Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos 2023

FAQ

Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos 2023 is the fourth edition of an annual campaign where Wikipedia editors across the world, Wikipedia language projects and communities add photos to Wikipedia articles lacking photos. This is to promote the use of digital media files collected from various Wikimedia photography contests as well as photowalks organized by the Wikimedia community. Photographs help to grasp the reader's attention better than a wall of text, enrich and illustrate content, and make the article more instructive and engaging for readers.

Thousands of images have been donated and contributed to Wikimedia Commons via various advocacy programs, photowalks, and contests including international photography contests such as Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Folklore, etc. Yet relatively few of these photos have been used on Wikipedia articles. Today, the Wikimedia Commons hosts millions of photo images but only a tiny portion of these have been used on Wikipedia article pages. This is a huge gap that this project aims at bridging.

How to participate

Before participating, it is important to read and understand all the participation instructions and rules below. Participants who fail to adhere to these may be disqualified.

Check whether you're eligible. Eligibility rules have been revised in the 2023 edition and participants are required to have a User account that's at least a year old.
Find an article that needs a photo. There are many ways to do this. Here are some tips.
Find an appropriate image on Commons. Search for the image using the correct title or category. There are several ways to do this. See this simple media reuse guide. Here are additional tips. Please note that the purpose of an image is to increase readers' understanding of the article's subject matter, usually by directly depicting people, things, activities, and concepts described in the article. The relevant aspect of the image should be clear and central. The images must be significant and relevant in the topic's context, not primarily decorative.
On the article page, find a section where the image is relevant and helps the reader understand the subject. Click Edit and insert the image, and include a brief caption explaining what the image depicts in the article. Use the best quality images available. Poor-quality images—dark or blurry; showing the subject too small, hidden in clutter, or ambiguous; and so on—should not be used unless absolutely necessary. Think carefully about which images best illustrate the subject matter. You MUST provide an edit summary for all your edits, "Preview" and make any necessary changes. Include the hashtag #WPWP in the edit summary of all articles improved with images. Then click on "Publish changes". Please see: Guide on how to use WPWP Campaign Hashtags
Please be mindful of the image syntax! If you are going to add images to the infoboxes in articles, the syntax is a lot easier — just the filename, so rather than [[File:Obamas at church on Inauguration Day 2013.jpg|thumb|The Obamas worship at [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]] in Washington, D.C., January 2013]] simply type The Obamas at church on Inauguration Day 2013.jpg.

Syntax of file names and captions

Basic example (producing the image at right):
[[File:Cute boy face with butterfly.jpg|thumb|alt=Children are interested in nature.|A boy closely observing a butterfly]]

File:Cute boy face with butterfly.jpg The file (image) name must be exact (including capitalization, punctuation and spacing) and must include .jpg, .png or other extension. (Image: and File: work the same.) If Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons both have an image with the specified name, the Wikipedia version is the one that will appear in the article.
thumb is required in most cases
alt=Children are interested in nature. Alt text is meant for those who cannot see the image; unlike the caption, it summarizes the image's visual information. It should comport with accessibility guidelines and should name notable events, people and things.
A boy closely observing a butterfly is a caption and it comes last. It gives more information on what the image is about.

See Extended image syntax on English Wikipedia for further features and options. If the image does not display after you have carefully checked the syntax, it may have been disallowed.

Campaign rules

Images must be used between July 1 to August 31, 2023.	There is no limit to the number of files one can use. There are, however, different categories of prizes. However, do not deface Wikipedia articles with photos. Only add a photo to an article that has no photo.	The image must be published under a free use license or as public domain.
Participation is only allowed for registered users. Registration can be on any Wikimedia project. Additional requirement applies to English Wikipedia only, where participants are required to have had an account for at least a year to be eligible.	Poor or very low-quality photos are generally not acceptable. The image caption and description must be clear and be suitable for the article. All image additions must include a caption that describes what the image is of. Images should be placed where relevant in the article. Do not add photos to articles in a language you do not speak fluently. Users who repeatedly add captionless images, irrelevant images, etc. may be disqualified.	Participants must include the hashtag #WPWP in the Edit summary of all articles improved with images in addition to a descriptive edit summary, for example "Improving with an image to infobox" #WPWP. Do not insert the hashtag (#WPWP) into an article. Please see: Guide on how to use WPWP Campaign Hashtags. This Guide also explains how to use a Community-specific hashtag.