A long while back, I asked on images that are not available in the size standards without having to stretch the image, resulting in lower quality. I understand fully the reason for a standard size as consistency helps a lot of things. However, as a movie collector, I want to share a different side of things, and also offer at least one suggestion.

It was stated to me, in general terms, that you would rather have no images than images that do not meet the standards. For me, that is not the case. I would rather have something vs nothing. In the current system, I can see, after the prior discussion, that those two view points to not really go together. What came into my mind as I just watched a movie today that I Cannot upload artwork for is this.. What if there were a way to upload images that do not meet the criteria, but somehow tag or categorize them as substandard or something? They would not appear in the normal view, but maybe via a link to view substandard uploads, or maybe as a settings check in softwares that pull images?

This would allow users like me that would prefer to get the original artwork as well. There are a lot of movies that have original artwork that does not comply with the 1:1.5 requirement, requiring the uploader to modify the original image, and in some cases, having to remove portions of the age rating tags as in European movies as they are placed on the lower right and left of the poster, often getting shaved off a bit on the resize (the ones I come across are often too wide for the required aspect ratio). I am from the US, so I am not favoring my country here, I watch movies from all over.

I might see when I upload an image to "tag" it, maybe with original (non complying), TMDB standards, low quality, etc. I agree that many posters are in the 1:15 standard, so if I cannot meet that, I might be offered to say this is the original or this is a low quality image but it was released on DVD, that only offered screen resolutions which can never comply without being stretched and distorted, etc. As a collector, I am able to see both sides. I appreciate that there is a standard, so browsing my collection looks clean and consistent. However, I also want to see the movies represented properly, so if I had a choice on a movie that originally had a poster that was not to the prior ration, I would prefer the original over a modified version. I understand this is a preference, which I am sure I am not the only one who might prefer this, but for sure not all. Thus why I suggested a proposal on how to make the system better, at least in my opinion.

I had a similar discussion over at MusicBrainz on an old CD release where the artwork is generally expected to be square. Some artwork is just not that. I dont know the numbers, but sure, 95% of artwork might be square, but there plenty that are not, and modification would inaccurately identify the release. Over there, however, we can upload the original artwork in order to properly identify the release, as well as other artwork items that can be classified as "other" in order to help with the showing of what the release was (as it helps with physical releases to see what the release truly looked like). The artwork shown as the primary is a vote required edit that can be made, while the rest of the artwork remains for users to select if they choose to do so. I add this so a real example of a similar concept is in use, catering to both sides, those that just want a strict standard and those that want any of the other options. However, the artwork/images/photos/etc still must remain unaltered/unedited, it needs to be original to the release.