PSA: regarding new uploads (and why your posts are getting deleted)
i have seen this asked a few times by now so i figured i'd make a forum thread. hopefully some people still check them out.
there are a few posting guidelines which i realize aren't obvious because the site is ancient and we don't even have a way to customize it (because this is handled by the booru.org staff, and they have other priorities), so everything is scattered across the pinned forum posts. i'll just point them out right here in hopes it will help someone.
1. all posts must be uploaded in the best available quality
this includes the resolution (width and height of the picture) as well as compression/jpeg artifacts.
unfortunately, some of the most popular websites where artists post their works kind of suck and either require you to jump through hoops to get the raw picture or compress them under some circumstances which is the most common reason for posts getting deleted.
first things first - use the "Image Max URL" browser extension. this is crucial; otherwise, you risk downloading thumbnail versions that may even be ten times smaller than the actual picture. more useful tools are located in this thread - http://mspabooru.com/index.php?page=forum&s=view&id=878
twitter/X - annihilates the quality of just about everything. avoid if possible; check if the artist has other social media where they have shared whatever you want to upload before sourcing anything from there.
tumblr - should be ok for recent fan art, but if the upload is more than a few years old, there is a decent chance it will be compressed into a smaller size if it is wider than 1280px or higher than 1280/1920px (i still can't tell why the upper limit seems to be 1280px sometimes, but usually it's 1920 for height). images smaller than any of these values do not get resized, but .jpeg files in particular may also sometimes be obtained in higher quality.
there is a workaround, but the older the post, the less likely it is to work. you can reblog the image you want in full resolution (IMPORTANT: do it on an empty side blog, otherwise you risk bricking the export feature!), then go to settings → your blog on which you have reblogged it → export → wait a minute or two (depending on how many posts you are trying to export, this might take longer. you will receive an email confirmation when it's ready, either way you can refresh the page or come back after some time) → download. if successful, you will now have a .zip file with a few subfolders, check the media folder and you should have your images there, hopefully with a different, higher resolution than what tumblr allows you to get. if that doesn't work, there is no other known way to obtain the raw image besides asking the artist directly i guess, but good luck doing that on 10+ years old artwork. if you have gone through all that effort, you can add the "fullres_export_attempted" tag.
deviantart - generally fine and the easiest to use because the download button should get you the raw image already (though sometimes they come with deviantart's optional built-in watermarks if i am not mistaken, which you can bypass with Image Max URL) and it won't kill the quality of high-res pictures after an indeterminate amount of time. plus, it allows you to see the image size right above the comment section.
however, some artists check the option to remove the download button which greatly reduces the quality if you try to download it. Image Max URL helps with that sometimes, but even then it won't always give you the full resolution. in that case, tag your upload with "fullres_export_attempted" too.
on some occasions (such as here - http://www.deviantart.com/aprico...s-make-them-pay-360307252 - Image size 1887x1638px but whether you use the browser extension or download the picture, you'll only get 1024x889), i've seen deviantart show the incorrect size despite the artist not restricting their download. i don't know if this is some kind of a rare display glitch with the image size or a similar case to tumblr compressing old images, and i don't know which source of information is to be believed.
bluesky - hard to tell because it's not used often. i think it compresses pictures by default just like twitter but i'm not sure.
instagram - for a social media dedicated to sharing photos, it does a terrible job at that because everything gets compressed to tiny sizes. probably even worse than twitter in that regard. don't use if possible.
pinterest - it's fine if you use Image Max URL. just make sure that you're uploading something that belongs to whoever uploaded it there originally, since most of homestuck works on pinterest are low quality reposts and they're usually already on the booru.
other sources are also accepted of course, but i can't really give any guidelines on them besides "use Image Max URL". seriously, this thing helps a ton.
2. proper sourcing
please only try to upload pictures that you know the origin of. similarly, don't upload anything if the artist clearly states somewhere that they don't want their works reposted anywhere.
unsourced artwork has tendencies to be low quality, be a duplicate of some other already existing post and it adds to an already overwhelming pile of sourcing work to do. at the very least, do your research - use the image reverse search, check the booru if it hasn't been uploaded before, and if you still wish to upload it, tag it as artist_needed, source_needed, sourcing_attempted.
you don't need to put in a source in the following cases:
you're uploading something you drew yourself - as long as you upload it directly from the file you created and not as a download from twitter or anywhere else, there is nothing special you need to do. just add the "fullres", "native_source", the year you made it and your username as tags.
something a friend drew for you (and didn't post anywhere else) - similar as above, but tag the friend's username instead, or anonymous_artist if that's their thing. native_source still applies.
3. all posts must be fan art and require some effort to make
template memes or MS paint scribbles made in 10 seconds are not considered fan art. a large majority of AI generated art will also not be accepted, though this hasn't been an issue yet. "engagement bait" in the form of using someone else's art or comic assets and only adding some text to it (such as - "your birth month is your class, the day is your aspect", you probably know what i mean) also fall under this.
we no longer accept "card" posts for the same reason, unless they feature custom art of course.
anything that's just text presented in an image form is also not fan art by the booru's standards, barring a few exceptions like handwriting headcanons.
4. no pornography
i don't think this needs to be explained further. NSFW/suggestive pictures are fine but outright pornography is not. artistic nudity is OK to post but don't overdo it. ultimately, it's subjective what is or isn't artistic nudity so if the community thinks it's too far, it may eventually be deleted.
i know there are some posts that are pushing the line so feel free to report anything you see that you think is porn and it will be taken care of.
5. MSPAbooru isn't an archive
just because something was uploaded and is related to MSPA in some way doesn't mean it will stay here forever. while, yes, functionally it may seem like this is an archival site, in accordance with all the previous points, deletions are somewhat frequent.
if you have any questions or disagree with anything stated here, feel free to join the discord server - http://discord.gg/YJwxQYaRc2 or reply in this thread. speak your mind, no one is going to ban you for it.
there are a few posting guidelines which i realize aren't obvious because the site is ancient and we don't even have a way to customize it (because this is handled by the booru.org staff, and they have other priorities), so everything is scattered across the pinned forum posts. i'll just point them out right here in hopes it will help someone.
1. all posts must be uploaded in the best available quality
this includes the resolution (width and height of the picture) as well as compression/jpeg artifacts.
unfortunately, some of the most popular websites where artists post their works kind of suck and either require you to jump through hoops to get the raw picture or compress them under some circumstances which is the most common reason for posts getting deleted.
first things first - use the "Image Max URL" browser extension. this is crucial; otherwise, you risk downloading thumbnail versions that may even be ten times smaller than the actual picture. more useful tools are located in this thread - http://mspabooru.com/index.php?page=forum&s=view&id=878
twitter/X - annihilates the quality of just about everything. avoid if possible; check if the artist has other social media where they have shared whatever you want to upload before sourcing anything from there.
tumblr - should be ok for recent fan art, but if the upload is more than a few years old, there is a decent chance it will be compressed into a smaller size if it is wider than 1280px or higher than 1280/1920px (i still can't tell why the upper limit seems to be 1280px sometimes, but usually it's 1920 for height). images smaller than any of these values do not get resized, but .jpeg files in particular may also sometimes be obtained in higher quality.
there is a workaround, but the older the post, the less likely it is to work. you can reblog the image you want in full resolution (IMPORTANT: do it on an empty side blog, otherwise you risk bricking the export feature!), then go to settings → your blog on which you have reblogged it → export → wait a minute or two (depending on how many posts you are trying to export, this might take longer. you will receive an email confirmation when it's ready, either way you can refresh the page or come back after some time) → download. if successful, you will now have a .zip file with a few subfolders, check the media folder and you should have your images there, hopefully with a different, higher resolution than what tumblr allows you to get. if that doesn't work, there is no other known way to obtain the raw image besides asking the artist directly i guess, but good luck doing that on 10+ years old artwork. if you have gone through all that effort, you can add the "fullres_export_attempted" tag.
deviantart - generally fine and the easiest to use because the download button should get you the raw image already (though sometimes they come with deviantart's optional built-in watermarks if i am not mistaken, which you can bypass with Image Max URL) and it won't kill the quality of high-res pictures after an indeterminate amount of time. plus, it allows you to see the image size right above the comment section.
however, some artists check the option to remove the download button which greatly reduces the quality if you try to download it. Image Max URL helps with that sometimes, but even then it won't always give you the full resolution. in that case, tag your upload with "fullres_export_attempted" too.
on some occasions (such as here - http://www.deviantart.com/aprico...s-make-them-pay-360307252 - Image size 1887x1638px but whether you use the browser extension or download the picture, you'll only get 1024x889), i've seen deviantart show the incorrect size despite the artist not restricting their download. i don't know if this is some kind of a rare display glitch with the image size or a similar case to tumblr compressing old images, and i don't know which source of information is to be believed.
bluesky - hard to tell because it's not used often. i think it compresses pictures by default just like twitter but i'm not sure.
instagram - for a social media dedicated to sharing photos, it does a terrible job at that because everything gets compressed to tiny sizes. probably even worse than twitter in that regard. don't use if possible.
pinterest - it's fine if you use Image Max URL. just make sure that you're uploading something that belongs to whoever uploaded it there originally, since most of homestuck works on pinterest are low quality reposts and they're usually already on the booru.
other sources are also accepted of course, but i can't really give any guidelines on them besides "use Image Max URL". seriously, this thing helps a ton.
2. proper sourcing
please only try to upload pictures that you know the origin of. similarly, don't upload anything if the artist clearly states somewhere that they don't want their works reposted anywhere.
unsourced artwork has tendencies to be low quality, be a duplicate of some other already existing post and it adds to an already overwhelming pile of sourcing work to do. at the very least, do your research - use the image reverse search, check the booru if it hasn't been uploaded before, and if you still wish to upload it, tag it as artist_needed, source_needed, sourcing_attempted.
you don't need to put in a source in the following cases:
you're uploading something you drew yourself - as long as you upload it directly from the file you created and not as a download from twitter or anywhere else, there is nothing special you need to do. just add the "fullres", "native_source", the year you made it and your username as tags.
something a friend drew for you (and didn't post anywhere else) - similar as above, but tag the friend's username instead, or anonymous_artist if that's their thing. native_source still applies.
3. all posts must be fan art and require some effort to make
template memes or MS paint scribbles made in 10 seconds are not considered fan art. a large majority of AI generated art will also not be accepted, though this hasn't been an issue yet. "engagement bait" in the form of using someone else's art or comic assets and only adding some text to it (such as - "your birth month is your class, the day is your aspect", you probably know what i mean) also fall under this.
we no longer accept "card" posts for the same reason, unless they feature custom art of course.
anything that's just text presented in an image form is also not fan art by the booru's standards, barring a few exceptions like handwriting headcanons.
4. no pornography
i don't think this needs to be explained further. NSFW/suggestive pictures are fine but outright pornography is not. artistic nudity is OK to post but don't overdo it. ultimately, it's subjective what is or isn't artistic nudity so if the community thinks it's too far, it may eventually be deleted.
i know there are some posts that are pushing the line so feel free to report anything you see that you think is porn and it will be taken care of.
5. MSPAbooru isn't an archive
just because something was uploaded and is related to MSPA in some way doesn't mean it will stay here forever. while, yes, functionally it may seem like this is an archival site, in accordance with all the previous points, deletions are somewhat frequent.
if you have any questions or disagree with anything stated here, feel free to join the discord server - http://discord.gg/YJwxQYaRc2 or reply in this thread. speak your mind, no one is going to ban you for it.