Forum:Article Images

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Eternal Nothingness XIII - Ven, Aqua... I'll find some way to make things right. TALK - This light... it's so warm. — 18:58, May 9, 2010 (UTC) Going around various articles, I'm seeing some use screenshots as images, and others use renders. Some have none at all, as they were either removed for whatever reason, or none exist. Some pages are completely over-crowded with images, as well. Thus, I'm going to try my best and come up with a policy for all this. Let's see if I can't make people agree with me, shall we? Policy for Renders The renders, when used to brighten up a page, severely damage article formatting, as seen here. They do not illustrate events half as well as screenshots do, and should be placed in the article's gallery next to any artwork, or in an infobox. Policy for Artwork Again, character artwork is only promotional, so it should be placed in the gallery next to any renders or, if no render exists and the artwork is full-body, in an infobox, as the MoS states. THIS IS ONLY FOR A LAST RESORT!!!! Screenshots of the character's head and shoulders should be attempted to be captured in-game first. Policy for Screenshots Screenshots illustrate the events a story section is trying to express very well. They fit nicely with article formatting, and are just a pleasure to look at. Plus, they brighten up a page when no images exist on an article. But they can easily be abused, too, and it is when too many are placed that formatting is messed up. Thus, I'd like to suggest maybe allowing for one to three screenshots per section, and maybe one to two when using screenshots in a story section to illustrate a character's appearances in multiple games. Screenshots should be placed in a left-right alternating format, as grouping all images to one side looks terrible and just makes things less interesting. An article that currently demonstates this well can be found here. Screenshots should not be placed in a gallery unless there literally is no other place for them. They should be used to enhance a story section or other sizeable section, and nothing else. Policy for Screenshot Captions If screenshots are to be used for story sections and the like, then they need to be placed as thumbnails, again in left-to-right format (unless it ruins formatting, then the pattern can change a bit), and thus they need captions to describe them. These captions should accurately describe what the screenshot contains with some detail, but not enough that it turns into a clone of what is stated in the story section or whatever the screenshot is there for. They can provide a link if needed, but not if it is a double-link. This would apply to a Gallery image, as well. So an example for both wrong and right would be : WRONG Terra at the end of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep ALSO WRONG! Terra submits to the darkness during his final battle with Xehanort after the man tells him he cannot save his friends and sends Vanitas after them. Terra deciding to take revenge on Xehanort, he opens his heart to darkness. RIGHT! Artwork of the Pizza Cut Chakrams from the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Ultimania. Policy for Pages With no Images A page looks absolutely drab and terrible without a picture, and just the one picture in the infobox doesn't count, unless it's for an item and that's the only image we have. A page should have a gallery that sticks to whatever policy we decided on for that, and should have a few screenshots dotting the article where appropriate sticking to whatever policy for those we decide upon. Pages like this simply look too plain and terrible with the images removed or placed in the gallery as our only source of imagery. Remember, we want to illustrate what happens as well, not leave it to someone's imagination. What if they never played the games before, huh? They'd have no clue what was happening. Policy for Image Uploads and Categorization When an image is uploaded, it should be licensed or immediately be put up for deletion, if a license can't be added in manually (Some new users aren't aware of this rule, and some are just too lazy to fix it, and I'm getting a bit tired of this). The image description should describe the file, not contain tom-foolery. If possible, we shouldn't keep this blank, so we can tell what exactly was uploaded and for what purpose (a rule we can possibly apply). Again, no fan-images allowed, as it's been for the past few months. Those will still be deleted and must be hosted on Photobucket if not being used for a talk bubble. Files should be either .gif (Ability articles), .jpg, or .png. Once the image is uploaded, it should be correctly categorized, and by correctly, I mean completely (if you have a picture of Dark Mode, categorize it as a file from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, as it appeared in both). We may further decipher stricter rules to better categorize files later... File names also should match what is being uploaded, as usual. No "355Q35Q580.png", but if there's a picture of Ansem the Wise, something like "Ansem the Wise.png" is acceptable. For a screenshot, the image name should be a brief description such as "Ansem and Ienzo.png." Well, I think that's about it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll post it here, as I tend to think up more things during free time away from the Wiki as the day goes on. We could possibly devise a way to make the image templates more specific, or possibly come up with new ones when a situation arises that we do not currently have a template for. Again, this is just an idea that I've discussed to some other people before, and should be decided upon as a community. Thank you. This marks the longest forum I've ever written, so I feel pretty good right now.

Discussion

KrytenKoro - "It's always best when the other chap is willing to die for his beliefs; you both have the same goal in mind." TALK - My replies: Renders are always preferred over all else. However, they should be unique, and should be contained in the infobox or gallery unless it is necessary for them to be in the article body. Official artwork is acceptable, but should be replaced by renders where possible. Screenshots should only be used for events, and only where the text or the renders cannot express the event. For example, we have an image of Vanitas "revealing" himself. Why? The only information contained in that image and caption is that Vanitas has Sora's head - that can be adequately expressed with the render and text. There is never any reason for a screenshot to be in the gallery - if it isn't necessary to illustrate a scene, it isn't necessary. EDIT: Just because the screenshot depicts an important scene does not mean that the screenshot itself is important. Captions for screenshots don't need to specify the game, because a correct caption should make the placement obvious by working with the text. The caption should not replicate the text, and should only be as detailed as necessary to pin it to the text. We should not use images to brighten up a page. We should use them when necessary. We're not going to get as frustrating as wikipedia, but there's still no reason to have each scene on the page. In general, images as an abstract concept are not necessary, least of all screenshots. Screenshots should basically be the last resort. Just to make it absolutely clear to everyone here, before discussion sets in for real - WE DO NOT OWN THESE IMAGES. WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO THEM. IF THEY ARE NOT 100% NECESSARY FOR AN ARTICLE, WE ARE ESSENTIALLY COMMITTING THEFT. Yes, we are much more relaxed than wikipedia, and can get away with a lot more. That doesn't mean that we should try to push that limit. EDIT: "Discussion" generally includes the first comment. There is no reason why it should be separated.

I've seen the rule about the renders and I've known its existence for a long time. If we need to clear the confusion, then we need to relax the limit. If screens are going to be a last resort, then let us state that screens are going to be a last resort. Cut the excessive hours of talking. If the Manual of Style needs to be reformed where images are concerned, then let's all do it, given the influx of screens from BBS. There are some things even the stars cannot tell me. • TroisNyxÉtienne — 23:07, May 9, 2010 (UTC)