The Vision:
Posters in general were supposed to represent an original media cover that makes it easy to identify the movie or series in your media collection. The size of 1000×1426 was decided upon because it is the“official aspect ratio”of DVD covers, and sized big enough to allow for future improvements in media center resolution. Being the leader in high quality fanart, we also decided to require that posters only display the logo, or no text at all. Most of all, it was supposed to represent the highest possible quality images available befitting this site.
The Problems:
While the“Vision” seems pretty straight forward, you would be amazed how many ways this can be interpreted.
What appears to be the biggest misinterpretation, is that this is just another fanart background section at a different aspect ratio. Meaning that too many people are just taking any image from a movie or TV series and either slapping one of the available logos on it, (or all the logos) or none at all and uploading it. Posters are not like backgrounds where they will rotate in your media center and there really is no reason to flood a section with every possible variation that could exist for an image.
Another point of contention is, what is considered a “Portrait”. This was not foreseen when we opened the section, but when we started seeing tons of images pouring in of basically“head shots” of characters (or similar in some way), it was clear that we needed to address it. This may have not been the best way to deal with this, as there are some original covers out there that are indeed Portraits. Usually there is some sort of artistic element that makes it more fitting as a cover though. In any case, the poster section was not designed to be a character catalog. There may not be a clear way to define a rule to discourage this type of poster, but try to imagine the poster you are submitting being displayed on a DVD case in a store on a shelf somewhere. Can you see it? If not, it’s probably not fitting for this section either.
What might be the biggest problem of all and left the door open for the first two problems mentioned, is the acceptance of“Custom” posters. It would have been much easier to just deny the use of custom posters on the site and require that every poster reflect the original. While this would have made life infinitely easier on us moderators, it would also stifle the creativity of our user base and we would miss out on some true masterpieces that our users are capable of. We would never want that and personally would rather close the section altogether, than only allow originals.
Solution:
There will never be a set of rules that will appeal to everyone and it’s ridiculous to even try. We can only hope that people will try to “see” what we are trying to achieve with this section and either choose to participate and expand it, or forgo this section and concentrate on others. We are looking for and “Prefer” original covers in“High Quality”. When you think you can do better than the original and want to offer an alternative, we ask that you consider the following.
- Is this something I would see on a store shelf somewhere?
- Does this really represent the movie/series in an identifiable way?
- Is my source material good enough to be considered“HighQuality”?
- Would I consider this poster to be my one and only poster for this series?
Never forget the credo of this site.
- “It is better to have no image at all than a bad image”
In closing,we do not want to see this section continue to be a point of contention for users and mods alike. We appreciate everyone’s contributions and hard work in expanding the site, but we also must have some cohesion or we will just end up pleasing no one. Please consider if you can get behind the vision of this section, or decide to pass on contributing to it. There is no shame in disagreeing with what is laid out here, as everyone has a different vision, and there are still plenty of places to share your art if you don’t agree.
We really hope this will help us all to move forward together on the same page. If not, I’d rather close the section than to have a bunch of disgruntled users.
Cheers
EDIT: Some new rules will go into effect today. 02-14-14
Rule: A limit of 4 posters per show/movie per user. This can be any combination of text/textless. No Exceptions!
Rule: Moderator decisions are FINAL. Uploading the same image without adjusting what was requested will not be tolerated.
This does not mean you can't ask for a second opinion from another mod if you feel strongly enough that your denied image was done within the rules, but you had better make sure you are in the right as no mod wants to second guess another mod and will tend to side with the mod unless it's a clear discrepancy. You should ALWAYS start by opening a dialog with the original mod first before asking for a second opinion, and please attach the original deny conversation when getting a second opinion.
Unfortunately it's true that some images will be judged subjectively. There is no way to make a set of rules that will cover every possible scenario and it's up to the mods to make that decision. This just means you should strive to upload images that do not straddle the rules and can't be misinterpreted. If you do, there may be a chance that you spent a great deal of time on something that may never get approved.
