Category talk:NowCommons

This page is categorized as a request for deletion. Do we want to automatically delete files here that have been placed on Commons? The category page suggests: "please allow enough time to make sure that the image does not get deleted from commons."

There is no specific time that is adequate to "make sure" that an image will not be deleted from Commons. If a page is deleted at Commons, we may want to claim Fair use or other non-free use here, but if the file has been deleted on Commons, and has been deleted here, because it was moved to Commons, ordinary users cannot even see the file, and the Commons delink robot will remove references to the file. So damage is done, and it is difficult to distentangle it, requiring custodian action to undelete the file, if it is even noticed.

Simpler: don't delete local copies of files that are on Commons. It's extra work. No disk space is saved by these deletions. The NowCommons template should simply show that the file has been placed on Commons, so that people don't waste time trying to move it there. If it is ever decided to delete files that are on Commons, then, it can quickly be done. *Undeleting* files, moving in the other direction, would be time-consuming and tedious. The categories are no longer usable.

We are, by the way, when we delete these files, removing the source upload that Commons depends on. This is, again, another reason to keep the files, not to hide them. --Abd (discuss • contribs) 15:23, 5 March 2014 (UTC)


 * As there has been no response, and I know there are other users who don't want files to be deleted when copied to Commons, I am changing this category text and, as well, changing Template:NowCommons. --Abd (discuss • contribs) 21:34, 17 August 2015 (UTC)

I think that as a part of cleaning up files it is a good idea to delete the files. If there is a special reason not to delete a specific file then it should be tagged with a template like w:Template:Keep local.

See for example Wikiversity talk:File Review and Colloquium/archives/April_2023 for discussions about cleaning up files. --MGA73 (discuss • contribs) 16:22, 26 September 2023 (UTC)