Wikimedia Bugzilla is closed!

On wikipedia people are starting to upload .ogg files to demonstrate pronunciation (e.g., at 
[[Nikita Khrushchev]]), using [[:Template:Audio]].  

The accessibility of this interface for audio is very poor, especially for novice users on stock 
Windows or Mac systems (see [[Template talk:Audio#Overloaded interface]]).

Some specific problems:
* Image: namespace's name is confusing when used for audio media.
* Directly linking to audio media file needlessly adds the external link icon.  Clicking on it won't 
play it in some browsers.
* Linking to description page is not much better.  There's no good interface to play audio files 
and no standard user help.
* Most default systems don't have software to play .ogg files, so a warning or help should be 
shown to users *before* they click.
* Some linked audio files will never play in some browsers, unless embedded with <object> or 
<embed> tag (e.g., .ogg in Safari, even with ogg QuickTime plugin installed it just downloads 
the file).

Proposed interface:
* Audio: or Sound: namespace.
* Includes standard audio help on the description page.
* Embeds the sound right on the description page, using <object> or <embed> tag.
* Lets a logged-in user choose the preferred plug-in to request (QuickTime, Real, WinMedia).
* Lets a logged-in user choose to autoplay sounds on their description page.

See also bug 44: "Why is image: used for all files?"