Post by Victoria Raines on Feb 16, 2011 0:34:08 GMT -5
The question of what is allowed for icons, signatures, and other character imagery is coming up quite often of late, so I felt I would address the biggest points.
Icons: We like icons. It is nice to have that pictorial reference for a character, especially in a multi-canon game such as Deadzone. Not everyone is familiar with say, Beast Machines, Victory, or War for Cybertron, after all. Icons are also great if you play an OC, because that can cut down on the amount of description you need to add to your posts, as well as keep other players from having to constantly reference the wiki.
Your icon doesn't have to be of your character. It can be something representative of your character instead. Sentinel Prime had an awesome Captain America one for awhile; in fact, his current icon is based of that one. You are also not required to use an icon at all. It is entirely player option.
That said, there are some guidelines. Icons must be PG-13. They must fall within Proboards's size requirements (which is 100x100 pixels max, I think), and above all do not hotlink your images! Hotlinking is when you simply link the URL of an image that is hosted on someone else's hosting site, instead of saving and uploading an image to your own hosting site. Hotlinking images is stealing bandwidth, and beyond that it's very poor etiquette. There's nothing wrong with snagging a great image from the TFwiki or saving a bit of fan art (with the artist's permission!!!), cropping it down, and using it. But the image needs to be hosted on your own image site. There are tons of free image hosting sites, but the one I am personally most familiar with is Photobucket. Photobucket allows you edit the image immediately after upload.
Signatures: Signatures can be images, weblinks (like a Twitter feed), or simple text. The same guidelines apply to signatures that apply to icons. PG-13, stay within Proboards guidelines, and no hotlinking.
In addition, we ask that no one have more than one largish image in their signature. Shockwave's signature is about the maximum size we want to see.
Now for some general etiquette. As mentioned above, it's all right to use a stock image of a character for an icon or signature. It's also fine to use fan-created icons or signatures if they have been placed up for public grabs, such as on icon-making communities. It very, very okay to use your own art- especially for OC's- and we encourage this greatly. We have some amazing artists in Deadzone, and if you don't think you can manage a sketch, drop by dzchat and ask around. Someone can probably help you out.
What isn't okay is taking someone's original art and using it to represent your character without the original artist's permission. It is very not okay to take another artist's work, change that work, and then use it for your character image without permission. Just because you "found it on the internet" does not make it public domain, nor does it give you the right to change it and claim it as your own.
These guidelines may be tweaked and added to as we go along. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Icons: We like icons. It is nice to have that pictorial reference for a character, especially in a multi-canon game such as Deadzone. Not everyone is familiar with say, Beast Machines, Victory, or War for Cybertron, after all. Icons are also great if you play an OC, because that can cut down on the amount of description you need to add to your posts, as well as keep other players from having to constantly reference the wiki.
Your icon doesn't have to be of your character. It can be something representative of your character instead. Sentinel Prime had an awesome Captain America one for awhile; in fact, his current icon is based of that one. You are also not required to use an icon at all. It is entirely player option.
That said, there are some guidelines. Icons must be PG-13. They must fall within Proboards's size requirements (which is 100x100 pixels max, I think), and above all do not hotlink your images! Hotlinking is when you simply link the URL of an image that is hosted on someone else's hosting site, instead of saving and uploading an image to your own hosting site. Hotlinking images is stealing bandwidth, and beyond that it's very poor etiquette. There's nothing wrong with snagging a great image from the TFwiki or saving a bit of fan art (with the artist's permission!!!), cropping it down, and using it. But the image needs to be hosted on your own image site. There are tons of free image hosting sites, but the one I am personally most familiar with is Photobucket. Photobucket allows you edit the image immediately after upload.
Signatures: Signatures can be images, weblinks (like a Twitter feed), or simple text. The same guidelines apply to signatures that apply to icons. PG-13, stay within Proboards guidelines, and no hotlinking.
In addition, we ask that no one have more than one largish image in their signature. Shockwave's signature is about the maximum size we want to see.
Now for some general etiquette. As mentioned above, it's all right to use a stock image of a character for an icon or signature. It's also fine to use fan-created icons or signatures if they have been placed up for public grabs, such as on icon-making communities. It very, very okay to use your own art- especially for OC's- and we encourage this greatly. We have some amazing artists in Deadzone, and if you don't think you can manage a sketch, drop by dzchat and ask around. Someone can probably help you out.
What isn't okay is taking someone's original art and using it to represent your character without the original artist's permission. It is very not okay to take another artist's work, change that work, and then use it for your character image without permission. Just because you "found it on the internet" does not make it public domain, nor does it give you the right to change it and claim it as your own.
These guidelines may be tweaked and added to as we go along. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
