Commons talk:Permission requests

Invitation to edit

I made this expecting it to be changed. Please, be bold and make the request desk you want to see. Zanahary (talk) 04:06, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

@Chaotic Enby, can you please add a button that will activate your wizard once it's at metawiki? Zanahary (talk) 04:27, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

Done! Chaotic Enby (talk) 06:58, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

I'll move it then try to figure out how to i18nise the wizard —Matrix(!) _{ping one}^{when replying} {user - talk? - _uselesscontributions} 10:45, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

Right now, the button works (it reloads the page while calling the wizard script through a URL parameter), but if you have a better idea in mind please do so! Chaotic Enby (talk) 11:43, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

I just tested it out and have two issues: when I press submit, it submits but also redirects me to the draft under my userspace, and when I submitted a second test request, it replaced my first. Zanahary (talk) 17:26, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback, I'll try to fix these! Chaotic Enby (talk) 17:38, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

Even weirder, it looks like the whole interface got reverted to the old one? Looking at what might have happened. Chaotic Enby (talk) 17:40, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

I've been testing and didn't see any issue on my end. What I'm wondering is that you might still have my userscript installed, which takes code from your userspace draft, and conflicts with the new MediaWiki script. Chaotic Enby (talk) 17:49, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

Ohhhh yep, I’ll uninstall that and try again Zanahary (talk) 18:52, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

I forgot to change the page at the bottom of the script: I fixed it now. —Matrix(!) _{ping one}^{when replying} {user - talk? - _uselesscontributions} 17:54, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

By the way, can you please update the user agent for the script? Thanks a lot! Chaotic Enby (talk) 18:00, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

Seems to be good now, also the i18n is working, I just need to document it. —Matrix(!) _{ping one}^{when replying} {user - talk? - _uselesscontributions} 18:47, 29 August 2025 (UTC)

Small script detail: I realized that the 20% margins (which I added to prevent needlessly wide fields on PC) could be an issue on mobile, and didn't do much to help with the readability. I've fixed them on the page layout, but would it also be possible to update the script to remove them there? Chaotic Enby (talk) 23:28, 5 September 2025 (UTC)

What needs to happen now in order for this to ship? Zanahary (talk) 06:08, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

@Zanahary Nothing, the wizard is ready to wiz! Chaotic Enby (talk) 08:54, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

Note

I'll create a MassMessage to notify existing license reviewers in a bit. —Matrix(!) _{ping one}^{when replying} {user - talk? - _uselesscontributions} 08:53, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

Though I'll probably get consensus at VPP before I do that. —Matrix(!) _{ping one}^{when replying} {user - talk? - _uselesscontributions} 08:53, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

Has this project been advertised on the noticeboards and elsewhere yet? It seems pretty dead at the moment... Some1 (talk) 00:41, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

I've just advertised it at the VP and the VRT board. I have requested an edit to the main page. I will notify enwiki boards as well. Zanahary (talk) 14:27, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

A curtesy link to this project has been added here, here, here, and a few other places (Talk pages of individual users who may be interested, etc.). -- Cl3phact0 (talk) 06:21, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

"To apply to become a volunteer, please apply here."

I am commenting this out for now. I don't believe that any administrators are aware of Commons:Permission requests/Requests, and similar desks like Resource Exchange and the Graphics Lab do not require that contributors apply for administrator approval before chipping in. I am open to arguments that that permission should be sought, but I think at the very least while the project gets off the ground we should leave it out. Zanahary (talk) 20:03, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

I agree with this -- should we get rid of the "To apply to become a volunteer, please apply here." line from the banner, and perhaps reword some things to make it more clear that anyone can volunteer to help answer these requests? I feel like editors aren't chipping in because they think they need to be approved as a volunteer first before they can start answering requests. Some1 (talk) 11:46, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

We can write something similar to the old Commons:WikiProject Permission requests project, which said "Better yet, join the permission requests team! This is totally informal and requires no special skills. If you are wondering how to write a convincing permission request e-mail, this page might help you." and create something similar to Commons:WikiProject Permission requests/Participants. Some1 (talk) 11:51, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

Origin discussion

Plopping here for the record, here is the discussion that led to the creation of this page: Commons:Village pump/Proposals § A new desk or task force for contacting rightsholders asking them to release under WMC licenses? (permalink). Sdkb ^talk 05:08, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

Also noting here that this project was partially inspired by the now defunct Commons:WikiProject Permission requests. Some1 (talk) 23:55, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Social media

This looks like a good system for getting around the social media siloing issue where a Commons user might be able to find some valuable unlicensed media on a service like Flickr, Instagram or TikTok, but can't reach out to that person to request permission without creating an account there.

Is it worth talking that up a bit? The minimum requirements including contact information (email) currently make it sound as if the system might not be meant for that, although there are some purely social media requests listed. Belbury (talk) 12:28, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

You could probably tweak the parenthetical to say (such as their email address, social media account, etc.). Some1 (talk) 23:54, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Good idea. @Chaotic Enby, what do you think? Zanahary (talk) 06:15, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

Works for me! Chaotic Enby (talk) 09:33, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

Example site to find useful media to ask for permission

Often, there are useful data graphics on /r/DataIsBeautiful – maybe people here could more often ask reddit users there whether they'd be fine with licensing their graphic under CCBY, especially those useful enough to be included in some article. You can also search past posts with the [OC] tag. Prototyperspective (talk) 21:37, 20 October 2025 (UTC)

Mods could even be lobbied to implement an AutoModerator function that comments under OC-tagged images explaining WMC licensing and asking authors to respond to the comment in the affirmative if they agree to license the work under a CC-BY-SA 4.0 license. This could be great to have on many subreddits. Zanahary (talk) 07:51, 24 October 2025 (UTC)

That's a great idea; maybe you could add it to the Community Wishlist on meta. However, a caveat or difficulty is that there's also many data graphics that are flawed or wouldn't be useful or educational. One could also build a separate bot that the mods only need to accept. I don't know if they can have multiple automatic replies instead of just one. Prototyperspective (talk) 10:05, 24 October 2025 (UTC)