Birdopolis:Images and Media Usage

The Images and Media Usage describes preferred image source, content, and usage in articles and other pages. It applies to all images equally, regardless of uploader, format, and subject.

Source
Nearly all images uploaded to the wiki should be taken by the uploader themselves in the Birdopolis game client (in general terms, while playing Birdopolis). A screenshot can be taken by pressing Shift + Prnt Scrn, Prnt Scrn, or Command + Shift + 3 (Mac) while the Birdopolis window is open, then pasting it into an image editor, usually by pressing Ctrl + V or Command + V (Mac) or opening the Edit menu and selecting Paste. Once in the editor an image can be cropped, edited, and saved (preferably as a .png, details below). Other possible sources, and our related policies, are:


 * Fan Art: Fan art that has been displayed on the Nuukster website is not acceptable. Other types of fan art such as personal fan art and fan art created by another author is also not acceptable on the wiki and is subject to deletion. Fan art does not include Birdopolis images that have had transparency or acceptable particle transparency added, slight color enhancements, or added brightness.


 * Fan Sites: Images from other fan sites cannot be uploaded. Most websites ask that the images featured there not be used elsewhere, and it is the wiki's policy to honor that request.


 * Cutscene Images: For cutscenes, only the most important parts should be displayed on the respective article. There should generally be no more than 4 images per cutscene.

Format
This section covers preferred standards which are set or applied after the screenshot is taken, outside of the Birdopolis client. This is usually in an image editor.


 * File Type: The preferred image format is .png (in lowercase letters) because it has no compression artifacts and it supports transparency. Images can be saved in .png by changing "Save as type"(or similar) option at the bottom of the save window in most image editors. Images in .jpg and .gif format are also allowed. If an image is not in .png, .jpg, or .gif format, do not upload it to the wiki.


 * Transparency: All images showing items, objects, scenery or birds should have transparency when practical. This means that the image's background should be deleted and replaced with transparent pixels. If the image editor cannot do this, editors are free to upload images without transparency to which other editors can apply transparency, or they can paint over the background with another color (preferably white) to make adding transparency much easier and faster for other editors.


 * Particle Transparency: Images that have particles or bloom effects may have their particles recreated to support transparency, as long as the recreated particles are not different than the original particles at a glance. Recreated particles must look like the original as much as possible.


 * Player Names: Images with player names must have the names cropped out if that part of the image is not relevant. If it must stay, however, player names are almost never relevant. They should be removed in a way that does not distract from the image or replaced with a dummy name.


 * Cropping: Be sure to crop the image to show only what is needed to serve the image's purpose. Crop away any irrelevant pixels that would distract from the image's original purpose. For example, a player wishing to create an image showing a bird at a bird feeder should avoid including nearby terrain objects that have nothing to do with the subject.


 * Image Size: The maximum allowed image file size for images uploaded to the wiki is 2 megabytes (2MB, 2048KB). Images which exceed this size are usually unnecessarily large and should be scaled down or cropped to a more reasonable size.

Image name
When uploading an image to the wiki, the name should be as descriptive as possible. It is helpful to identify how the subject is being depicted, whether it is an isometric scene image, a bird spotting activity image, a bird mall image, and so on. Names such as "Screenshot-01" or "Untitled 1" are not acceptable. Likewise, including player names in the image title is not allowed.


 * Images of scenery should be called scenery name.png where scenery name is the actual in-game name of the scenery. Example: Young White Oak.png.
 * Images of birds should be called bird name.png where bird name is the actual in-game name of the bird. Example: Red-tailed Hawk.png.
 * Images of goal or chapter rewards should be called goal/chapter name reward.png. Example: A Bird with a Dream reward.png.
 * Images showing the location of something on the game map should be called something name map location.png. Example: Nature Reserve Sign map location.png.
 * Images of unbuilt items should be called item name unbuilt.png. Example: Acme Seed Feeder unbuilt.png, for the feeder placed on the map but not fully built.
 * Images of unbuilt items with multiple unbuilt images should be called item name unbuilt sequence.png where sequence indicates what part of the build cycle the image applies to. Example: Awesome Bird Condos unbuilt initial.png and Awesome Bird Condos unbuilt final.png for a two-sequence item.

If the image is of an item, bird, or goal/quest reward, please try to keep the name consistent with the name of the article for that thing. Also keep things such as capitalization and punctuation consistent not only with the article name, but with the guidelines above. Spaces should be used in file names instead of hyphens or underscores, except when the in-game name uses hyphens or underscores.

An effort should be made by users uploading files to this wiki to see if in fact the item or image has already been uploaded previously, and to preserve existing naming conventions for this item or for similar kinds of images. Attempts to upload a new image under a new file name for something that already exists on this wiki may result in that image being deleted.

Image Descriptions
Image descriptions should be included on the image page. They should be kept short and to-the-point. Please do not give yourself credit in the image description, watermark the image, credit other people, or identify user accounts in the screenshot. Credit is given to you as the uploader of the image in the image history. Also avoid including explanations such as "replacement for another image." The description should link, if possible, to the article of the subject which it depicts.

Use in Articles
All images hosted on the wiki must be used in the main article namespace at least once. Since the wiki is not an image host, no personal-use images are allowed to be uploaded, whether it be for use on a talk page or a signature. You cannot justify a personal image by adding it to the pages of items that appear in your image! If you want a personal image to appear on the wiki, you must use either ImageShack, imgur, or Photobucket, since they are such websites supported by the wiki. (Hosting sites such as Tinypic aren't supported and so will only display an html link.)

Historical Images
Images taken in the game before a significant appearance update should be kept. New screenshots will replace the old at the top of the page and other places of prominence. The old images should be kept, but moved to a history or trivia section on the page.

Glitch Images
A glitch image (file, media, etc) may be uploaded if it meets the following requirements:
 * The image is of original content and does not contain material that may be deemed of duplicate nature to any other media hosted on the wiki.
 * The image augments text describing such glitches in such a way that simply describing the glitch in a purely textual format would not or could not define the contents of the glitch adequately.
 * The image portrays the glitch in a manner such that the contents of the glitch are readily notifiable and/or recognizable.

Animations
Animations are usually only necessary for:
 * Unique and interesting item animations
 * Unique and interesting bird or character animations

Format

 * Animation Length: Make sure that the animation is long enough. They must be long enough to capture the entirety of the subject. Also include about a second of buffer at the end before the animation loops to create smooth-looking loops. Likewise, ensure that the animation only records what is necessary. Be sure to trim excess footage from the beginning and end.
 * No Animated .png Files: Animated .png (.apng) files should not be used. They are currently supported by few browsers, so due to browser compatibility concerns, do not use any.
 * File Size: Animations must have a maximum file size of 1 megabyte (1024kb) or less. When animations are larger than this, they are typically longer than necessary or show more than they need to. Some frames should be removed or the image itself cropped.

Audio
Complete audio files may not be uploaded. Uploading complete files or even linking to those files other than in links to websites that have a legal and bona fide copyright permission from the original copyright holder is illegal. Even for encyclopaedic purposes or for purposes of critical commentary, there are very narrow and defined limits for how much audio may be used or even if the audio files can be used at all. Musical files, jingles, and sound bites must not exceed 30 seconds in length, must be directly related to Birdopolis, and must be uploaded under the "ogg" file extension.

Policy on this particular point is not a settled issue on this wiki, and this should be used as a guideline only. Keep in mind that all items uploaded to this wiki must be either released under the terms of the CC-BY-SA copyright license or compatible with that license. See Birdopolis:Copyrights for more information.

Video
Streaming videos (such as YouTube) should not be embedded in articles. If a video adds significantly to an article, link to it instead of embedding it. However, there must be consensus to do so.

Any disputes about any media meeting the criteria above should be discussed on its talk page and tagged with the relevant templates.