User:Mdennis (WMF)/Create
Welcome to Wikimedia Commons,
a database of 110,505,696 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.
| Picture of the day |
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A big wave breaking in Santa Cruz, California on this date in 2009. +/− [en]
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Wikimedia Commons is a vast library of images, sounds and videos -- currently 110,505,696 files and growing daily. Media hosted here is used on Wikipedia (in every language) and other Wikimedia Foundation projects, but also in school papers, television programs, documentaries, and even books. Most of the content on Commons is free for reuse elsewhere. This is media that can make a difference.
This extensive library is entirely curated by volunteers. Its files are donated by members of the public -- professional and amateur artists, photographers, designers, musicians, actors, etc. -- or located by people with a knack for finding public domain and freely licensed works created by others. Volunteers come together to categorize and describe works in the collection and to help maintain them for dissemination to the world.
You don't need an account to help curate Wikimedia Commons (at least, not most of the time). But you do need one to upload files.
| Media of the day |
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This animated movie by Free Software Foundation Europe tells the story of the famous inventor Zangemann and the girl Ada, a curious tinkerer. Ada begins to experiment with hardware and software, and in the process realises how crucial it is for her and others to control technology. +/− [en]
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At the right hand bottom of this page, you will find a link that you can click on to create an account. You will need to provide a username and password, as well as answer a visual "captcha" test. Users with text, speech, or legacy browsers will be unable to create an account if they cannot view this captcha image. If you are unable to view captchas, you can request for an account to be created for you here.
You won't be able to (easily) change your username once you choose it, so please pay attention to the recommendations you receive about usernames after you click that link.
You may be unable to create an account if it contains certain symbols (particularly the '@' symbol, as well as certain non-Latin characters) or words, or if it is too similar to that of an existing user. In that case, you may need to try a different name.
Once you have registered, you'll be ready to pitch in!
You can upload a file or read more about Commons at the Welcome page or Commons:First steps. If you need help, you can find tutorials and even ask questions by clicking the word Help on the left hand side of the page, under Participate, and following its links. You can reach out to live volunteers through IRC on channel #wikimedia-commons.
However you choose to help, your help is welcome!