Telescope Reviews: Image Submission Guidelines

Guidelines for Photo Attachments, Inline Images, Clickable Images, and Image Links

Please note - the following applies only to the forum you are currently reading! Other forums may be moderated by different individuals, and as such may have different guidelines. Therefore, you are hereby strongly advised to carefully read and diligently follow the guidelines for photo attachments in every forum you care to submit photos to.

Here follow the guidelines for this forum.

In an effort to provide an attractive and widely appealing forum, maintain easy usability and to foster the submission of quality images, the following guidelines will be enforced:

1. Images directly viewable by forum users should be of a file size that is no larger than 100,000 bytes. All "Photo Attachments" that exceed this limit will be downsized by the moderators and/or administrators as soon as they are discovered. Any user displaying "inline images" or "clickable images" that exceed this limit will be sent a private message by the moderators and/or administrators instructing the user to immediately downsize the "inline" or "clickable" image. If the image has not been downsized within 12 hours of such notice, the moderators and/or administrators will, at their discretion, resolve the issue by whatever means available to them, up to and including removing the image from the forum message.

This 100K filesize limit isn't something to be treated like speed limit signs on the freeway - which often mean "Drive at this speed or better!" to most folks. The 100K limit is meant to give imagers who really need to avoid problems with things like artifacting in their images some extra headroom so that they can fit an image in without sacrificing too much quality. The objective here is to make the image as compact as you can while sacrificing as little quality as possible. That means that in practice, most images should still end up in the neighborhood of up to 60, 70, or 80K, but you'd definitely be allowed to go all the way to the 100K limit if it's needed. If you simply cannot get the image down to the 100K limit without artifacting, we suggest that you submit the image as an "Image Link" or "Clickable Image".

2. Images directly viewable by forum users should be of a pixel width that is no wider than 800 pixels. All "Photo Attachments" that exceed this limit will be downsized by the moderators and/or administrators as soon as they are discovered. Any user displaying "inline images" or "clickable images" that exceed this limit will be sent a private message by the moderators and/or administrators instructing the user to immediately downsize the "inline" or "clickable" image. If the image has not been downsized within 12 hours of such notice, the moderators and/or administrators will, at their discretion, address the usability issue by whatever means available to them, up to and including removing the image from the forum message.

Again, this limit is not to be seen as "the size to shoot for". Rather, it is in place to maintain easy readability and usability of the forum. Images that are wider than the displayable width of the screen force users to have to use the scroll bars on their browsers in order to read the text content of the message, and also to access the message controls. Anyone who has experienced this knows that it presents quite a nasty usability issue. If your image simply deserves to be seen at it's full width and resolution, we suggest that you submit the image as an "Image Link" or "Clickable Image".

In deciding on the width limit, it was assumed that very few users use display widths smaller than 800 pixels wide, and that most use widths of at least 1024 pixels wide. 800 pixel wide (max) images should therefore provide a pleasing image size that does not interfere with the usability of the forum.

At this time we will not apply a similar restriction to pixel height. However, we reserve the right to apply such a limit to individual images, should such an image be deemed by the moderators and/or administrators to cause a usability problem for forum users.

3. Any image file that is deemed to be of an objectionable nature by the moderators and/or administrators of this system will be immediately and permanently removed from the system. This applies to all images that can be displayed on this forum or linked to from this forum!

This should not be viewed as censorship. There is some place on the Internet for pretty much anything you would care to show to the public. Rather, this guideline is intended to maintain an atmosphere on this system that appeals to the widest audience possible. Images that would clearly impact the maintenance of such an atmosphere simply will not be tolerated. The owners of this system (and by delegation, their designated administrators and moderators, unless overrruled by the owners) are the final arbiters in determining what is or is not objectionable, and their decisions in these matters are final.

For the purposes of complete understanding of the terms used in this guideline, the following definitions apply:

A "Photo Attachment" is any image uploaded to a forum message using the attachment dialogue that contains the caption "You may attach a file if you like (no bigger than 200000 bytes please).". It is to be understood that "no bigger than 200000 bytes please" does not refer to image files of any kind, but instead refers to files that will not be displayed to the user, such as text or binary files other than image files. Every image file uploaded to the forum will be subject to all guidelines regarding photo submissions.

An "Inline Image" is any image that is displayed to users using the UBB code "[image]{http address of image}[/image]". Every "inline image" file displayed on the forum will be subject to all guidelines regarding photo submissions.

A "Clickable Image" is any image that is displayed to users using the nested UBB code "[ url={http address of image to be displayed if clicked}][image]{http address of image to be displayed for user to click}[/image][/url ]". In this case, we are mainly concerned with the image that is being displayed for the user to click. Such images will be bound by all guidelines regarding photo submissions. However, it is assumed that if the user clicks on this image, they understand that the image that loads as a result will likely be a very large file, and as such may take some time to download. Because of this, such files will not be bound by our size guidelines, but are still subject to any and all guidelines with respect to content.

An "Image Link" is any image that is not displayed to the user, but is instead linked to using the UBB code "[ url={http address of image to display}]{text to display to user}[/url ]". Since the image cannot be displayed to the user unless they click on the "Image Link", such files will not be bound by our size guidelines, but are still subject to any and all guidelines with respect to content. It is however assumed that if the user clicks this link, they understand that the image that loads as a result will likely be a very large file, and as such may take some time to download.