Minecart Rapid Transit Wiki:Image Guidelines
In order to keep the wiki easy-to-maintain and reduce the size the wiki takes up on the server, we ask that you follow the following three guidelines:
- Keep file sizes as small as possible.
- Use meaningful file names.
- Delete unused files.
In addition, consider the general server rules: do not upload spam images (including placeholder images) or personal photographs.
Keep file sizes as small as possible
We recommend using TinyPNG.com to reduce the file size of your images before uploading them to the wiki. By keeping file sizes small, less space is used up on the server so we have more space to run other services and less time is spent maintaining space on the server's file system. Smaller file sizes means its quicker for users to load and view the image so its a win-win situation.
To use TinyPNG, simply drag and drop files (png or jpg) onto the page and TinyPNG will do the rest, it uses lossy compression techniques to reduce file size while maintaining quality. It also removes unnecessary metadata to get the smallest file size possible. Many images through TinyPNG will be around 30-80% smaller in file size.
Use meaningful file names
Just like page names, we ask you to give your image files meaningful names. Meaningful file names helps editors and users to understand what the image is and if it isn't connected to an existing page, we'll know what it is for and if it can be deleted or not.
Minecraft's default screenshot names are not ideal as they are not descriptive. Use a descriptive image title such as "Falloway Flag.png", "White Point Chapel.png" or CaelusAirlines Logo.png". The image's purpose should be understood even without context of the page it is displayed on.
Delete unused files
Again similar to pages, if you are no longer using an image file; mark it for deletion by using the {{dr}} template. This helps to free up space so it doesn't become a nuisance later down the line.
If you upload a new revision of an image file, you should consider deleting the previous version in order to free up space. Sometimes you may want to keep previous versions for comparison purposes but if you do not need to then you should delete them. To delete older image versions, ask an admod to go onto the image's file page and under "file history" delete the appropriate versions you no longer need.