedia Commons' common category definition

Review process

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