Topic on Talk:Page Previews/Flow

Non-free images in hovercards

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Tigress223 (talkcontribs)

I know that the first images in an article are not always used in the hovercards due to the image proportions, size or quality. However, these factors always seem to be changing. For example, in the articles: Nirvana In Fire, Legend of Nine Tails Fox, and The Journey of Flower, all of the images used in the infobox were adequate enough to be put as the image in their respective hovercards. However, in the last few days, the images have not been shown in the hovercards, and since the images are still used in the article, I feel that it's because the Hovercards do not accept pictures with those proportions or quality anymore.

But why? The images were perfectly fine before, but now they are unusable in the hovercard feature. Is there any way to let those pictures be used again in the hovercards? Plus it will be very nice to know what proportions and qualities that are allowed. Thanks

By the way, still love how helpful the hovercards are, but the image can be a very helpful visual aid.

Nick Moyes (talkcontribs)

Good question. I'm afraid I can't offer an answer, but would like to add that I think Wikipedia's Manual of Style/Lead Section and Featured Article guidelines will all need updating soon in order to catch up with the requirements of Hovercards.

It might also be worthwhile you enabling 'Mobile sidebar preview' in Wikipedia's 'Preferences>Gadgets>Testing and development' section to see whether or not the correct image also displays in Mobile view.

Tigress223 (talkcontribs)

Thanks for answering and I'll be sure to check that out. It's just that its frustrating that images that could be used before can't be used anymore, and you've lost a perfectly good visual aid with the image requirements forever changing. I hope somebody updates or changes it like it was before.

Again, Thank you

Jkatz (WMF) (talkcontribs)

This is because we have been asked to prevent 'fair use' images from appearing outside of articles. This change rolled out here: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T124225

I believe this is well summarized by @Alsee here: Topic:T01s932dg5h6jkaq

It impacts almost all movies, books and albums on English Wikipedia. I don't know whether or not revisiting the fair use policy to include article previews is possible.

In lieu of changing policy, a mitigating solution would be to allow editors or readers to identify the images in an article that summarize it well.

Alsee (talkcontribs)

I don't know whether or not revisiting the fair use policy to include article previews is possible.

I think I can help here. The policy prohibits their use for things like navigation purposes (like the Related Articles feature), but in this case you're using them in a preview of the article itself, along with a useful portion of the article text. I think that argument will probably be accepted. Would you like me to open a discussion on it to get firm clarification?

Jkatz (WMF) (talkcontribs)

@Alsee I think this is more an issue of changing policy as opposed to interpretation, but I could be wrong. There was also a discussion here that seemed to indicate that, for at least the folks who participated, there was consensus that the policy was being interpreted correctly. Apparently the featured article on the main page is subject to the same restriction.

Alsee (talkcontribs)

Could you point me to that discussion? I just reviewed everything on this page and I couldn't find anything.

Jkatz (WMF) (talkcontribs)
Alsee (talkcontribs)

Ah, you meant the Related Articles discussion. What I was suggesting was that Hovercards has some possibly relevant differences. Related Articles are basically extra navigation links on a page, and the images serve an essentially decorative purpose on those navigation links. The policy minimizes non-free image use, and specifically targets that sort of navigational use.

I see a reasonable argument that hovercard usage may be acceptable under policy. The reader is specifically requesting a preview of the target article, and you're popping up a mini-view of that article. The image arguably shown "in" the article, rather than placed on another page. This is a bit of a stretch, but the image is arguably still serving the encyclopedic-purpose of helping to understand the topic and associated text in the mini-view.

We'd still have to see if others in the community buy that rationale.

Jkatz (WMF) (talkcontribs)

@Alsee Ah! I see now. I would love to see that distinction explored! Right now, the images API simply does not return non-free images, but it might not be a huge amount of work to do it the 'right' way and simply flag the property ('this image is non-free') and let the receiving feature/wiki combination decide if it cared.

Alsee (talkcontribs)
Mz7 (talkcontribs)

@Jkatz (WMF), Alsee: I have closed the above-linked discussion with a consensus to allow non-free images to be presented in Hovercards.

Jkatz (WMF) (talkcontribs)

@Mz7 That is excellent news! Thank, you both for pushing the conversation forward.

Jean eric RKT (talkcontribs)

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