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Latest comment: 8 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
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Latest comment: 6 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
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Latest comment: 5 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
I'm not sure the following comment is NPOV:
"and recently in social media people have started to call the city "the home of spartas" to show the resistance of tigryan for 3000 years against enemy[2]"
this (implicitly) supports a view of Tigray as ethno-centric and against a common Ethiopian identity. This is a very partisan POV, not reflective of all Tigrayans, or other Ethiopians. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.225.80.135 (talk) 10:28, 17 January 2019 (UTC)Reply
A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
Alrighty Then. I trimmed the section heavily. Seems that these had been all uploaded to Wikimedia on the same day (10 November 2020) by a single editor who put a pro-Tigray "war cry" in the description field. None of the images actually has any information about what the image represents. They had been inserted the following day into this article's gallery by this edit. Platonk (talk) 07:55, 12 January 2022 (UTC)Reply
Looks like they're just old buildings in rural Tigray. Highly don't they're from Mekelle at all. I'm pretty sure those photos are not the uploader's own work. I'm also sure they were just added to the article for advocacy. Ue3lman (talk) 21:48, 15 January 2022 (UTC)Reply
Well that's disconcerting. I'm removing the gallery, then. I'll try to figure out how to submit his photos for deletion (never before done it on Wikimedia). Here are links to them, if anyone is curious.
@Ue3lman: I have been working on identifying the photos. This is what I have so far. Further notes can be found within the 4 collapsed sets "Wikimedia commons set #". It's looking more and more like someone just grabbed a bunch of images to upload for advocacy without knowing what they were uploading. And it's doubtful that any of them were the work of whoever uploaded them. The plot thickens. Platonk (talk) 01:52, 19 January 2022 (UTC)Reply
Nice work. Looking at the set I can confidently say those are not the work of the uploader and were uploaded for advocacy. I don't know how easy it would be to delete them since I don't know the guidelines for taking done a non-free photo, and the amount of individual delete templates that would have to be added is a lot. Is there a way to do a mass AFD in a similar way on commons? Ue3lman (talk) 06:44, 19 January 2022 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 2 years ago2 comments1 person in discussion
(Documenting this here because this is where the files were found.)
33 files uploaded as Tigray War propaganda includes: misleading filenames and descriptions; incorrect dates, source, author and copyright information; no metadata, sockpuppetry, advocacy/propaganda for a current war; and inserted into an article most of the images did not apply to.
30, 31, 33 look like more of the Italian WWI photos (soldier in 33; 30 & 31 match landscapes I saw in other 1930s photos) [10]
10, 14, 22, 29 were found posted online in 2018 but uploader says the photo dates are in 2020. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]
9, 15, 16, 19, 20, 23 were found posted online in 2019 but uploader says the photo dates are in 2020. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
32 was found posted online with a datestamp in 2020 earlier than the uploader's 2020 date of photo. [25]
I believe all of the photo dates are completely invented because all have single digit "days" (after the first 7 which are obviously incorrect anyway).
Wrong source:
1-7 each give the same 5 online sources, none of which show these images.
8-33 give source as "own work", many of which are not their own work.
1-7, 25, 27 do not credit Istituto Luce who took these photographs.
Wrong or missing author:
1-7 say "unknown author", but all 7 are from Istituto Luce during WWII.
8-11 say "own work". 8 & 9 might be own work, but 10 & 11 are unlikely to be (per my research).
13-14 say "own work" but they are not their own work.
25 & 27 say "own work" but they are from Istituto Luce during WWII.
22, 23, 26, 29 say "own work" but they are not their own work.
30-33 say "own work" but these are not their own work.
Wrong copyright information:
1-7 say they were published in Ethiopia. Incorrect, they were published in Italy.
8-33 say the uploader is the copyright holder. Incorrect for most of them.
Misleading description:
1-7 say "Tigray protect your artistic heritage for you for your children"
8-11 say "Historic Center Mekelle" and at least 3 of those are not in Mekelle. (1 is unknown)
12-20, 22-23, 25-26, 28 have Tigray War propaganda: "Tegaru protect the TIGRAY your freedom and democracy from Eritrean and Ethiopian dictators from envious thieves and murderers protect the history of your ancestors who built the true history of Ethiopia over the centuries and drive away the who want a new genocide of the Tigrayans and the Tigrayans culture protect the sacrifices of the Tigrayans martyrs"
21-29 say "Historic Center of Woyane" and there is no place called "Woyane"
30-33 say "Historic Center of Tegaru" and there is no place called "Tegaru" (which means Tigrayans, and is a people, not a place).
No metadata:
None of the images have any metadata in them. (Vintage photos, obviously, have no metadata as they would be scans of printed photos or potentially created from negatives from the Italian archives.)
All 4 accounts uploaded these 33 files named using the same filename structure/pattern (Amharic followed by English with repetitive names).
Accounts 2, 3 & 4 uploaded all their files within a 2-day period.
Accounts 1 & 2 uploaded photos of the same building (9, 15, 16, 19 &20). Accounts 1, 3 & 4 uploaded files from the Italian archive. Accounts 2 & 3 uploaded images for Gunda Gunde.
All/every file from accounts 2, 3 & 4 were inserted into Mekelle article with a single editbySPA user Tyrone Martin just 5 hours after the last file was uploaded into Commons.
All files uploaded by account 1 (took 5 days) were inserted into Mekelle article with a single edit by SPA user አቡነ አረጋዊ 7 days after the last upload, were reverted with caution to rename/describe the files, not corrected, and re-inserted them in the identical manner.
Advocacy:
Wikimeda accounts 2, 3 & 4 uploaded their files within 6 days of the start of the Tigray War and the filenames and descriptions show a clear WP:ADVOCACY for one side of the military conflict.
All 33 were only ever put into the Mekelle article, and no others. Mekelle is the capital of Tigray Region. There is currently a war going on in Tigray.
Photo identification:
2 & 5 are Yohannes IV palace from 1930s (in Mekelle)
10 is Shum Agame Sebhat Subagadis Castle at Hadush Adi, Adigrat
24 is a rock-hewn cliff-face monastery, possibly "Monastery Abune Aregawi Num"
25, 30, 31 are probably Mekelle 1930s
25 is somewhere else (not Mekelle), 1930s
These are unknown/unidentified: 8, 11, 12, 17, 18, 21, 24, 28
I recommend that all 33 files be deleted and the 6 involved accounts (4 Commons, 2 Wikipedia) be blocked for sockpuppetry/meatpuppetry and other violations. Platonk (talk) 04:19, 21 January 2022 (UTC)Reply
level-5 vital article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
