Wiki Quick Tip 14: fix your images (and upload them to TNWIKI!)

Quite a while ago we discussed the way you should integrate images in your Wiki articles (and more important what happens if you don't upload them......)

Have a check here: Sunday Surprise: Death by powerpicture

Lately, we see the issue popping up again (and lots of articles lose their value), so it's time for a quick reminder.

Do

  • upload all images directly to TechNet Wiki
  • revisit your previously published articles, and check if all images are still alive
  • Warn an author if the images are dead, leave a note in the comments to fix the images
  • tag the article with "has missing image"

Do NOT

  •  crosslink articles from 3rd party sources like your blog, any search engine result, Google Drive, OneDrive, ...
  •  copy paste your blog content directly to a Wiki article

Fix

In some cases your article is pretty old and/or you might not have the original source images anymore, ...

There is an option you can try to fix your article:

  • find your Wiki article or the original source (like your blog) on web archives, like Wayback Machine
  • download the images
  • upload the images into your Wiki article again.

What if you don't fix the images?

  • your article degrades, loses quality and loses value for the community
  • If dead images cannot be restored, the placeholders will be deleted from the article
  • Articles will be removed if the lack of images significantly impacts the quality.

See also

There are some other hints & quick tips you can use to maximize the impact of your great articles, check them here:

Call to action

Check if your articles show up in the "has missing image" collection.

Revisit all your Wiki articles, check the images and fix them where needed.