Using photos in stories

[Clevo]

I read in the mods forum a discussion on using pictures/graphics in essays.

The discussion centred around that it should be in the rules and how much can be used etc.

I trust I'm not breaking ettiquette by bringing up the topic here. My apologies of so but I have thought of a soloution.

Since pictures speak a thousand words perhaps a small deduction on the word count per picture used can be introduced.

What I'm proposing is something like:

Pixel limit on the pics. Say 300 by 200
20 word deduction for first picture used then 10 words for every other picture.

Two or more pictures cannot be merged to form one (hence the pixel limit) though montages, if an original creation, are OK. No animated gifs

I feel with this system of graphics compensating for word count puts the onus on the writer to be careful and thoughtful with the pictures used. This challenges the author to balance the two (graphic and word).

The cons I see are that the refs then have to judge on the impact of the graphic, it's appropriatness and relevence which opens up grey area in rating a story since it's a subjective matter.

Just an opinion

 

[Penelope Pittstop]

umm, NO !! Sorry I can't see any reason to introduce a rule on pics.

 

[Mr Angry]

Can words be included in the graphic? ie legend
Do these words count in the essay?

 

[ParraMatt]

Don't like this idea at all.

 

[Anonymous]

Images have been around for sometime and are encouraged. It adds to the flair of the comp.

It does not go against your word count nor do the refs really see the image (they mark after copying and pasting the text)... so its really just to make the matches thread look more colourful and on that point, I'm all for it. If the image is actually required to illustrate a point, then again, I think its a worthy addition which go without penalty.

Mr Angry, picture graphs are a slightly different area and its a good question. There was a precedent last year when someone put in a graph with figures as an image - and I was the ref. I let it go because it would have completely crueled the match to count it as words. It was during a brief golden age when we didnt have any professional drama queens looking for faults. ;-)

Anyway, at this stage, picture/image graphs are OK as well. Although it may have to be reviewed at season's end.

But personally, I can't seeing it being a common occurance.

 

[Azkatro]

I know that the premise of "a picture is worth a thousand words" exists, but let's face it - these are articles and the only real limit is the number of words. If we were all working for a newspaper, and the boss wanted us to write a 750 word piece on something or other, he wouldn't change it to say 720 words if we wanted to include a photo.

 

[Clevo]

Fair enough... I think the point about the refs judging off text only won me over...

Sorry if I ruffled a couple of feathers there.

 

[Anonymous]

No worries Clevo. Never hesitate to ask the question.

 

[[furrycat]]

It's always fun to read Willow's essays because you see nifty pictures of old guys that I don't remember.