Forum:Media Gallery Proposal

		Gilgameshkun - Making a mistake is not the same thing as being stupid. Making a criticism is not the same thing as making an insult. Expressing doubt is not the same thing as being contemptuous. Daring to believe you're correct is not the same thing as being a smartass. But you should cite your sources.[citation needed] TALK - 12:10, 6 November 2008 (UTC)
		After speaking about the matter in depth with User:Otherarrow and User:Yuanchosaan, I have a proposal. The Final Fantasy Wiki should have a collection of media categories, à la Wikimedia Commons. Media for media's sake. This way, lots of different stock art and audio is not only neatly and logically organized in sections (rather than alphabetically in categories), but provides beautiful and more convenient browsing interface for media. In this sense, the FFWiki would not be merely just like Wikipedia, but also like Wikimedia Commons in terms of gallery functions. Not only this, but it could neatly host otherwise unused media that are currently and tediously collected in Special:UnusedImages. The logic behind this is that even if they are not used in the wiki article pages, they are used for media gallery pages, thus doing more than sitting idle in a category, but contributing to the value and richness of the wiki as a whole. In addition, there could be additional pages for collecting fanart and fanmusic in Commons-style galleries. Not just by users for the sake of fostering community, but also truly exceptional fanart and fanmusic from the outside, by artists who grant their permission for it to be stored and displayed in the wiki. Why am I doing this? Well, after a series of events, it started to become apparent that the rules and guidelines in Final Fantasy Wiki:Media aren't quite what they appear to be. As a relative newcomer, I started contributing media. Game media at first. Then my own fanart. Then, adhering to the written rule: If you want to upload fanarts and pictures of fan-drawn comics, you must first obtain permission from the artist or writer. They own the copyright to their work, and using fanart does not qualify as fair use because it is not canon, and it is disrespectful to the artist. ...I thought, logically, that this meant I could find good fanarts and fanmusics from people outside the wiki, secure their permission to repost it, and post it here. Having before contributed media to Wikimedia Commons, I figured that the fanart gallery was in the spirit of collecting beautiful media to display in galleries to enrich this wiki. So using this method, I secured permission for and uploaded two fanarts I considered truly exceptional: Image:(SilverFenrir) Final Fantasy XI - Brothers In Arms.jpg and Image:(Geremy Walker) Final Fantasy VI Cast.jpg. I was happy to upload the first one, but I realized that, as essentially non-hentai gay fanart, it didn't have broad appeal here. User:Diablocon told me it was good art and a valid upload, but made straight people uncomfortable. Then I uploaded the second picture which was universally positively received in #ffwiki. Emboldened by this, I sought to talk to Diablocon as soon as I could to make sure everything was in order. Then Diablocon said a couple things that turned my understanding of the wiki upside down. He said that I really shouldn't post the fanart on the FFWiki fanart page, because it's for users only (not understood by me). He also said that, unless I put the fanart in a user space page, he couldn't let it stay. While it was fully acknowledged all around that I had acted in good faith and in accordance to the rules, Diablocon told me that he felt that I had made use of a flaw in the rules. And the thing was, I didn't even know I was doing it. The more I spoke with Diablocon and other users, it became clear that there were a lot of unwritten understandings, and that some of the clearly posted media rules were either not universally held in esteem, or simply were never tested. As it turned out, I was unknowingly the first person ever to successfully upload outside fanart which didn't break the rules. And when the reaction to this was so mixed, it was greatly embarrassing and unsettling to me as a user. But in talking with the others about this, and in learning about pages like Special:UnusedImages for the first time, it seemed like a shame that all this unused media—both canonical and fanart—had to be deleted simply because it was not used in articles. Diablocon for his part had not even heard of Wikimedia Commons until I mentioned the term "Commons-style" in chat and he asked what that meant. And as I discussed the matter with Otherarrow and Yuanchosaan, I thought, why not have a Commons-style network of gallery pages? It beautifies and enriches the MIDI, and the media gets used in a meaningful way. Because, let me tell you, I had already planned a huge amount of game-related media to upload too (such as all the backgrounds to FF7 and FF8 in pristine lossless PNG), and it was depressing to think that much of it might get deleted if it wasn't promptly used. In this structured gallery system, canon media and non-canon media could be neatly separated but also mutually linked, so people can browse canonical media only if they want, or fanart only if they want, or both. As for the criteria of inclusion of external fanart, Diablocon raised the concern that there would be a flood of unworthy outside art uploads. He told me that my fanart uploads had better be "damn exceptional". And that's not unreasonable, he's absolutely right. I have no allusions of the FFWiki being a social network or a full-fledged art community, but it would seem like a shame to completely rule out a good collection of outside fanart either. Basically, my rule of thumb would be, secure permission first, but upload it only if you think it's a worthy piece of art. This may be left largely to the discretion of the uploader, since users who blatantly mass-upload the good, the bad and the ugly, would probably be pretty obvious. Now, I hope that wasn't too long-winded, but I wanted to make this proposal as thorough as I could possibly think to do.