RULES

Every contest has rules! Make sure you follow these ones, and your entries will not be disqualified or wasted …

The rules for Wiki Loves Africa are … 

    • Rule 1: All photos must be taken by the person submitting them. They can be uploaded by you or uploaded during a registered mass upload session. Your image must have your name or nom de plume on the uploaded file.
    • Rule 2: Entries will only be accepted if uploaded between the 15th February to 15th April 2021. You can enter media that was taken at any time, even historical photographs (as long as you own the copyright on these photographs or they are in the public domain), but they must be uploaded during those dates.
    • Rule 3: Images with watermarks or embedded signatures will not be eligible. All entries submitted to the contest will automatically be licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 (CC-BY-SA 4.0) (or in the public domain). Read more about the cc-by-sa license here.
    • Rule 4: All eligible pictures will be categorised under Images from Wiki Loves Africa 2021, this will be automatically assigned during the upload process. (Feel free to add other relevant categories and descriptions to make the images more usable on the projects.)
    • Rule 5: Participants must registered on WIkimedia Commons and be contactable. Please enable e-mail on Wikimedia Commons so we can contact you should your image be chosen for a prize.
    • Rule 6: To be considered for the video prize, the file must be uploaded in the video format (.ogg, .ogv, or .webm) that is required for Wikimedia Commons. Please note audio and visual quality and storytelling will be taken into account for your file to be eligible for a prize.
    • Rule 7: To be considered for the video prize, the file must be uploaded in a video format (.ogg, .ogv, or .webm) that is accepted on Wikimedia Commons. Please note that the audio and visual quality and storytelling will be taken into account for your file to be eligible for a prize.

Ineligibility

      • Photographs that are already on Commons (this means re-uploading is not allowed).
      • As the images will be hosted on Wikimedia Commons, all entries must fall within Commons scope. Any that do not will be disqualified and may be deleted without notice.
      • Images with watermarks, timestamps or image credits on the picture itself or any other kind of editing which associates the image with the uploader are not eligible.

Judging criteria

The judging will be done by a panel of international Wikipedians, professional photographers and subject specialists, based of thumb rules of photography and as well as the community standards.

  • A good photo has a good story to tell.
  • A good photo removes all unnecessary distractions from the chief element, so that the latter is not out of the focus.
  • Potential usefulness and overall value of the image (including its licensing) to the Wikimedia projects.
  • Technical quality – Image parameters such as focus, lighting, saturation, ISO etc. will be taken into consideration.

The jury will judge individual entries based on the following criteria:

  • Technical quality
  • Originality
  • Potential usefulness and overall value of the image (including its licensing) to the Wikimedia projects.

Please note: There are events happening in the major cities of countries across Africa.  Please watch the social media channels for news about what is happening near you!