Reminder - photo guidelines

[Arizona Docent]

Adding photos (under "media") is one of the most important features of this site. On behalf of the moderators, I would like to offer a few reminders.

1) Please do NOT upload several photos of essentially the same thing. This seems to be the biggest problem and a few users do this consistently. Two or three different angles of an exhibit are plenty and one or two photos of the same animal (from any given zoo trip) are plenty.

2) Make sure the photo is yours, or that you have explicit permission from the photographer to use it. If the latter is the case, please say so in the upload. The exception would be old photos that are now considered Public Domain. (In the United States, photos become Public Domain 50 years after the death of the photographer).

3) Please make sure your photos are oriented correctly, meaning that they are not sideways or upsidedown when viewed on the screen. Cell phone photos seem to be the major culprits here.

4) Please title your photos when you are in the media uploader. A generic file number generated by the camera is extremely unhelpful.

5) Photo captions appear very, very small on the new layout of ZooChat. It was not this way on the old site, but on the new site they are so small most people will not even notice them. I limit my caption to date taken (usually) and if I want to add more information I do it as a followup comment after the photo is posted.

 

[Simon Hampel]

Thought I would add a couple more points to what @Arizona Docent wrote:

Two or three different angles of an exhibit are plenty and one or two photos of the same animal (from any given zoo trip) are plenty.

And by "different angles", we don't mean you moved 2 steps to the left and took another photo. We're talking completely different photos taken from a completely different position showing a completely different aspect of the enclosure.

It would also be helpful if you could familiarise yourself with the content already uploaded - it is quite likely that the enclosure has already been covered many times by other ZooChat members and it is not necessary to upload new photos of the same view again.

The exception here would be new features or changes made to the enclosures - or if the other photos are particularly poor quality.

3) Please make sure your photos are oriented correctly, meaning that they are not sideways or upsidedown when viewed on the screen. Cell phone photos seem to be the major culprits here.

Just a note that you should be able to fix that in the gallery using the tools provided by the new gallery software.

5) Photo captions appear very, very small on the new layout of ZooChat. It was not this way on the old site, but on the new site they are so small most people will not even notice them. I limit my caption to date taken (usually) and if I want to add more information I do it as a followup comment after the photo is posted.

I should fix the caption size - I'll try and get that done during the next round of upgrades. But the point is still valid - I think there is generally little value in the caption beyond adding a bit more detail that covered in the title. Adding a comment with more information is a good approach.

One more reminder - we do not permit photos of people to be uploaded to the gallery, especially members of the public. The exception would be zookeepers holding an animal at some kind of talk, or photos taken from behind a group of people at a crowded exhibit where nobody is really identifiable.

This rule also extends to photos of yourself at a zoo including selfies or photos other people have taken of you. You may upload such photos to a personal album - but not to a zoo gallery.

Also, do not upload images of other people - including ZooChat members - to any thread without explicit permission from all people depicted within the image.

Photos of minors should generally be considered inappropriate in any form.

 

[Arizona Docent]

I am giving this thread a bump in the hopes more people can see it. The site administrator (Simon who posted above) has a desire that photos on the site add value and will be worth viewing in the long term. In other words, before uploading you need to ask yourself "If someone looks at this photo five years from now, will it be pointless?"

Up to this point the moderators have been very light handed in deleting photos (meaning we hardly ever delete them). It is likely that we will start being a little more aggressive in this. Please know this policy is not directed towards any one individual and I will freely admit that I have posted my own share of pointless photos when I was a newer member.

 

[Simon Hampel]

Up to this point the moderators have been very light handed in deleting photos (meaning we hardly ever delete them). It is likely that we will start being a little more aggressive in this.

To be clear - at this point, our main concern is photos which are of poor quality such that they add little or no value to the galleries.

Many of our galleries have hundreds or thousands of photos from the same zoo, which inevitably results in a large number of duplicates, which is generally pointless. With that in mind, I will be instructing the moderators to remove photos which are of poor quality - mainly those which are blurred or poorly framed - especially in cases where good quality photos of the subject already exist.

We ask that our members make some effort when uploading photos to only choose their best examples - avoid uploading poor quality photos. If you believe a photo is sufficiently unique or shows something unusual or exceedingly interesting, despite being less than ideal quality - then it may be worth documenting that point in the description of the photo when being uploaded to highlight that fact to the moderators.

 

[littleRedPanda]

I've only just seen this after the 'disappearance' of several of my photos left me a bit confused last night; I now see they are in a To Be Identified folder.

With regards to requesting we only upload our "best examples" I generally only upload quick edits of what I regard to be adequate photos, at best.

 

[Arizona Docent]

@littleRedPanda I clicked on your media page and scrolled through the first six pages of photos (120 images total). Your photos are all excellent and you have nothing to worry about regarding the statement of "only the best photos." What Sim means (I think) is if you take five photos of the same animal at the same time, then just pick the best to upload. You are doing this, none of your images are duplicates, so you are fine. You had one photo (sloth with baby) that was blurry from low light, but you explained this in the description and the fact that there was a baby riding on it makes it acceptable under Sim's qualification of something that is "unusual or exceedingly interesting, despite being less than ideal quality..."

 

[littleRedPanda]

I guess there is a time limit on editing Photo titles? How long is it?

 

[Arizona Docent]

I guess there is a time limit on editing Photo titles? How long is it?

There is a time limit on editing posts (text replies) after which you can ask a moderator to change it. However, as for photo titles I do not think you can edit them at any time. You would have to ask a moderator to do it, even if it is one minute after you upload. The easiest way to do this is click "report" which appears in small gray type directly underneath the photo. This will prompt a popup window asking for a reason, where you would type in your desired change.

 

[littleRedPanda]

At the moment, I can still edit titles for photos I've uploaded today - this one for example, where someone suggested it was the wrong bear, but after changing it, I decided it was right originally. Then there is a Deer photo in the Whipsnade gallery I misidentified, but lost the ability to change it after someone corrected me a few days later.
The 'edit' button disappears after some time. Seeing that I cannot edit photos uploaded on Monday, but can from last night, i'll guess that it's a 24 hour period?

 

[Arizona Docent]

Hmmm - I guess your assumption is correct. I know on the old version of ZooChat (before last year's software change) it was impossible for users to edit titles. Apparently on the new version you can for a very limited time. My apologies for misinforming you.

 

[littleRedPanda]

My apologies for misinforming you.

No worries. Looks like it is a 24 period.

 

[Welsh Zootographer]

2) Make sure the photo is yours, or that you have explicit permission from the photographer to use it. If the latter is the case, please say so in the upload. The exception would be old photos that are now considered Public Domain. (In the United States, photos become Public Domain 50 years after the death of the photographer).

In the United Kingdom it is 70 years after the death of the photographer.

 

[snowleopard]

Have all photos with people in them been deleted? I was going through the White Oak gallery (a private Florida 'zoo') and I used to have quite a few images on ZooChat with my wife and I petting or feeding a number of animals: Harapan the Sumatran rhino, white rhino, giraffe, cheetah, etc. Were those photos shifted elsewhere or deleted completely?

 

[pachyderm pro]

Have all photos with people in them been deleted? I was going through the White Oak gallery (a private Florida 'zoo') and I used to have quite a few images on ZooChat with my wife and I petting or feeding a number of animals: Harapan the Sumatran rhino, white rhino, giraffe, cheetah, etc. Were those photos shifted elsewhere or deleted completely?

I also had a similar question. These photos have been shifted to the new(ish) Community - ZooChat Members part of the gallery. All photos containing forum members have been moved here.

 

[Simon Hampel]

Have all photos with people in them been deleted? I was going through the White Oak gallery (a private Florida 'zoo') and I used to have quite a few images on ZooChat with my wife and I petting or feeding a number of animals: Harapan the Sumatran rhino, white rhino, giraffe, cheetah, etc. Were those photos shifted elsewhere or deleted completely?

I also had a similar question. These photos have been shifted to the new(ish) Community - ZooChat Members part of the gallery. All photos containing forum members have been moved here.

Some photos were deleted before we finalised the moderator guidelines about exactly what would be acceptable.

The moderation team have spent quite a lot of time behind the scenes debating about where to draw the line as to what kinds of photos we will accept in regards to having people visible in them. We haven't published the guidelines yet - but we have started enforcing them as a way of testing them to see if there are cases we haven't considered yet.

Most older photos where the focus is on the ZooChat member rather than on an animal or enclosure, will be relocated to the new ZooChat Members gallery. New photos which are deemed unacceptable will simply be deleted. Only premium members will be permitted to upload photos to the ZooChat Members gallery.

My older rules were much more strict than the new guidelines - but they weren't consistently enforced, so we have a lot of photos which were always against the rules, but only some of them have been removed.

It is my intention to go through the older photos that were removed before the new guidelines came into effect and reassess each one - I will consider reinstating some photos which would now be deemed appropriate (albeit perhaps in a different gallery category) under the new guidelines.

With over 330,000 photos in the gallery it is of course impossible to review every one of them - so there is no doubt that some will slip through unnoticed. Please report any photos you feel are problematic to bring them to the attention of the moderators and we will assess whether action is required.

 

[Arizona Docent]

To repeat what Sim typed in the third paragraph, there is now a new media category called ZooChat Members. Please place photos of members in this category, instead of in the respective zoo category. Also, since this category is not organized by zoo, please list the name of the facility where it was taken.

Member Gallery (for help forum)

• Arizona Docent
• 8 May 2018

To be embedded in a help discussion forum

 

[gentle lemur]

One of mine for transfer to the new gallery.

ZooChatters on the Bats Bridge

• gentle lemur
• 31 Jul 2016
• 14

I took several images of this unusual grouping, but this is the best because it shows no knees...

 

[Chlidonias]

To repeat what Sim typed in the third paragraph, there is now a new media category called ZooChat Members. Please place photos of members in this category, instead of in the respective zoo category. Also, since this category is not organized by zoo, please list the name of the facility where it was taken.

The important bit to include though:

Only premium members will be permitted to upload photos to the ZooChat Members gallery.

 

[Simon Hampel]

One of mine for transfer to the new gallery.

ZooChatters on the Bats Bridge

• gentle lemur
• 31 Jul 2016
• 14

I took several images of this unusual grouping, but this is the best because it shows no knees...

Can you please use the report function to bring such photos to the attention of the moderators.

Most older photos where the focus is on the ZooChat member rather than on an animal or enclosure, will be relocated to the new ZooChat Members gallery. New photos which are deemed unacceptable will simply be deleted.

For the sake of clarity, the cutoff date for this was April 1st 2018.

Any photos uploaded to the galleries before this date which qualify for the "ZooChat Members" gallery will be moved there by the moderators. Anything else deemed inappropriate (for example, photos of minors) will be deleted.

Premium members are permitted to upload new photos to the ZooChat Members gallery. The intention is that this is used for photos where the focus is the people in the photo rather than the enclosures or animals. Photos from ZooChat meetups is the main thing we'd like to see here - but selfies will also be permitted (within reason!).

Any other new photos uploaded to categories other than ZooChat Members after April 1st containing people (where the people are clearly visible and not incidental or in the background) will be deleted. This includes selfies, but excludes photos of zoo staff who may be interacting with animals.

 

[Hvedekorn]

1) Please do NOT upload several photos of essentially the same thing. This seems to be the biggest problem and a few users do this consistently. Two or three different angles of an exhibit are plenty and one or two photos of the same animal (from any given zoo trip) are plenty.

As for this... What's the stance to uploading photos of an exhibit that already is represented in the gallery? In other words: If someone has uploaded a photo of, say, Seoul Zoo's elephant exhibit, is it okay for another user to upload a photo of the exact same exhibit and taken from the same angle three months later? I don't do it myself (I always search to see if the exhibit photo I want to share is already represented), but I regularly see some users doing this, and I honestly feel like it's a waste of gallery space, but I don't know if it's considered okay to "repeat" others' photos as long as your own photos are not the same?

The exception of course being if something new happened to the exhibit during these three months (in which most people would mention it in the description).

EDIT: Never mind. I should have read the thread more thoroughly:

It would also be helpful if you could familiarise yourself with the content already uploaded - it is quite likely that the enclosure has already been covered many times by other ZooChat members and it is not necessary to upload new photos of the same view again.