Graphics Guidelines

[L E S L I E]

Though forums are typically full of writing or role playing, there are times when people wish to share images with other. Whether it’s just an image you want to share in a post, a new avatar that you want to use for your character, or a signature that you want displayed beneath all of your posts, you’ll need to know the rules and guidelines for this forum. TSW and Proboards have guidelines that you must follow so that you do not violate the Proboards Terms of Service or our very own General Forum Rules. These are very important things to follow, so please read over everything thoroughly. Failure to follow these rules and guidelines will lead to your permanent banishment from The Shimmering Wand. We do not want to ban members because they are unaware of what we expect and what is acceptable. So again, please read over everything carefully.

First and foremost we want to make sure that you understand what hotlinking is because this is the biggest problem with sharing images. Hotlinking is taking images from one site by copying it, and then pasting it to another without first uploading it into an image host. This might sound more difficult then it really is, but don’t be discouraged because it’s actually really easy. Below are the steps that you need to follow so that you can upload your own images through a host and then put them onto TSW properly.

Step One
- Save an image from any website to your computer by right clicking on the image and then saving it into any file you want to on your computer. Before saving an image make sure that you have permission to use the image or that it's alright to use the image on another site. Failure to do so may violate the Proboards TOS.

Step Two
-Sign up to any free image hosting site. A few of these are Photobucket, ImageShack, and TinyPic. However if you google free image hosts, you should be able to find many more that may be more to your liking.

Step Three
-Sign into your image hosting account and then follow the steps to uploading images from your computer onto the image host. These steps should be relatively easy and self-explanatory. If you need help please feel free to ask for help in the Support section.

Step Four
-After uploading the images that you want to use, post the images that you want to share on TSW so that we can see them.

After you’ve learned how to upload your own images properly, you’ll be allowed to upload your own images whenever you want to. However there are rules that you must follow for ALL image uploading and we expect you to follow them precisely because they are very important and there are very few.

1.) All images shared in posts within threads are only allowed to be 500px by 500px at the most. Images any bigger then that may stretch the forum. So please, no images bigger then the recommended size.

2.) All avatar images(the images used within each post representing your character in your mini-profiles) must be 175px x 245px. If they any smaller or larger they won’t fit properly within your mini-profile.

3.) All avatar images must contain actual people. You cannot use fantasy art images and you cannot use images that only contain animals or objects. Your avatar is supposed to be an image that represents what you look like while in character, so please make sure that it’s a decent pictures and that it looks like the person your autobiography describes. Once you’ve found a person that you want to use as a character, it is alright to lay a character face claim. For more on that, please read the character guidelines.

4.) All signature images used must be 500px by 250px. You must use an image in your signature.

5.) All images used on this forum are to be uploaded through an image host first and foremost. If you’ve read the above information about hotlinking you’ll know why you must upload it rather then copying and pasting from another site.

6.) All images must fall within the basic forum rules. That means no pornographic imaging, no serious foul language, no promoting drugs or alcohol, and no going against any of the other basic rules you are expect to follow here. To find those rules, please follow this link to the General Forum Rules.

7.) If you lack the means of making Avatar and Signature images for yourself, please head over to our Image Request section and make a request with our awesome graphics team!