Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/delist/North America

North America

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 1 Sep 2010 at 20:10:03 (UTC)

Reason: Compared to our images of other continent and land masses, this one doesn't meet the resolution requirements by a fairly long shot. While I think it is encyclopedic, we need to produce a new image from the NASA source; I'm afraid I don't really know how to do that.

Africa, almost 32MP.
South America, 72MP.
Australia, almost 23MP.
Antarctica, almost 41MP.
North America, less than 3MP.

Articles this image appears in: North America, History of North America, Comparison of Canadian and American economies, List of islands of North America and a few more.
Previous nomination/s: Failed nomination from 2008 (insufficient resolution), Successful 2009 nomination
Nominator: Cowtowner (talk)

Delist — Cowtowner (talk) 20:10, 18 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Comment It might be worth suspending this until we have a replacement candidate. Papa Lima Whiskey (talk) 09:41, 20 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Whyso? If the image is not good enough, it's not good enough. We don't feature substandard images until something better comes along. J Milburn (talk) 11:59, 20 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Please notify the original uploader/nominator. Thanks. Makeemlighter (talk) 02:49, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Keep I'll comment, seeing as I'm the original nominator. Simply because this is the best satellite image of North America we have. It meets all criteria, including in resolution, while granted that it isn't as high as the other continent images. Keep it until NASA release a higher resolution version. It would feel awkward for all the other continents to be featured and this one not to. Sir Richardson (talk) 15:24, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your response; but, NASA has released a larger image (the Blue Marble) of the whole planet from which we have created derivative works including the images of the 4 other continents shown here (don't worry about awkwardness, Europe and Asia are still MIA). So while this is the best we have (which, not to flog a dead horse, isn't a rationale for featuring an image), it's not the best we can have or should have. Cowtowner (talk) 17:34, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Keep, since it still meets the criteria. I would happily !vote to delist and replace it if a suitable replacement candidate was suggested. --Avenue (talk) 15:41, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- As Milburn asked above, why should we keep an image that is so far below the other criteria? Cowtowner (talk) 17:34, 22 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  - Please explain the relevant change in our criteria since December 2009 (when it passed). Criterion 2 (on resolution) looks identical to me, except for the addition of an exemption for animations and video (which doesn't apply here). --Avenue (talk) 13:41, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    - You're correct there has been no change in our criteria, but there has obviously been a change in our standards for this type of image. Just as there is a very high standard for bugs and birds, there is a high standard for continental satellite images as evidenced by this one's contemporaries. Keeping it degrades the project as it is technically inferior. Cowtowner (talk) 19:51, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      - Two of the other continents' images have arrived since this was last !voted on, but the other two were promoted earlier, with one dating from 2006. So it's not that clear to me that our standards have suddenly changed. If the North America image was from a 2005 nom (not late 2009), that would be different. Yes, this image is inferior to the others, and I'd be happy to see a better version. But I think delisting should be a last resort, not the first. If you could tell me that you have tried other approaches to get a replacement made, without any luck, that would also be different. But this just seems too premature. --Avenue (talk) 22:08, 25 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
        Looking at the timeline, I'd say that the North American promotion was out of line with the policy at the time. I don't think the fact that it was promoted in 2009 should give it immunity from deletion. I tried replacing the image myself, but was unable to get very far. I nomed it for deletion here in hopes that someone might have better luck at saving it themselves. Cowtowner (talk) 03:28, 28 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Keep It's becoming clear that this has no legs without a replacement candidate, which given that the method for obtaining such an image has been described, is really not such a big hurdle - possibly less than the collective effort spent on this nom. Papa Lima Whiskey (talk) 15:21, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- While I think that rationale is bogus, can we suspend this until someone with the know-how changes the projection on the Blue Marble image and makes a replacement? Cowtowner (talk) 18:57, 24 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  - I experimented with this a bit and got up to around 10MP, but I'd like to do a bit more. BTW, the original blue marble texture is only 200MP, so how you can have Antarctica at 41MP and South America at 72MP, I don't know. Sounds like a lot of artificial upsampling to me. Papa Lima Whiskey (talk) 23:03, 26 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
    - The strange sizes are most likely the result of changes in projection which may stretch or compress various parts of an image to allow for a more accurate display of the continents. Therefore, some parts are larger than they may have been in the original. This is simply the nature of projecting large spherical sections onto a 2D plane. Looking at the images, I see no evidence that they were upsampled -- they are razor sharp. Cowtowner (talk) 03:28, 28 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
      - I was mistaken. The 233MP image is not the largest available. NASA gives a large copy here, which comes to over 900MP once the two halves are combined. Cowtowner (talk) 03:41, 28 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Kept --Makeemlighter (talk) 21:59, 1 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]