Tagzania: a game that uploads free content to Wikipedia
Tagzania uses Wikimedia Commons to illustrate places that users need to pinpoint in the map. But since launch, during these last months, a functionality has been working that permitted players to upload their own places/photos, so they entered the game.
After some months piling up those uploads, we have developed a bot (with due permissions in Wikimedia Commons) that shares that Creative Commons BY-SA content with Wikipedia. So far, 4,000 pictures that will keep adding up from now on, thanks to the 10,000 daily users of the app.
As 4 pictures are required in the app for each place proposal, so far those 4k pictures are from 500 places in the Basque Country, and roughly other 500 in the "rest of the world", uploaded by about 300 players. most of them not Wikipedia contributors until now. All uploads are human-checked with no AI, and if deemed OK for Wikipemedia Commons, a category is asigned and a public page created as this URL from a proposal from Alsace. Another example: the Bullring in Tudela (Navarre), a place which had no photos in Wikipedia until this week's Tagzania's contribution.
The "World" as seen by Basque users is one geographically close to the Basque Country, as Tagzania is a game that is in the Basque language. We would like to expand that soon, as we expect i18n to be the next step, develop Tagzania España, Tagzania USA, Tagzania Cymru... who knows.
We took a step towards i18n last week presenting Tagzania at the Wikimania Paris 2026 (the panel with the slides here), Wikipedias annual conference. We have been assisted in this Tagzania-Commons sharing developent by the Basque Wikimedians User Group.
Links:
- Tagzania.com to download.
- Our uploads to Commons / Wikipedia.
- Tagzania social: Mastodon - X/Twitter
