I've been altering the source of images from the artist's front page to the actual picture if I know or can determine it, but it occurred to me that I might as well ask if it's preferred one way or the other.

It makes more sense to me to link directly to the picture if the artist is known. Even if the direct link is later rendered non-functional by the artist deleting or moving the image, the artist's own page should be relatively easy to find through google if it's tagged on the picture as well.

Example:
post #234062

Originally: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/colormeviolet/

Changed to: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8552400/

That makes sense to me, and is how I usually do it.

Yeah, that seems to be a good policy. I don't know why people direct link, what if the person takes the image down or moves, it, y'know?

If it's from DeviantArt, I will always link to the image. FurAffinity is kinda retarded with the separate url, but i'll still use the submission page.

DA or FA, I'll always link at the submission page ;)

If you want to link directly to the submission page for your uploads, that's fine, but don't go around changing them. I much prefer linking to the user pages since submissions can be deleted.

Submissions can be deleted, but it's easy to find the user's page by looking at the artist tag.

I prefer to the submissions themselves... because while they can be deleted, when I go to the source, most of the time it's because i'm wondering 'what is the meaning of this picture?' not "I want to see more by this artist." ... I dislike having to go digging through an artist's possibly HUGE gallery to try and find a single image that I only know what created before a certain date. Especially on a place like FA :C

Sure, but until it's standardized, it's up to the individual uploader how they want to source their posts. I wouldn't want someone going through my posts and changing the sources to suit their personal tastes. Source your posts how you want, leave other people's alone, unless they're broken.

ippiki_ookami said:
...unless they're broken.

What if the source is like this: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=anthro#/d1vnck7 (for example)
It's okay if we change them to http://jesonite.deviantart.com/art/Anthro-Samus-Aran-113623639 ?

xLuna said:
What if the source is like this: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=anthro#/d1vnck7 (for example)
It's okay if we change them to http://jesonite.deviantart.com/art/Anthro-Samus-Aran-113623639 ?

The bottom one is the proper source, and you aren't changing it from the image page, so I say it's fine.

I'd say for DA to link to the submission page, because if it gets deleted, it'll give you a link back to the artist's gallery. Linking to the gallery itself can make it hard to find information on the picture, which is usually why I click the source.

Also, I think linking to the actual image itself should be discouraged as it's the same as just clicking "download" save for the different (often unhelpful) URL.

You know, there are artists right here on this site! Why not we use their pages here as sources? The community would love to meet them here!

ippiki_ookami said:
Sure, but until it's standardized, it's up to the individual uploader how they want to source their posts. I wouldn't want someone going through my posts and changing the sources to suit their personal tastes. Source your posts how you want, leave other people's alone, unless they're broken.

Also, feel free to change it if someone links directly to a jpg or png or something. in 99% of cases, that's not going to help anyone. Just make sure you replace it with something ~useful~ :)

The artists wiki, accessible by clicking on the "?" on the left of the artist's tag, contains not one, but ALL of an artist's galleries (provided it is up to date).

It is a much, MUCH more efficient way to keep track and linking to an artist's gallery than filling every goddamn source field with the same URL.

I, for one, am extremly tired of having to spend age searching for the one submission that was just uploaded, just to check for the character's name the dumb uploader forgot to tag.

And FYI people, we have over 7000 entries in the artist wiki, and most of them contains links.

Kald said:
The artists wiki, accessible by clicking on the "?" on the left of the artist's tag, contains not one, but ALL of an artist's galleries (provided it is up to date).

It is a much, MUCH more efficient way to keep track and linking to an artist's gallery than filling every goddamn source field with the same URL.

I, for one, am extremly tired of having to spend age searching for the one submission that was just uploaded, just to check for the character's name the dumb uploader forgot to tag.

And FYI people, we have over 7000 entries in the artist wiki, and most of them contains links.

That's what I do to search images with wrong source or no source at all

Kald said:

The artists wiki, accessible by clicking on the "?" on the left of the artist's tag, contains not one, but ALL of an artist's galleries (provided it is up to date).

It is a much, MUCH more efficient way to keep track and linking to an artist's gallery than filling every goddamn source field with the same URL.

I, for one, am extremly tired of having to spend age searching for the one submission that was just uploaded, just to check for the character's name the dumb uploader forgot to tag.
And FYI people, we have over 7000 entries in the artist wiki, and most of them contains links.

Kald has a good point, with regards to the artist's information being listed in the wiki already

But, each to their own

On a side note, most (if not all) posts with a valid source url and artist tag automatically generate that (same) url as a source in the wiki
-
@Azazial: Thanks a bunch for making this thread, been meaning to bring it up for a while

I don't have an FA account so when it is a direct link to a FA Image I get the wonderful: "You are not allowed to view this" message.

DeviantArt is picky only if its an adult image I guess, but otherwise links are fine to the art or the artist.

Vixxxine69 said:
I don't have an FA account so when it is a direct link to a FA Image I get the wonderful: "You are not allowed to view this" message.

DeviantArt is picky only if its an adult image I guess, but otherwise links are fine to the art or the artist.

Yeah but you can always just make an account on those sites. It's very beneficial since like 90% of the art here comes from one of those two places.

ippiki_ookami said:
If you want to link directly to the submission page for your uploads, that's fine, but don't go around changing them.

ippiki_ookami said:
Sure, but until it's standardized, it's up to the individual uploader how they want to source their posts.

I thought being able to edit stuff was kinda the whole point of this place.

So anyways let's make a standard then! As I mentioned and Kald elaborated upon, I think that linking to the posting of the picture is the proper way to do it rather than the artist's gallery. It appears that everyone posing in this thread so far with the exception of Ippiki seems to be in favor of the source being to the image rather than the gallery.

Of course, it's up to the admins to lay down the final call on it.

titaniachkt said:
@Azazial: Thanks a bunch for making this thread, been meaning to bring it up for a while

You're welcome!

The reason all of my sources link to the artist's gallery instead of the submission page is because there is no way to automatically get a submission's page URL from the image URL. My uploader automatically appends a gallery URL and an artist tag from the image URL since it has the artist's name right in it, so it's very little work to upload art. There's no such way to get the submission URL, so that would add a lot of extra work into uploading.

Azazial said:
Yeah but you can always just make an account on those sites. It's very beneficial since like 90% of the art here comes from one of those two places.

People shouldn't be forced to create accounts on other sites just to view the sources of images we post here.

Azazial said:

I thought being able to edit stuff was kinda the whole point of this place.

Sure, but editing something that doesn't need to be fixed in the first place isn't helpful or needed, and is pretty presumptuous, if you ask me.

Azazial said:

So anyways let's make a standard then! As I mentioned and Kald elaborated upon, I think that linking to the posting of the picture is the proper way to do it rather than the artist's gallery. It appears that everyone posing in this thread so far with the exception of Ippiki seems to be in favor of the source being to the image rather than the gallery.

Of course, it's up to the admins to lay down the final call on it.

We're not going to force people to source their posts one way or the other, period. That's just not going to happen. It's the uploader's right to decide how they want to go about doing it.

I have a question related to this topic but not on topic. And didn't think it was worth its own thread.

Okay lets say we know the artist page/tumbler/whatever and we come to a image that is sourced to another image board (another booru style board specifically). Should this be resourced or leave it alone?

Moses said:
I have a question related to this topic but not on topic. And didn't think it was worth its own thread.

Okay lets say we know the artist page/tumbler/whatever and we come to a image that is sourced to another image board (another booru style board specifically). Should this be resourced or leave it alone?

Change it to the artist's gallery.

tony311 said:
Change it to the artist's gallery.

Thank you for answering.

ippiki_ookami said:
Sure, but until it's standardized, it's up to the individual uploader how they want to source their posts. I wouldn't want someone going through my posts and changing the sources to suit their personal tastes. Source your posts how you want, leave other people's alone, unless they're broken.

ippiki_ookami said:
We're not going to force people to source their posts one way or the other, period. That's just not going to happen. It's the uploader's right to decide how they want to go about doing it.

Why is this thing not worthy of having a standard about? Obviously it would be silly to crack down on people or reject posts because they didn't source things 'properly' but working toward a goal here seems like something worthwhile. Tony311 pointed out a perfectly legitimate reason for having the URL sourced in a particular manner. What surprises me is your insistence on keeping "your" posts the way that you want them. Is there a reason for this? Do you feel that tagging the source as the artist's gallery is more beneficial than providing the source as the gallery item?

I'm not trying to be overly combative here, this seems like a legitimate change that would be beneficial to every single user of the site and I don't understand why it's being shot down.

Azazial said:
Why is this thing not worthy of having a standard about?...
this seems like a legitimate change that would be beneficial to every single user of the site and I don't understand why it's being shot down.

This could be a case where some flexibility would be desired. Images come from all over the internet and are uploaded in a number of different ways. To standardize them too rigidly would invite trouble like accusations of double standards as well as unnecessary extra work (and headaches) for the moderators. Some images simply won't have a source in the first place. Other times, the sources will change.

Arguably, there is a standard already in place: post a valid source when possible and link as close to the original image as the poster thinks feasible.

The reason is that people have very strong opinions of what the RIGHT way is. It would be nice if we could have multiple source fields, if every image had an artist, if every artist wiki had gallery links or if every gallery provided 'easy' urls... . furaffinity.com/snowwolf/1234 verus furafinity.com/3142305425 or what have you.

SnowWolf said:
The reason is that people have very strong opinions of what the RIGHT way is. It would be nice if we could have multiple source fields

Multiple source fields sounds like a great idea.

Azazial said:
Multiple source fields sounds like a great idea.

I suggested that once, but it got shot down.
I still think it's a good idea.

I wonder if the tag system could be adapted for that?

Munkelzahn said:
I suggested that once, but it got shot down.
I still think it's a good idea.

Same here.