The Explaner

Changing images

Hi, The Explaner. Please don't replace an image that has a caption with one that doesn't. An encyclopedia needs to explain things (as your name correctly suggests!) and that includes telling the reader what an image shows.

Notice that after your edit at Caniformia @IacobusAmor: took the trouble to add a caption listing the animals shown in your image. That was very helpful, but you can't expect others to do that for you: if inserting an image, add the new caption yourself. We're lucky at Vicipaedia: Latin names of biota are standard. This means that even if you don't know Latin (that is merely a guess) you could still add a correct caption to a collage of animals or plants. Just add each Latin name, italicized and linked, one after another. If we have an article about the species, you can be confident that the links will be blue. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 09:59, 30 Decembris 2022 (UTC)

Indeed, "telling the reader what an image shows" is an important aspect of using the image in the first place, as readers don't always know what to see. In some cases, they don't usually know what to see. One of the few kinds of justifiable captionless images in an encyclopedia (perhaps the only one?) may be the first image in a biography when the person illustrated is obviously the subject of the article—but even there, something significant about the date, or the place, or the occasion, or even the maker of the image, may be worth mentioning. ¶ One feature of captions on which the world provides no consensus is whether their verbs should be finite or not. Compare:

John Doe sings an aria from Carmen.

John Doe singing an aria from Carmen.

Arguments can be adduced for each. I favor the former because it's simpler* & more direct, but others can fairly argue otherwise. IacobusAmor (disputatio) 11:58, 30 Decembris 2022 (UTC)

*As I recall, students of Latin learn the form & syntax of canit before they learn the form & syntax of canens. IacobusAmor (disputatio) 11:58, 30 Decembris 2022 (UTC)