Commons:Commons mass description tool
The Commons mass description tool is a tool that allows to add descriptions for multiple files at once. It was developed by Martin Urbanec in 2017 and it is still in early development.
Origin[edit]
The rationale behind the creation of this tool is the current utterly high stockpile of pictures with no human-like description (320,218 as of now). A such tool was suggested several times in the Community Wishlist, but never got a popular support.
How does it work?[edit]
The tool focuses on high-volume editing and a possibility to add descriptions to multiple images at once. It loads files from a category without any value the in the {{Information |Description= part of the {{Information}} template.
A user of this tool can choose a language that they will be adding descriptions in. They can also choose a custom category, the Category:Media lacking a description is a default selection. A certain username can be also added, thus the tool can serve well to those who frequently forget to add descriptions to their images and are adding these later on.
The user interface was inspired by the Translate Mediawiki extension that is used on translatewiki.net
Limitation[edit]
Due to Commons limitations the tool is however capable to load only first 500 images from a category.
Development[edit]
The tool is available still only in English (as of Dec 16 2017), but a multilingual version is in development. The tool has been tested and functions within its designed parameters. If you find any errors in this tool or if you have any suggestions on how to improve that tool, please feel free to create a task at Wikimedia Phabricator.
A similar tool for Wikidata (ie. a tool that can add descriptions to various items in predefined languages) is also available, see Weapon of Mass Description.