Commons talk:Wiki Science Competition 2025

Enrolling a national organising team

Hi, how can I add a national organising team, please? Polish community is interested but I could not find information for national organisers. Katarzyna Makowska (WMPL) (talk) 09:45, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

Organizing a national campaign

Hi, I would like to organize a local campaign in the Philippines. --Filipinayzd (talk) 00:57, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

@Filipinayzd: It is possible. Feel free to send me an email on that, and we could also have an online call to discuss details. Ukraine is starting on November 20th, and Spain on December 1st. Maybe one of those dates would suit the Philippines as well? Kruusamägi (talk) 14:43, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

We created a landing page, Commons:Wiki Science Competition 2025 in the Philippines (contest to end on December 31, 2025). --Filipinayzd (talk) 04:38, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Duplicate file descriptions

For several years, many files had duplicate file descriptions. See for example File:Medicinal leeches in glass container.webm (first and so far only video submitted in the current competition; I hope there will be more). Please fix this so there are no duplicate descriptions. @Kruusamägi:

Also, please see the two questions (threads) above and either reply or forward these questions to other people who know (or e.g. VillagePump if that's unclear as well). Prototyperspective (talk) 14:15, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

@Prototyperspective: We try to deal with that. Might need some bot help as well. On the questions above: Poland is organizing this competition, about the the Philippines I had not seen the message. Thank you! Kruusamägi (talk) 14:40, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Not sure how to participate

I have an image I would like to participate with, it's uploaded here at commons but how do I add it to the competion, I don't understand? --please ping me-- Goran tek-en (talk) 12:41, 29 November 2025 (UTC)

@Goran tek-en: With what image do you want to participate? This one?

When you have not used the official upload form, then you will need to manually add the following template: {{Wiki Science Competition 2025|int}} Also the image category, so Category:Image sets from Wiki Science Competition 2025 maybe? Kruusamägi (talk) 20:50, 4 December 2025 (UTC)

@Kruusamägi Thank you, should not this information be more available on it's page, not every image is uploaded directly from there page. --please ping me-- Goran tek-en (talk) 10:53, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

@Goran tek-en: There is "People from other countries can use the international upload form – Campaign:wsc-int." Kruusamägi (talk) 15:12, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

@Kruusamägi Yes but that is the same upload form I tried to use but as my image was uploaded already it doesn't work. --please ping me-- Goran tek-en (talk) 15:21, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

What about a new category for request media / media gaps?

As I created the sparsely populated Category:Doctor's visit and creating the photo competition proposal for photos of Medical consultation & Telemedicine, I wondered:

what if we better integrated free media needs + media requests with this photo competition?

There's lots of gaps of media in Commons. However, people who aren't very active on Commons probably don't know which. Moreover, some participants probably don't know what could be useful here.

Why not connect these? It would be a Win-Win basically.

Providing media that contributes to closing these gaps would be especially valuable and would be good to facilitate, encourage and reward. One method for this would be creating a new category for media gaps. Then Commons users would have 1 year time to identify/suggest/list topics where files are missing.

Then each year there could be e.g. 10 topics where we lack media where media showing/relating to these would go in new 'Media gaps' category. (Some topics could be there for multiple years.) Two examples for science-related media gaps are Telemedicine and Doctor's visit but there's many more (e.g. Videos of water scarcity but that may be too difficult). Maybe Category:Images of media gaps from Wiki Science Competition 2026 (next year). What do you think? Prototyperspective (talk) 21:42, 4 December 2025 (UTC)

@Prototyperspective: There is this minor thing, that this competition is held once every two years. Otherwise, it would be welcome if there were a page that lists examples of images that are needed for Wikipedia, and we would be glad to link to it. Kruusamägi (talk) 15:15, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

I thought it was every year. Linking to it would be nice too but what about the idea/proposal to make it a new category? Maybe in the upload form users could separately check 'This closes one of the media gaps on this year's list' where this year's lists links to it. I could try compiling a draft version of such a list if you'd like to see an example first before saying something about the category idea – I think I have enough relevant gaps in my notes (directly as gap or via identified Wikipedia missing articles about science topics) and maybe more users could add to it if I ask somewhere like VillagePump and/or the PhotoCompetition talk page. Prototyperspective (talk) 15:26, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

We already have 7 categories, and we don't really want to expand that for multiple reasons. There would also inevitably be an overlap with existing categories, as current categories are meant to cover everything. Kruusamägi (talk) 20:57, 5 December 2025 (UTC)

Okay thanks, that makes sense. I'm starting to compile a list at Commons:List of science-related free media gaps. If you know of more or would like to remove some, please go ahead. If it reaches whatever is a sufficient length, do you already know where it could be linked – maybe in the "Special categories" subsection? I'll add more as I find them. An issue may be that the examples so far lack nonphotographic media more than photos (but the challenge also has a category for such). Prototyperspective (talk) 23:47, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

@Kruusamägi: I've expanded that list now. What do you think, is it okay if I link it on this page? If so, let me know if you have a specific place in minds – I think a very short note near Do you need some idea? would be best since this is basically about getting people ideas what they could upload. Please also let me know if you have another idea for what could be done with this list, e.g. if it could be linked elsewhere like the competition website or some forum. Prototyperspective (talk) 00:21, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

I've added the link now, adjust as needed. Also commented out this link because it's broken (probably one needs to remember to add it once these stats are showing). Please let me know if you know a further place this could be linked.

By the way, a Mastodon account for the challenge would be great, especially considering what has happened to X/Twitter. Prototyperspective (talk) 17:32, 15 December 2025 (UTC)