The purpose of this page is to discuss Wikipedia:File names. If your post is about a specific problem you have, please ask for help at the Wikipedia:Help desk.

Quite accidentally I noted unintended "revert wars" on "Image:Logo.gif". People upload a logo without checking what's already there. I uploaded this, instead:

and notified a couple of users that used the image, even re-named one user's image on his behalf. I also checked "Image:Logo.jpg" and "Image:Logo.png", and did the same. No links should have been left hanging, except for one user's user pages, and I've informed him/her on the talk page.

It goes without saying that images with generic names must be protected for this scheme to work. Please check here to see if the above image has been changed since I originally posted this.

Would this procedure be a good idea for other generic image file names (suh as Photo.jpg", "Image.gif" etc.)? --Janke | Talk 03:04:37, 2005-08-31 (UTC)

• That or protecting the original image at the location, but it does seem like a problem that can be easily avoided. Christopher Parham (talk) 04:37, 2005 August 31 (UTC)

"...can be easily avoided" - How? Please explain, thanks. --Janke | Talk 06:18:25, 2005-08-31 (UTC)

By doing what you just suggested, obviously. Christopher Parham (talk) 17:10, 2005 August 31 (UTC)

D'oh! ;-) I thought you had some other idea... --Janke | Talk 17:22:53, 2005-08-31 (UTC)

• Excellent idea. Radiant_>|< 09:55, August 31, 2005 (UTC)
• Looks like a good idea. It's a very vague name. Something should be done. Optichan 12:58, August 31, 2005 (UTC)
• Good idea. Is there any way of having that image (or the same thing as text) pop up whenever somebody tries to upload an image by that name? - ulayiti (talk) 16:52, 31 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Probably not without some code writing. You already get a warning if you try to load a file with a name that already exists. My proposal would have the simplicity of just protecting files with generic names, with the above image. Then the uploader has to think of another name. If that, too, is already in use, well... then it is no longer so simple. --Janke | Talk 17:28:17, 2005-08-31 (UTC)

• Excellent idea. I'm all for it. Thryduulf 21:32, 31 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
• Sounds good to me. Another possibility, since it seems to me that keeping a list of common filenames would be a pain, would be, if an image someone's trying to upload has the same filename as an existing one, to simply throw a warning and show a thumbnail of the old image, and ask the user to rename their image. -- Avocado 01:25, September 6, 2005 (UTC)
• Good idea, but it requires programming. For now, protecting the "don't use this name" image seemed like an excellent idea, so I did so. Noel (talk) 02:06, 6 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for taking action! That will surely prevent some surprises... I didn't check if you protected more than one, but here are a few I can think of, that would all need to be protected (with that image above), for the very same reason:

1. Image:logo.png / Image:logo.jpg (I already uploaded the image to these)
2. Image:photo.jpg / Image:photo.gif / Image:photo.png
3. Image:image.jpg / Image:image.gif / Image:image.png
4. Image:img.jpg / Image:img.gif / Image:img.png

... and probably quite a few more. --Janke | Talk 05:59:40, 2005-09-06 (UTC)

I protected the first two; if you upload this to the others, and fix the links, etc, and drop me a line I will protect them. Noel (talk) 19:20, 6 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

OK, you can protect them now. I uploaded the warning image to all the above (and moved & renamed one user's self-portrait, notified him), except "Image.gif" which resides on Commons. The image there is not used anywhere, but I'll let somebody else fix the Commons image (I've not logged in there - yet.) --Janke | Talk 06:26:39, 2005-09-07 (UTC)

OK, all done here. You'll have to get someone else to do the commons one, I'm not an admin there. Noel (talk) 15:55, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I have no experience with Commons. Will leave that to somebody else. --Janke | Talk 07:32:21, 2005-09-08 (UTC)

I listed Image:Image.gif for deletion on Commons. It will take a while to process. Andrew pmk | Talk 19:46, 10 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Surely if you simply upoad your file to Image:image.gif it will over-ride the version available at Commons? HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 15:37, September 8, 2005 (UTC)

Nope. Tried it. If it's on Commons, you can't use the same name on Wikipedia. --Janke | Talk 18:41:27, 2005-09-08 (UTC)

Oh, and while I think of it: did anybody check whether any of those older versions might actually be usable under a better name? —Phil | Talk 15:39, September 8, 2005 (UTC)

They were personal stuff, I either renamed/fixed links or notified uploaders of all files that were actually used. None was in use in the main namespace. --Janke | Talk 18:41:27, 2005-09-08 (UTC)

I found this thing: Image:picture.jpg

Uploading "please don't" image now. Ashibaka (tock) 03:10, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Oh yes, all three: Image:Picture.jpg / Image:Picture.gif / Image:Picture.png How could I forget those? I'll ask Noel to protect them. --Janke | Talk 04:18:50, 2005-09-09 (UTC)

Great idea! Perhaps it's worth doing on Image:untitled.jpg, Image:untitled.gif and Image:untitled.png as well? the wub "?/!" 15:47, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Now we need an admin to protect them... --Janke | Talk 19:31:43, 2005-09-09 (UTC)

Image:Untitled.jpg is basketball.. Secretlondon 22:53, 27 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Uploaded four days ago (also a copyrighted image, no source given...) I thought that file name was already protected? --Janke | Talk 06:49, 28 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently not. I've asked the user who uploaded it to use a different name (and also to provide copyright info). I then uploaded the "don't use this" image, and protected it. Noel (talk) 02:41, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

OK this is really confusing. I didn't upload it, merely reverted what was obvious vandalism. Even though it was my suggestion, I figured it would be best to wait for an admin to finish the move and protect properly. User:Basketballer0789 who uploaded the original image didn't provide copyright info and doesn't seem to be around, so unless anyone can find the copyright status might be best to let this one go. the wub "?!" 11:56, 6 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Some people over at commons seems a little peeved that this new forbidden filename "policy" just materialised there out of "thin air". Remember commons is more than just a image repository for this Wikipedia, they are a separate entity with their own procedures and guidelines etc. Also when replacing images on commons keep in mind that just because an image is not used in the English Wikipedia it doesn't automatically mean it's also unused in all the other Wikimedia projects or other language Wikipedias out there. --Sherool 01:44, 17 September 2005 (UTC) (Spelling later corrected)[reply]

• Image:Cover.jpg is another "contested" file name.

Secretlondon 22:23, 27 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• Image:Photo1.jpg has previously existed.
• Image:Flag.jpg (Turkmenistan apparently)
• Image:Flag.png (was Palmeiras soccer team)
• Image:Flower.jpg

Secretlondon

Cover.jpg had been deleted, so I uploaded the "don't use this" image, and protected it. I did Photo1.jpg too. Noel (talk) 02:41, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

This centralized discussion has been ongoing since August 31. I suggest it's time to summarize the conclusions and wrap it up. Perhaps this should be moved to a Wikipedia policy page, as the conclusions agreed to above seem appropriate for such treatment. Cheers!  BD2412 ^talk 05:38, 15 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• Hearing no comment either way, I'm moving this to closed discussions on the Wikipedia:Centralized discussion template. Cheers! BD2412 T 01:39, 7 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I created the subcategory Category:Wikipedia image placeholders for image namespace to help manage pages using their own uploaded version of Image:Logo.gif. GregManninLB (talk) 15:56, 11 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Saw your editrequests and found this page. Seems like a good categorisation. So I am adding that category to those image pages.

--David Göthberg (talk) 19:52, 11 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Admins, you can simply protect the titles without uploading anything just like you can non-existent articles. The only reason the placeholder thing was done on Commons (starting a couple years ago) was because this form of salting wasn't possible then. Voxii (talk) 18:05, 22 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Following some comments on my talk page, I feel here would be an appropriate place to ask if it's time to create a set of objective guidelines on what names to use for specific types of images, such as album covers, book cover and film posters.

Recently in trying to clear a backlog, I've made some IFR requests which where an attempt to define a naming convention in relation album covers, based on what had been generally encountered with existing uploads.

A set of explicit/objective naming guidelines would remove the current ambiguities and assist contributors. It should be noted that naming policies for images exist within MANY other academic indexing/archiving systems.

However, Wikipedia is not Bureaucracy... Sfan00 IMG (talk) 18:27, 7 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not a fan of this proposal, although I'm not a big participant in Filespace on enWP. Basically, all the filename has to do is be descriptive enough to help the average user identify the thing in question. If we were to come up with some kind of explicit, objective naming guideline, you'd have a massive backlog of files to move over to use this. And for what? Would it make files easier to find? Probably not. Would it make them easier to use? No. Would it make them easier to manage? Maybe. But at what cost? At the cost of moving tens or hundreds of thousands of filenames and making the uploading process more bureaucratic. If files have particularly bad file names, stick up a rename request. If there's a huge backlog, nominate yourself to be a File Mover. —Tom Morris (talk) 18:43, 7 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Tom. While we might benefit slightly in some ways from having systematic filenames, your proposal would result in tons of work and tons more cost than benefit. Moreover, requiring systematic filenames could be confusing. When I was a new admin three years ago, I was deleting images under F8 and came across one that was somehow automatically transcluded into an infobox: the code assumed that the image would have a certain name, so the fact that it had a different name on Commons meant that I couldn't orphan the local image. Of course, most of the images you mention are nonfree, but we're going to get the occasional exception, such as e.g. pre-1923 books or film posters. Finally, I don't see the significant benefit from having systematic names: unlike articles, people don't know about the images beforehand, so they don't have any preconceived ideas what the filenames will be; as a result, they're not going to go looking for images by name as they would for articles. What's more, the bureaucratic nature of this proposal is troubling to me as well: even if we moved all our present images, we'd either end up having lots of later images uploaded against the conventions, or we'd have lots of frustrated newbies. Nyttend (talk) 21:15, 7 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Per above, it just seems like a bit of a hassle—we'll have to standardize all future files uploaded by new users/those unfamiliar with the naming conventions and such, and while we do this for articles, files don't really need naming conventions. I think it would be nice to have standardized file names, but I just don't think it's worth the effort at this point. As long as the name is descriptive, then it's good enough. /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 22:30, 8 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm also a fan of this proposal. Maybe we should create at least a proposal that states if a song is multiple times recorded (doesn't matter if by the same artist), it should be named in a clear way. For example:

• Artist - Title (year).fileextension, or
• Artist - Title (original/rerecorded).fileextension

Just my 2 cents mabdul 20:00, 9 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think it's worth generally standardising filenames - too much cost for the benefit. For anybody who disagrees, the most plausible to get it off the ground might to be to attach it to an existing topic-specific naming convention, where benefits might be higher or more clearly identified (eg, for Mabdul's example, Wikipedia:Naming conventions (music)). Obviously even this would need substantial discussion via WP:RFC. Rd232 ^talk 22:25, 9 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As I said , we need at least a proposal for duplicated albums. For example I came a few days across File:Steve Hackett - Time Lapse (1994).jpg and File:Steve Hackett - Time Lapse (1999).jpg. Both files had a variant of timelapse.jpg or so with no ability to differentiate. Another example was (now renamed to) File:Anthony Phillips Band - Invisible Men (UK).jpg and File:Anthony Phillips Band - Invisible Men.jpg. mabdul 08:20, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think both sides are going about this wrong. You don't need to have requirements that are retroactive, or that even require renaming when there is no confusion. All you need is a guideline on how to name images going forward. A simple request to include the year in the filename when uploading album art due to possible ambiguity would cover a lot. The rest could be handled by encouraging people to look at the filenames on the article page, and to choose a distinct name.

No extra work would be required by anyone. — trlkly 12:16, 16 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ali pur is the City of Punjab province and is located between two main cities Bahawal Pur and Multan and is the district of Muzaffar Garh. Muzaffar garh is a District and have four tehsil's and ALi pur is the part of this Tehsil. in this ali pur people has more educated and businessman but most of the people doing work their agriculture crops and interest in agriculture in which 40% people's are Poor,30% educated with unemployment and remaining people are neutral not more rich not more poor. here the people are most hard worker's. but Government not give their proper right.

Regard! Abdul Rafiq from ali pur Muzaffar Garh punjab Pakistan. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rafiqbhutta49 (talk • contribs) 11:31, 4 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It appears that you are looking to create an article about the subject. See the instructions at WP:AFC on how to submit an article. mabdul 11:53, 4 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am proposing that this page be moved from Wikipedia:Image file names to Wikipedia:File names. Image file names simply isn't as accurate, since the policy also applies to sound (.ogg) and presentation (.pdf) files, not just images. The current name is also pretty awkward. Thoughts? Sven Manguard Wha? 14:51, 6 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

• Support. mabdul 15:39, 6 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]