Hi all,
first of all: thanks for all the input! Very helpful to read this additional info and thoughts.
In this thread some points came up that could indeed use some factual clarification:
- Every country is different. Each country has a slightly different definition of monuments. That is nothing new, and we will always have to work with that. For example, some countries have a definition including ships, and some have even a few trees on their national heritage list. Some flexibility with regards to what is being photographed is therefore always necessary. One of the biggest differences is the size of the objects. Some countries recognize a whole city as one monument. That must mean that a photo of a part of a monument, also counts as a photo of a monument. This is the same as we did in the past.
- We actually all have the same rules in the international competition, but countries can derive from that in their national competition. However, those nominated pictures will be treated equally in the international finale. You can allow watermarks in your national competition, but I can predict that the odds that a watermarked picture scores into the top-10 of the international finale is very low. Theoretically however, a picture could 'make up' for the downside of the watermark. It is not a hard requirement.
- Countries can award as many prizes as they want. However, they can only /nominate/ 10 of them for the international finale. Theoretically, those don't have to be the top-10. In the past, countries have nominated the top-7 of the main category, and the winners of three special categories. But always maximum 10 per national competition.
- For most of the other issues, I refer back to the judgement criteria: Technical quality, Originality and Usefulness on Wikipedia. If you only photograph a little snake that is in the garden of a monument with nothing of the monument visible, it is not useful for Wikipedia in the context of that monument. If you add big watermarks, it is not only low on technical quality, but also barely useful. These criteria have been the same in the past five years, and cannot be a surprise. Most issues where you think an image is 'wrong' are fixed by sticking to these criteria.
With regards to yes or no monument on the photo, which was the original question, I will take the approach that I only worry about the images that are likely to score high. If they do, I will get in touch with the national team, and see if they can help identify the monument. If not, and there is not an identified monument on the picture, I will propose disqualification to the jury. In the end, the jury will decide on this. Thanks for your input in this tough question!
Best,
Lodewijk