Editors often upload bad photos, even if better alternatives exist in the public domain or are fair use.
But the thing that grates me more than anything is Wikipedia uses elderly photos of famous figures that were at the peak of their careers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. The appearance of these public figures changes, and sometimes the changes are so dramatic that I have to question if these are the same person.
Wikipedia should have multiple photos in the top info box, but if not, they should focus on photos of subjects when they were in their peak of public activity.
There are far worse examples, and a lot of them. I'm having trouble finding them on the spot, though.
Edit: Another super weird case of this is articles on famous child actors that didn't go on to act later in life, but their photo is of them in their 40's or substantially after their heyday. There's so much of that. They're easy examples to find:
Wiki has a guideline to use recent photos for living figures, and will use more hey-day pictures after the person passes. Compare the pictures for William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. I think this is a good balance - it acknowledges people change, and sets your expectations should you see the person on the news or something, and then later they're reflected as they were best known.
Note that most of your good examples are deceased and most of your bad ones are living.
I learned this when Elizabeth II passed, and her photo was updated very quickly to a much older portrait.
They're still alive (most of them anyway)! Imagine looking up your own Wikipedia page and they've got a photo of you from 40 years ago. That'd be rude! It's like pretending they're already dead just because they're not in the spotlight anymore.
In addition, for all the child actors except Lloyd, we don't have any free photos of them as children (and that childhood photo of Lloyd isn't very good – the one in the article is the only one we have).
Do you have unencumbered photos for those? The last time I added a portrait photo I had to ensure license was good and I needed a model release as well. If you provide the unencumbered photos, I will attempt to contact them or their publicists for a model release if required. It will likely take months for me, though, since this isn't a top priority.
But if you get me the photos, I'll take care of the rest. We can't make it the infobox because they're still living, but we can add the photo to show what they were like at the time, which is notable since that's what they're famous as.
Editors often upload bad photos, even if better alternatives exist in the public domain or are fair use.
But the thing that grates me more than anything is Wikipedia uses elderly photos of famous figures that were at the peak of their careers in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. The appearance of these public figures changes, and sometimes the changes are so dramatic that I have to question if these are the same person.
Wikipedia should have multiple photos in the top info box, but if not, they should focus on photos of subjects when they were in their peak of public activity.
Good:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Moore
Bad:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Ramis
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Murray
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Fisher
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Simmons
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Turner
There are far worse examples, and a lot of them. I'm having trouble finding them on the spot, though.
Edit: Another super weird case of this is articles on famous child actors that didn't go on to act later in life, but their photo is of them in their 40's or substantially after their heyday. There's so much of that. They're easy examples to find:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Thomas
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Lloyd
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Mazzello
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Schwartz
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary-Kate_and_Ashley_Olsen