h4. Selecting images to upload

While the ultimate decision to approve or decline an image is up to the tastes of individual approvers, the primary guiding principle is that images should be [i]of potential interest to other users[/i] and [i]have lasting value[/i]. In other words, high-quality original artwork is preferred to page after page of image macros.

In particular, the following kinds of uploads are unlikely to be approved:

* [b]Reposts from well-known webcomics.[/b] A lot of board users will have already seen these, and we can simply link people to the source, which has the added benefit of putting a little more ad revenue in the author’s pocket.

* [b]Famous historical images[/b], meaning those that the average user is likely to recognize on sight.

* [b]Screenshots of one's own computer.[/b] These are only likely to be relevant for a couple of days at most.

Don't treat Omnibooru as a general image hosting site. We allow the posting of [[homegrown]] images because they may be of interest to other users, not as a guaranteed service. Hotlinking directly to images from other sites is blocked for this reason. If you merely want someplace to put personal images, use a service designed for this purpose, like "Dropbox":https://www.dropbox.com/ or "imgur":http://imgur.com/.

h4. Providing sources

In general, unless an image is [[homegrown]], a source must be provided. Ideally, this information should refer to the place where the image was originally published. This means, for instance, that if you're uploading from an imageboard, you should enter the source URL provided there if one is available, not just the imageboard's image URL.

Images created from screen captures or scans should have a text description of the source, not a URL; for example, "[i][[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]][/i] episode 3" for an [[animated GIF]] created from stills, or "[i]Gelatin[/i] magazine, spring 2010, page 33" for a print scan.

If you're having trouble locating an image's origin, links to "IQDB":http://iqdb.org/ and "Google Search by Image":http://images.google.com/searchbyimage are provided for your convenience; upload the image, and then look at the bottom of the post sidebar.

Note that links to pages describing the work in question are preferred to direct image links. Uploads from pixiv are the sole exception to this rule; Danbooru has "special handling for these":http://danbooru.donmai.us/wiki/show?title=howto%3Apixiv, so you should enter the direct URL to the full image into the source box: http://img06.pixiv.net/img/vofan/5181286.jpg.

If you cannot find a reasonable source, you can use the [[source_request]] tag as a last resort. Do not simply tag an image as needing a source without having attempted to find one yourself.

h4. Tagging and organization

Danbooru-style imageboards are distinguished from 2ch-esque ones by the tagging system, which allows uploads to be organized by their contents and metadata. Note the word [i]allows[/i]: In order for the system to work as intended, users must provide the appropriate tags for their images. At minimum, the following three types of tags must be accounted for:

* [b]Artist.[/b] Credit should be given where credit is due. Not only does proper attribution give the creator some recognition, it lets people who find an image interesting hunt down more from the same author. Win-win. You can create an artist tag by prefixing "artist:" to the tag name.

* [b]Copyright.[/b] This refers to the series any characters or settings depicted in the image came from. If an image is not based on any established works, use the [[original_character]] tag. You can create a copyright tag by prefixing "copy:" or "copyright:" to the tag name.

* [b]Character.[/b] This is only necessary for works that have not already been tagged with [[original_character]]. You can create a character tag by prefixing "char:" or "character:" to the tag name.

General tags should describe objective qualities of an image, such as whether it's a [[sketch]] or contains a [[sword]]. Search for and use existing tags if possible. Subjective tags are frowned upon; you should use an image's comments to leave remarks instead, or create a pool. Pools should also be used for informal collections of images with a common theme (pool #6) or a series of posts with an internal order, such as an artbook or multi-page comic (pool #3, pool #4).

Sexual content should be indicated using one of the three image ratings. "Safe" should generally be reserved for images that could be reasonably viewed in public. Many approvers dislike explicit images, so use caution when uploading something that could be considered such.