Why this matters
Tarsier does not copy image files itself. When you click Upload to Wikimedia Commons,
it opens the Commons upload form pre-filled with a link to the image at its original host (for example
inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com or bs.plantnet.org). Commons then fetches
the file directly from that host — a feature called upload-by-URL (or copy upload).
For security and licensing reasons, Commons only allows upload-by-URL from a curated allow-list of source domains. If an image’s host is not on that list, the upload fails with a “not in the allowed list of upload domains” error — even when the license is perfectly fine. This is the single most common reason a Tarsier upload does not go through. Many GBIF image hosts (such as Pl@ntNet) are not currently on the list, so this check is worth doing.
Check a source domain
Propose
The list lives on-wiki at MediaWiki:Copyupload-allowed-domains and is edited by Commons administrators. To get a domain added, post a request on its talk page; an admin reviews it and edits the list. Use the button below to open a pre-titled request, then paste the text:
Before requesting, make sure the host reliably serves freely-licensed media (CC0, CC-BY, or CC-BY-SA). Admins will check this.
How a domain gets approved
- Confirm the host reliably serves freely-licensed media (CC0, CC-BY, or CC-BY-SA) and is a stable, trusted source.
- Post an Allowlist request on MediaWiki talk:Copyupload-allowed-domains, naming the domain and the licensing evidence (the button above does this for you).
- A Commons administrator reviews the request and, if it checks out, adds the domain to the list. The change takes effect immediately — no deployment needed.
- For anything that needs server config rather than the on-wiki list, a
Phabricator task (tag:
Commons) is the fallback.
If a domain is not approved (yet)
You can still add the image to Commons — just not via Tarsier’s one-click URL upload:
- Download the file from the source, verify its license, then upload it manually at Special:Upload or the Upload Wizard.
- Or propose the domain (above) so future uploads work directly.