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Image Hosting Policies and Guidelines
The Merchants' Guild is pleased to offer free image hosting for all of our users.
As such, we do ask that you follow our rules and policies, so we can keep hosting
your images and keep the site visitor-friendly. Please be sure you completely read and
understand these policies before uploading any images.
Note: These policies are
enforced both through the programming of the system and active administration by
individuals with administrative privileges.
1. Image Content
The majority of the rules for image content are listed under our Terms of Use. No adult or offensive content is to be displayed in any images hosted on this site or used for any purpose within the site, including images linked from other pages for use as auction images, avatars, etc. If adult or offensive content is found or reported, an administrator will replace that image with a placeholder until the user can establish a new image in its place.
2. Image Quota
To keep the site running smoothly and keep from overloading our servers, our Image Management system limits the size and number of files that may be hosted. Currently users are limited to a maximum of 80 images or 2000 KB (2 megabytes) of disk space, whichever limit is reached first. Your current amount of space used is listed at the bottom of the Images tab in the My Account page. Uploading smaller images is recommended, but remember to keep auction images large enough to show the item clearly. If you begin to run out of image space, delete older images or host them on another website and link to them instead.
3. Image Sizes
Images for free users should be no larger than 800x800 pixels. Premium users may upload images up to 1000x1000 pixels. No individual image may be over 150 KB in total disk space. All images must also be a recognizable Internet format: GIF, JPG or PNG. If your image is too large or is the wrong filetype, the system will generate an error message. If the image is simply too large, you will be given the option of letting our website resize the image for you.
Additional size restrictions apply to thumbnails:
- Hot Item Images: No larger than 80x80 pixels, height/width must be no less than 1/3 of the other
- Standard Art Show Images: No larger than 80x80 pixels, height/width must be no less than 1/3 of the other
- Priority Art Show Images: No larger than 160x160 pixels, no smaller than 81x81 pixels
Uploading and Using Images
To use the Auto-Image feature of the New Auction process, you must upload any images for the auction before you begin placing the auction. If you want to upload images after an auction is placed, you must have had images in the auction already - use Auction Control to change the image URLs to the newly uploaded images. Read the following for more detailed information on uploading images and placing them in your auctions.
1. Uploading Images
Uploading images can be done from the My Account page, or via the Quick Upload window at the top of the New Auction Form. To upload from your My Account page, log into your account and click on the Images tab. At the top of the Images section, you will see two fields for uploading images:
- From Your Computer: Simply click the Browse button and select the image you would like to upload. Once you have selected the file or URL, simply click the Upload button. The Merchants' Guild will verify and upload your image.
- From A Website: This field gives you the option of loading an image already hosted on another site. "Uploading" from another website does NOT save the image to The Merchants' Guild; instead, a link will be created to access that image. This does not go towards your image quota! Simply type in the URL to your auction image in the URL field and click the Fetch button.
Once you have selected your image and submitted it, the Image Confirmation page will show you a temporary copy of the image, along with some basic image information. Make sure the image shows up correctly and all the image information is correct, then give your image a name. The name must be unique (you cannot have any other files of the same name or you will get an error), and can only be made up of letters, numbers and the period (.), dash (-) and underscore (_) characters. (The system will automatically fill in the Name field with the filename for the image; you can just leave it as is if you prefer.) Please do not include the file extension in the image name (such as '.gif' or '.jpg') - this will be added automatically by the system based on the file type of the image. This name is only for your reference.
Once you have confirmed the image and entered a name, click on the 'Confirm' button to add the image to the system and view your current image listing. If you are not happy with the image or change your mind, clicking the 'Delete' button will remove the image from the temporary cache and the file will not be saved.
Please note: Your image is NOT active until you complete the Image Confirmation process! Temporary images (made on initial upload, before confirmation is complete) are removed from the system automatically.
2. Creating Thumbnails
If the image is larger than 80 x 80 pixels in size, you will be prompted for the automatic creation of a thumbnail image. Thumbnail images are used in auction listings to show a smaller version of the auction image in order to attract more viewers. The options available are:
If the image is larger than 160 x 160 pixels in size, you will be prompted for the automatic creation of an Art Show image. Art Show images are used in Art Show listings to show a smaller version of the auction image in order to attract more viewers. The options available are:
- 160x160 Aspect Maintained thumbnail: The Aspect Maintained feature keeps the aspect ratio of the image, shrinking the largest size to 160 pixels, while changing the smaller of the sides to a proportional size (i.e. a 600x800 image becomes 120x160)
- 160x160 Forced Aspect Skewed thumbnail: The Forced Aspect thumbnail will resize the image to be exactly 160x160 pixels in size, even if the aspect ratio was not 1:1. This usually distorts the image, squashing it.
- No Art Show thumbnail at all: If you choose not to create an Art Show thumbnail, you may not be able to make use of the Priority Art Show feature when creating a new auction.
Note: Automatically generated Art Show images count against your total Image Quota.
3. Using Images in Auctions
Once your images have been uploaded, start your auction by creating a new auction using the New Auction Form - the image fields will have pre-populated drop-down menus with image names for images you've uploaded that fit the image type. The field for the main auction image will show ALL of your images in the system, however the Hot Item, Art Show and Priority Art Show fields will only show images that are correctly formatted to fit exactly into the height and width for those image types.
Managing Images
1. Deleting Images
Deleting images from the system is very easy. Simply login to your My Account pages and click the Images tab. This is also the page you Upload images from. Simply check the boxes next to any images you wish to delete, then click the "Delete Selected Images" button at the bottom of the image list. The images will be deleted from the system immediately and the image listing page reloaded to show that they have been removed. Your quota will immediately go down by the number of files you've deleted and the amount of disk space they freed up.
2. Replacing Auction Images
If for some reason you need to change or add an image after an auction has been created, you can do so at any time, as long as no bids have been placed. (This is to protect buyers from having an auction changed after they have placed a bid.) Simply log into the My Account page and select the Selling tab, then click the Edit button next to the auction. As long as no bids are on the auction, all you need to do is click the Auction Image drop down, select the desired image, and click Update Auction.