PORTAL RULES

General terms

• Registration on www.fotonet.sk is free of charge.
• Uploading photographs, adding comments and contributing to the forum is free of charge.
• The use of vulgar, insulting or offensive expressions is forbidden.
• A registered visitor who repeatedly violates the rules may have their account cancelled.

Rules for uploading photographs

• Photos that violate applicable laws or could damage the good name of the operator must not be uploaded to the gallery.
• Photos must comply with ethical rules and must not be sexual in nature.
• Photographs smaller than 1200px (longer side) and smaller than 420kb are stored unchanged. Larger photographs are automatically resized and optimized by the system.
• Objects in photographs should come from the wild and be photographed in an adequate environment.
• Photographs of objects held in the hand, on unnatural backgrounds or in an unaesthetic environment will usually not be approved.
• The object must be sufficiently large, clearly visible and sharp.
• The photograph should be well exposed and the colors should appear realistic.
• The photograph must have adequate technical quality – it must not be rasterized, excessively compressed, noisy or oversharpened.
• The photograph must not contain a frame.
• After uploading, it is necessary to fill in the important fields in the photo edit form (name, possibly Latin name, date, place and others as needed).
• Administrators have the right to reject any photograph that does not comply with the portal rules.
• The operator reserves the right to remove a photograph from the gallery without stating a reason.

Species identification and placement in the atlas

FotoNet is built not only on high-quality photographs, but also on the most accurate species identification possible. In many organism groups, however, a photograph alone is not sufficient for reliable species identification. Closely related species often differ only in small diagnostic characters that may not be visible in the photograph. In some cases, body size, habitat, microscopic examination or specimen preparation is required.

• If a species cannot be confirmed from the photograph, administrators or moderators may change the identification to cf. or classify the photograph only to genus level using sp..
• This is not a criticism of the author or the quality of the photograph. Its sole purpose is to maintain the scientific reliability of the atlas.
• If the identification was made by an expert or based on a reliable source, we recommend mentioning this in the photo note or comments.
• A cf. or sp. designation does not reduce the value of a photograph. Such photographs remain part of the atlas and are displayed in a dedicated section.

Our goal is not to assign every organism to a species at all costs, but to build an atlas that users and specialists can trust.

Levels of visitors and contributors

a) Unregistered (not logged in) visitor

• limited portal functionality
• can view photographs only in lower resolution
• forum and comments are available only for reading

b) Registered (logged in) visitor

• can view photographs in higher resolution
• can add comments and forum posts
• internal mail, events/notifications system, own contacts, favourite photographs
• possibility to become an active contributor (according to individual levels)

Level 1 – candidate (contributor trial phase)

• Option to upload a maximum of 12 trial photographs (maximum 4 at a time), with a pause before uploading more.
• Trial photographs go through approval; if they meet the portal criteria, they will be published.
• If more than half of the author's photographs are approved, they may be granted higher contribution rights.
• If the required number of photographs is not approved, another trial series is possible only later (typically after several months).

Level 2 – contributor with photo review

• Option to create and edit own galleries.
• Option to upload 2 photographs per day subject to approval (without accumulation).
• After approval, photographs are published; if rejected, they remain outside public content (depending on gallery settings).
• The daily limit also includes photographs uploaded and subsequently deleted.
• With long-term good approval success, higher rights may be granted.

Level 3 – direct contributor

• Option to create and edit own galleries.
• Direct uploading of photographs (daily limit e.g. 4 photographs, without accumulation).
• The daily limit also includes photographs uploaded and subsequently deleted.

Level 4 – moderator

• Unlimited photo uploads.
• Management of approval and rejection of contributor photographs.
• Ability to edit all photographs.
• Management of the atlas and taxonomic content.
• Ability to contribute to the articles section.
• Help with determination and identification of photographs.
• Solving contributor issues.

Level 5 – administrator

• FotoNet administrator.

In case of uncertainty, contact any administrator or moderator. If you have a question about a specific area (fungi, plants, animals), contact the moderator of the relevant section. You can find the list of people and their roles on the Contributors page.