User blog:The Woolly Howl/Gallery

Hey guys!

It has came to my attention that our galleries are getting quite untidy and messy. I'm currently working on those for dragon species, later I will work on those for characters and other minor pages like Color Varieties and Dragon Eggs. I left a message on Toothless(the admin not the dragon XD)'s talk page about the gallery. If you wish to get more details, check out his talk page. I left the message there as I needed to ask for advise and also see if these changes are 100% necessary so that I can get more users to help edit. Even if he finds it unnecessary, I will still carry on these changes as I find them beneficial. As I wait for his reply, I hope you guys can help out in the meanwhile.

Basically, what I need to do for the galleries for species is to organise pictures. As you can see, many galleries(those further down the list) are quite untidy. There's pictures of dragons in the films, games, books, random fan art that isn't meant to be there etc. It's quite an eye-sore and articles lack standaradisation and honestly, doesn't meet professional standards of Wikia.

This is what I find helpful:

We can catergorise them in their galleries according to group or source, eg: Concept Art, Rise of Berk by arranging the photos in order. We don't need subheadings or lengthy captions whatsoever. The first picture of that group will have a short caption, eg: Concept Art. The other pictures of the same category, for example, more concept art, goes behind it without captions. Of course, significant ones that need captions on a normal basis still need them. Also, all pages have to be arranged in the same order of categories. We don't have to be supremely accurate and neat, for example, it's pointless arranging pictures to their episode, or the chronology in each one. To see an exmaple, check out the Changewing page, and the Gronckle for a non-example

This is the order I have planned for Dragon Species, I plan them highly based on their level of reliability. You can also check this with my conversation with Toothless on his talk;

Starting with: Concept Art, Statistics/Bio, Movies, Shorts, Series. Followed by In-Universe sources(try to follow this order too) like: Dragon Eye Projections, Drawings by character in the movies or series, Dragon Manual, Hiccup's Map. Followed by: Promo posters, Interviews, Art-Books, Spin-offs/Comics. Then games: Official online card game, wild skies, rise of berk, school of dragons. And for games, try to place the main poto as the first and other images like promos for the game, or eggs after that. Lastly, toys and action figures.

I do appreciate it if people would help me out with organising the galleries! If you don't have time to sit down and arrange them, at least try to shift them to the right positions when you add a photo. Much appreciated!

Another issue I've found is repeated unnecessary images and lack of links.

My first reminder would be, please try to link the games Dragons: Rise of Berk and School of Dragons to the first pic of that image. It's only one image with the linked caption, so please remember. Another issue which gets on my nerves is Rise of Berk too. Please frame from posting numerous pictures of the dragons there. There is no need to take images of every stage of the dragon's life. And if there's the complete image with the brown background,please delete those images of it in the Book of Dragons for the game. Also, once the brown background image is uploaded, there is no need for images of it on the stand.

Next, I would like to remind you guys not to post images of your dragons in SOD. Most of them are really nice and I appreciate your upload, but unless its the official, given colour, please don't post it. Another issue: When you add an image from a source like the Art of HTTYD, please place it with the rest in the art books for that gallery or caption it. I'm quite confused by them and I'm often stuck, wondering if its fanart or officcial stuff. And also, please refrain from posting photos of fanart and photos with very obvios watermarks.

Also, for dragon species, please try not to post too many pictures of individuals. For example, the page for Monstrous Nightmares aren't the page for Hookfang. You can still post a few pictures, along with those of other individuals, just don't overcrowd the page. If there's only one known individual, that's a different story. In that case, you can post images of that particular individual, but try to use those which are more prominent, like its fire type or symptoms to a particular illness, something shared by individuals of the same species.

That's about it! Sorry for the incredibly long blog. I know that this is very troublesome and tiring, but it will result in much more appealing and professional looking gallery--not just to the public, but to us when we edit! And btw, I'm not 'in-charged' of this gallery project, I'm merely voicing my opinion on our galleries. I'm not forcing anyone to edit the galleries neither do I want to be very strict on this. So, I am open to suggestions, clarifications and questions and I absolutely do not mind if you choose not to do so. But once again, let's try our best, as one fandom, to make this wikia a better one!

Thanks a million for reading this. Hope you have a great day ahead.