Forum:Images from Wikimedia Commons

Is it possible to show images from the Wikimedia Commons on a Wikia page, or do I have to download all images from there, upload them here, and copy the copyright information? --Silent Budgie 19:29, 9 April 2008 (UTC)


 * The latter. -- Manticore   (talk)  11:57, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

I find it ironic that I can import flickr images via Special:ImportFreeImages, but have no convenient way to import or link to Wikimedia commons images. I've read that the mediawiki software provides a method to display images from commons directly (and transparently), couldn't Wikia just turn that on for all wikis? --◄mendel► 10:40, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


 * It might be a matter of bandwidth costs. The Wikimedia Foundation probably does not want to pay for anything that Wikia does (such as serve up images). --JWSchmidt 13:55, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I've just skimmed the surface of the docs, but it appears that the image is being sent to wikia and then cached here where it is served to users. What is my motivation in contributing to wikimedia commons (which is what they want) if I can't use the media in the wikis I edit? --◄mendel► 22:54, 19 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Wikimedia Commons is part of Wikimedia, a not-for-profit. Wikia is a totally different, for-profit company. You can both contribute an image to Commons (for use on Wikimedia projects) AND upload the image to Wikia. Maybe some day they will calculate how much it costs to send images from Commons to Wikia and just have Wikia donate that much to Wikimedia each year....making things easier for us all. --JWSchmidt 03:03, 20 August 2008 (UTC)


 * But there's an intermediate solution. To give the option to import an image from Commons, not hotlinking it. That means that an extension would make a request to Commons once to upload the image into the local wiki. --Ciencia Al Poder (talk) -WikiDex 17:53, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * That sounds like a good idea, assuming that Wikia wants to make it easy to bring over images from Wikimedia. Many wikia projects already have a problem with people just copying articles from Wikipedia. If it were easy to bring over the images, that problem might get worse. --JWSchmidt 18:09, 21 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Have you ever even looked at the Special:ImportFreeImages I mentioned above? Why would importing images from Wikimedia be different than grabbing them from flickr? --◄mendel► 22:56, 21 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm just guessing, but I suggested above that Wikia does not want to make it easy for wikia editors to copy articles from Wikipedia/Commons. Making it easy to bring images from Commons would make it easy to copy/paste the wiki text and then get images for the copied article. --JWSchmidt 01:23, 22 August 2008 (UTC)
 * All page text on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons is GFDL-licensed. There is no reason at all to not make it easy to copy text over; in fact, doing this in an automated fashion that preserves credits would be an excellent idea! Wikia should make it easy to use other GFDL content here. --◄mendel► 22:59, 22 August 2008 (UTC)