Muppet Wiki:Image Policy

Policies regarding the use of images on Muppet Wiki.

Best practices

Please use filenames that are relevant to the subject of the picture. A lot of imaging programs apply an auto-generated filename made up of a prefix and a string of numbers. If you've downloaded an image from somewhere else, or have generated the image on your own in some way, please name the file accordingly. If you have a large bulk of files to rename, Bulk Rename Utility is a recommended free option.

If you find an image online that you'd like to use here, especially if it comes from social media, use Google Image Search to try and find a higher resolution copy (such sites are notorious for degrading image size and quality).

Categorizing and providing lengthy descriptions on image description pages aren't required here as you may have seen enforced on other wikis.

With 218,756 images on the wiki, we're bound to get some duplicates. It's helpful to take some effort via search to avoid uploading an image we already have. If it's on the wiki, and you have a better quality copy, please upload over the existing filename to preserve the file's history. If the existing image works for the purposes you meant to use your image for, the image can be used again on another article.

Early on, we adopted the practice of reserving the right side of a page as the home for images on an article rather than alternating them on the left and right which can have messy results. The wikicode used to place images in an article should be positioned at the top of a page or section header (not randomly placed within the body text). In general, add pictures to articles using the following wiki markup:

[[Image:ShawnColvinErnie.jpg|300px|thumb|Shawn Colvin sings with Ernie.]]

Image captions shouldn't contain quotes or commentary as they aren't considered NPOV contributions. Informational or explanatory captions are welcome when necessary, but aren't always needed. For example, a single image on a character page is self-explanatory: it's a picture of that character. But a column of images on a long list of references may require some text to identify how the illustration relates to the article. (Although a wry description in keeping with the spirit of the scene may be okay.)

Only one character image with a transparent, white, or cut-out background should be included on a character page (any other preexisting image that applies can be exchanged if necessary or kept if it serves a specific purpose); all others should be kept on Character images with a blank background. (CE discussion)

Altering images for the purposes of distorting the reality of the subject is prohibited. Please see Thread:257577 for more.

Watermarked images (which applies to Jim Henson's Red Book pictures) should only be used when there is no other visual representation of the subject available. One good example is this image illustrating the Muppets' performance of "Come Together" on The Ed Sullivan Show; when a better-quality picture or screenshot becomes available, that can be used instead.

Picture galleries should be relevant and/or interesting of note to the article. Excessive image farms (especially of commercially available material) are mostly discouraged. We don't want to become a dumping ground of galleries that serve no topical purpose.

<gallery spacing=small widths=200 orientation=square>
Kermit on The Muppet Show 01.jpg|caption
Piggy on The Muppet Show 01.jpg|caption
</gallery>

"square" can be replaced with "landscape" or "portrait", as appropriate.

We've formatted our galleries and captions to automatically center justify, but some other code variables can be found in Fandom's Help article.

Please don't save your file in the PNG format if a JPG will suffice. PNGs should only be used for graphics and/or images with smooth gradients where compression artifacts would damage the image if it were saved as a JPG. JPGs should be used for most screenshots and photos (with some exceptions). Saving an image that should be a JPG as a PNG produces a larger file size (generating longer page load times) and makes the image harder to replace in the future.

File:MartinBigBirdPlush.PNG (4.48 MB at 2048 × 1536; file size way too large, dimensions blown up beyond the source material)
File:MartinBigBirdPlush.jpg (52 KB at 640 x 480; much smaller file size, dimensions retain original source)

Animated GIFs should only be used to illustrate that which cannot be shown otherwise in a still image.

Due to the frequency with which videos are removed from YouTube, we try to keep links to that site at a minimum. Some exceptions include accounts owned by regular contributors who are keeping an eye on their own links or cases where wiki information is being sourced.

Links to YouTube can be added with {{youtube|xxxxxx}} and to others using the common external link method: [https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7stvjc video]

Embedding YouTube videos is one way we can track what has been taken down outside of our control. This script can be used to run a check on every video on the wiki. Sites other than YouTube (DailyMotion, for example) need to be checked manually.

Never link to anything that's commercially available unless it's an official upload. Sources include official channels for Sesame Workshop, The Jim Henson Company, Disney/Muppets Studio, individual show producers or sponsors, and filmmakers of Sesame Street inserts, for example.

If you find that an image or video you added to the wiki was deleted, it was either unused for more than a day, a duplicate file, or it violated one of the rules listed on this page. A summary may have been left in the deletion log.