MediaWiki talk:Images

Trolls aside, this is presently the most linked page that doesn't exist. We really ought to brainstorm on what the image quality policy is going to be.

I think some good guidelines would be:

• Absolutely no photographs of television screens.
• Avoid website watermarks whenever possible.
• Television network watermarks are acceptable, but things like "NEXT ON CARTOON NETWORK!" certainly aren't.

What do you folks think? Good start?--Rosicrucian^Talk 00:01, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I think Transformers Wiki:Images would a better name, including quality guidelines and other stuff, like a policy on officialness and it being found in Transformers media. —Interrobang 00:41, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I had a thing I wrote when I was trying to get permission from Remy to use one of his pics. Not about image quality so much as image conduct- but the one proceeds naturally from the other in a sort of Confucian Ideal. Might be useful as a starting point. (This is conversational not formal.)

*rubs head, ruminating* Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki has a complicated, largely unwritten, code about the images it uses that's more often moralistic than legalistic. Hasbro stock photos are preferred, then images we take ourselves and release to the public domain, and failing that some external sources. There's more than 6000 images on the wiki. We try to avoid sources where toy images are a large portion of the site content (as in your case) because it's... not very fair. (This often means Seibertron's too-dark toy galleries, which are but a tiny puddle in their vast sea of content.)

-Derik 00:28, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Work in progress

Just started this page. Many sections are obviously still empty. I'll work on it some more in the evening, but if you want to add to it or correct any mistakes I may have made, feel free.--Rosicrucian^Talk 15:41, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Got to the empty sections sooner than I thought I would. Alright folks, is there anything I'm missing here? Will this page serve as a good set of guidelines?--Rosicrucian^Talk 19:15, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

The 'leaked information' statement sits very, very strangely in this paragraph. I assume it refers to leaked pictures-- but then it should really say so. Is there a page articulating our 'no leaked info' policy? Because there's a lot of confusion about that among newbies and I think it could stand being written down. (I'm not entirely convinced that listings showing up in computers constitutes 'leaked' information, and I'd like see a more thorough explanation why.) -On Vacation in Kona—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 204.210.96.25 (talk • contribs) 13:31, 25 March 2008.

Well, that's what I'm trying to do here. So much of our policy seems to be unwritten and it does confuse the hell out of new editors when it gets enforced. We'd been meaning to do an image policy page for quite some time but it never seemed to get past early brainstorming.

So I tried to put down as much of it as I could remember seeing in practice.--Rosicrucian^Talk 14:09, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

I would think store listings would be fine, so long as they're confirmed and from a believable source. We don't want to throw every single rumor the moment it's made onto our pages. --ItsWalky 14:32, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Well then, here's where I learn something, and why I think it's good that we put some of this stuff down in text. Once again if what I've put down is wrong or somehow incomplete, feel free to correct me. I've purposefully avoided putting the official policy template on this page until I can hear from the other editors.--Rosicrucian^Talk 14:35, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

I wasn't sure myself- I can totally see the argument against including store computer listings-- they're often canceled or have name changes. If computer listings are allowed they should probably be flagged as 'tentative' until there's a more definite source for the release details. -On Vacation in Kona—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 204.210.96.25 (talk • contribs) 01:52, 26 March 2008 (UTC).

Oh I'll freely admit that I've been on a bit of a hair trigger lately with some of the repeated additions we've had to revert. Many of those are finally being sourced to official announcements so I can breathe a little bit easier.

So are there any objections to the guidelines I've set down here? Anything that needs reworded or added in? I'm hoping we can agree on something here so we can finally say we've got an Image Guidelines page.--Rosicrucian^Talk 21:56, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

I'd add in the need to state what the hell is happening in the scene as part of the description for comic scans and cartoon screencaps. We get way too many images that are uploaded for one narrow, specific purpose, and not described beyond the limits of that purpose. A screencap described as "Bumblebee from Animated" is not enough -- we need to know what he's doing, where he's doing it, who he's doing it to, and what episode he's doing it in. -- Repowers 00:29, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I would rather we not use the {{art}} template. I've been using this, as created by our very own Jackpot who reminded us of our disservice in neglecting to properly credit (if we even bothered to credit them at all) inkers, colourists and letterers when we upload comic panels.

• Pencils:
• Inks:
• Colors:
• Letters:

It's clear, it's concise and it's easy to do. --FFN 00:08, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I went with what templates I could find. Maybe we ought to just tweak {{art}} to match that format, no?--Rosicrucian^Talk 00:29, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah we could. But I don't know how. --FFN 02:24, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I've futzed with templates before, so I gave it a try. It should work exactly like that, now.--Rosicrucian^Talk 03:32, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Alright, Repowers' concerns are now included as well. Any other things we need to include or revise?--Rosicrucian^Talk 18:30, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

And many thanks to JW for reorganizing the templates to the point that I could find the ones I'd missed.--Rosicrucian^Talk 15:18, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

De nada, R. JW 15:26, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm certainly up for giving credit where it's due. Frankly, I avoid the problem by having almost zero resources for images to upload.--Apcog 20:40, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Noobie questions

• Is there any way of finding a list of Wanted images? The Wanted section doesn't seem to have this facility. Arguably contributors may find it easier to contribute images (with these rules applied) rather than articles. In my newb experience, edits are much more likely to be undone than images deleted. Some may find the editorial sance daunting and stay away, but could be convinced to contribute in a way that would be much less censored. Well, I know I could. Drmick 10:46, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Go to Articles in need of images.--Rosicrucian^Talk 10:59, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

• What about pictures of the BotCon exclusives? What is the legal situation of those? A lot don't have Official images online anymore, but there are certainly pics of them all over the web. Drmick 11:38, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

As stated in the image policy, it is acceptable to have fan created images, as long as they're nice, clear, and you are absolutely sure you own the copyright or have permission from the original taker of the photograph. The source of the photograph will need to be identified, as well as making clear what permissions are granted. It's all laid out in the policy. See the toy images for Thunderwing for a good example. We had crappy ones for a long time, but Walky got the toy recently and he has a lighting kit so he took new ones.--Rosicrucian^Talk 12:16, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

• OK so if I've got this right, where, for example Downshift (G1), an article is missing a toy image and has the 'needs image' flag, I could photograph my toy and upload the image, provided the image meets the other criteria for quality, filesisze, etc. Anacrucis 09:32, 6 August 2010 (EDT)

Yep. Also, make sure that you do not use a figure that has been modified in any way, that it has all of its accessories, and that you transform it properly. --Khajidha 09:36, 6 August 2010 (EDT)

Yeh, unfortunately the accessories may be a problem. Then again, it took less work to dig the guy up than it did my AWOL eyeglasses, so who knows what will turn up. They must be around somewhere as I'm sure I saved them. Sadly his outer plastic is somewhat yellowed, but that may be correctable with photo editing. Anacrucis 10:56, 6 August 2010 (EDT)

Filesize standards

I think we should edit our filesize section to include a general limit range. I think a soft limit of 150KB (the recommended max filesize for the Wiki software, gives you a warning if you go over it) is more than enough for the overwhelming majority of images used on the wiki. We will let people go over the limit if 150KB adversely impacts the image quality or makes it too dang small. Opinions? --FFN 10:21, 20 May 2009 (EDT)

Yeah thanks, jerkwads. I guess I'll take care of this myself, since I seem to run around telling people off for doing the wrong things with images. --FFN 06:07, 2 June 2009 (EDT)

...I always thought the 150KB limit was the limit. After all, with Irfanview's resizing/compression algorithims, it's usually pretty easy to get an image that's a good balance between size and quality. --Jeysie 09:38, 2 June 2009 (EDT)

Toy images from other fansites

I've seen some toy pics from seibertron.com on this wiki. Do we need permission to upload their pics(and thus those from other fansites)? Cos the only one I remember that specified permission or lack thereof was the super buggy picture on Ultra Magnus (G1)/toys.Item42 15:22, 12 February 2010 (EST)