Local uploads policy/transition

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Draft notes on implementation of the draft Local uploads policy

  1. Currently, the default Wikimedia setting is that local uploads are enabled on all wikis by default. A few projects have chosen to switch them off or limit access to higher usergroups such as sysops. See Commons for a list of these projects.[1]
  2. As of 1 January 2013, the default for all projects will be that local uploads are disabled. Every project that wishes to retain local uploads needs to be added to the list at Local uploads policy/Local uploads projects. Per Local_uploads_policy#Changing_upload_access, this can be done at any time, but for a seamless transition, this should preferably be done well in advance of the transition date. The list contains, by default, all projects which have an EDP as of August 2012 (which has to be listed on Non-free content with a summary).
  3. All projects that may be affected by the transition (= all projects that currently have local uploads enabled and should not keep them automatically per above) should be notified of this by 1 September 2012, so that they have at least 3 months to react.
  4. Following local discussions/decisions, projects that want to retain local uploads should communicate this on Talk:Local uploads policy/Local uploads projects. More in general, the initial list will be edited according to Local uploads policy#Changing upload access, by broadening, limiting or reviewing the default access as requested/discussed. However, it's expected that most reviews/assessments will happen afterwards and that in this phase changes will be made mainly according to local requests per policy (or lack thereof).
  5. On 1 January 2013, the default and local configurations will be changed accordingly. Changes to the configuration will be possible at any time later according to the policy.

Notes[edit]

  1. This is controlled via the Wikimedia settings file, by setting $wgEnableUploads to 'false'. Some projects have retained local uploads but limited the [upload] permission to higher usergroups, such as sysops. MediaWiki default settings are to assign [upload] permission to all registered users, but this is overridden by the Wikimedia default, set by Bugzilla:12556, for only autoconfirmed users to have upload rights (Commons is the only exception to this, allowing all registered users to upload)..