Requests for comment/Wikimedia Commons

The following request for comments is closed. bugzilla:4676 reopened. Tiptoety ^talk 18:56, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

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Proposal to add a "c" interwiki prefix for Wikimedia Commons

I propose the creation of another interwiki prefix, "c", to our database for Wikimedia Commons. The prefix is been used, but not actually leading to Wikimedia Commons. It would minimize inacuracies, and for some, make the use of interwiki usage easier. For those who do not understand, it will serve the same purpose as the "commons" prefix in any case.  Hazard-SJ  ±  05:04, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Discussion

• The c: prefix doesn't seem to be currently in use at all. — Kudu ^~I/O~ 20:18, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

• This was discussed somewhat in bug 12600. See bugzilla:12600#c20 for a larger explanation of why this schema might not work. Killiondude 06:33, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

• This RfC is about bugzilla:4676 (Interwiki prefix c: could be used as a shortcut for commons:) which was closed as WONTFIX, and bugzilla:14448 (Bypassing an interwiki redirect), also closed WONTFIX. There are three pages on English Wikipedia which start with "c:", and many redirects starting with "c:", so these need to be addressed before this can be resolved. John Vandenberg 07:22, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

  I have started a discussion at w:Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)#commons interwiki about the English Wikipedia problems. --John Vandenberg 08:26, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

  I have searched all Wikipedias with 10,000+ articles and besides English Wikipedia there are three articles (fi:C:enter:pound, pound, pound, ru:C: The Contra Adventure and el:C:Real) and redirects at ja, pt, sv, ro, simple, ceb, and bn. These will need to be renamed or removed before this proposal can be implemented. John Vandenberg 06:53, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Support

1. Support, as proposer. -- Hazard-SJ  ±  05:04, 31 August 2011 (UTC)
2. Nice idea--^Email Vaibhav ^Talk 07:33, 31 August 2011 (UTC)
3. Support. Considering this hasn't been already implemented, is there some technical reason that would nix it? — Huntster (t • @ • c) 23:43, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

   No. — Kudu ^~I/O~ 20:19, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

4. Support, why not? — Kudu ^~I/O~ 20:19, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
5. Support we do have m: and [[:|meta:]], so why not c: and commons:. Bennylin 06:41, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
6. Support, could be useful (not in use according to Interwiki map). VIGNERON * ^discut. 14:17, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
7. Support, seems reasonable and would shorten manual typing. --Túrelio 22:26, 17 September 2011 (UTC)
8. Support - good idea - Jcb 22:35, 17 September 2011 (UTC)
9. Support - oh yeah, that's a good idea (sparing some typing work and links like Commons:Commons:Village Pump). Grand-Duc 01:46, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
10. Support - A.Savin 06:06, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
11. spprt I wld lk ths chc. --99of9 06:20, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
12. Support Excellent idea. mickit 06:57, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
13. Support Why not? /Esquilo 10:02, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
14. Support Unless someone can come up with some reason not to. I don't believe any other projects start with c (and various language Wikipedias always use two letter codes). Dcoetzee 13:03, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

    Not "always". Some use three, and I know that the Simple English Wikipedia (simple) uses six :) 216.10.218.17 06:19, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

    The two and three letter combinations should be reserved for w:ISO 639 codes. simple is special ;-) John Vandenberg 21:45, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

15. Support --Gavin.collins 08:33, 19 September 2011 (UTC)
16. Support as per nom and Bennylin. --Skeezix1000 19:45, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
17. Support Good idea. hiwiki will be affected. Engish Wikipedia has only three articles which will be affected. en:C:enter:pound, pound, pound, w:C: The Contra Adventure and w:C:Real, and the name of en:C:enter:pound, pound, pound is already a problem because of other technical limitations. John Vandenberg 04:55, 24 September 2011 (UTC)
18. Support we have "m" for "meta" and several other one char abbrevs to sister projects, why not have "c" for "commons"? a×p_de^Hello! 19:13, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
19. Support --Microcell 19:50, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
20. Support, per my comment below. Ajraddatz (Talk) 00:27, 12 October 2011 (UTC)
21. Support, seems like a good idea, problem at hiwiki has been addressed below. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 22:47, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
22. Support Please. I'm tired of typing out [[:Commons:Commons:(Policy name)] to link files. WhatamIdoing 03:32, 27 November 2011 (UTC)
23. Support --Guerillero 19:22, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Oppose

Moved to support. Why not? Because it could conflict with the c: prefix on larger wikis that use it for category. Ultimately, it makes more sense to allow the larger wikis to continue with that, considering that there is more of a need to locally link to a category than there is to link to commons IMO. Ajraddatz (Talk) 16:38, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

I think only hiwiki uses 'C' for category; everyone else uses 'CAT'. See InitialiseSettings.php. John Vandenberg 04:22, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for that - if it is only hiwiki, and they would be willing to modify their C, then I'd support this proposal. Ajraddatz (Talk) 04:55, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

Informed some of the hindi Wikipedians. Waiting to hear from them. -- Tinu Cherian - 05:11, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

This array setting was proposed by me and approved by the community however I don't think that Hindi wiki community will object this change, I have no issue with this--Mayur ^{(talk•Email)} 17:01, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Mayur. Could you find the bugzilla for the Hindi Wiki configuration change? John Vandenberg 05:07, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

The configuration change is bugzilla:29940. --John Vandenberg 22:50, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks; I've changed to support per my comment above. Ajraddatz (Talk) 00:26, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Neutral

1. • "The prefix is been used, but not actually leading to Wikimedia Commons". Where is it used, and how, leading to where? If the prefix is already leading somewhere, and you change the destination, then the change will cause confusion.
   • What is better with ":c:" than with ":commons:"? On the one hand ":c:" is quicker to type, but on the other hand, its meaning is more difficult to understand. So, all in all, the longer one could be better. Teofilo 13:51, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

     Teofilo, for Meta-Wiki, we have both m and meta Are you saying "m" is difficult to understand too?  Hazard-SJ  ±  21:43, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

     Considering we use en: and not english: for english Wikipedia I don't think c: would be more difficult to understand? /Esquilo 10:02, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

2. The reason pointed out in the bug is that "c" may also be used for Categories on various projects and this change would break those existing links. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 06:43, 19 September 2011 (UTC) Concern addressed above. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 22:42, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
3. I think the last time this proposal was rejected because it conflicted with Wikia syntax. Is this no longer the case? -- Liliana • 16:28, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

   It is not longer the case, and I also think that what Wikia does should not be any concern of ours, and should certainly not be considered in a proposal like this. Linking to commons is far more important on Wikimedia than linking to a Wikia site. Ajraddatz (Talk) 16:36, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

4. I'm mostly interested in non-Wikimedia MediaWiki projects. It's rather confusing when I have to use m:, w:, and mw: vs. metawikipedia:, wikipedia:, and mediawikiwiki: depending on the wiki. It is also not nice for portable templates. –mw:Be..anyone 89.204.137.235 09:40, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

   Both interwiki links can be used, and there are even more (e.g. [[:meta:]]). The one char links are for those using them frequently. a×p_de^Hello! 19:19, 11 October 2011 (UTC)