Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons, or simply Commons, is a MediaWiki-based media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation that was founded on September 7, 2004 when the idea for the project came from Erik Möller in March 2004.
Wikimedia Commons is a wiki that features galleries of media uploaded by users who registered to the wiki. It also contain pages concerning galleries of any topics.
The stated aim of Wikimedia Commons is to provide a media file repository "that makes available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content to all, and that acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation."
==Quality==
Wikimedia Commons has three group of mechanisms on the site for recognizing high-quality works: "Featured pictures", "Quality images" and "Valued images".
The group "Featured pictures" consists of uploaded works nominated by other community members who vote on whether to accept or reject the nomination. It began in November 2004. "Quality images" began in June 2006, and has a simpler nomination process comparable to "Featured pictures". "Valued images" began on June 1, 2008, with the purpose of recognizing "the most valued illustration of its kind".
===Wikimedia Commons Pictures of the Year===
The Commons Picture of the Year (POTY) is a competition that runs every year since 2006. It aims to identify the best freely licensed images from Commons submissions, including those that during the year have been awarded Featured pictures status. These images are voted to be the best by communities.
==Criticism==
The site has been criticized for hosting large amounts of amateur pornography, often uploaded by exhibitionists who exploit the site for personal gratification which sympathetic administrators granted.
In 2010, speaking of the controversy, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger reported Wikimedia Commons to the FBI for hosting sensitive and pornographic images of children known as "lolicon" and "pedophilia". After this was reported in the media, Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikimedia Foundation which hosts Commons, used his administrator status to delete several images without discussion from the community of Wikimedia Commons. Wales responded to the backlash from the community by voluntarily relinquishing some site privileges, including the ability to delete files.
==Gallery==
WikimediaCommons.png|An overview of the main page.
Commons_GrowthWikimedia.png|A chart showing the growth of Wikimedia Commons between 2005 and 2023.
==See Also==
*Wikimedia Commons in Wikipedia.
==References==