Who really cares?

As long as the cover is an improvement to the current database images, then all 3 would be acceptable to me.

RR

Completely agree, if people want to fill the corners in and are able to, let them.
But this in no way should prevent other people from contributing scans with rounded corners.
And cropping is a definite no no!
And when I compare cover scans to decide if a new image is an improvement or not, I look at the image not the corners!

Technically speaking, to fill the corners or not has nothing to do with accuracy, because the corners aren't actually part of the cover. They are part of the background. Of course you can match your background to integrate nicely into the cover (foreground), but you can't claim that it's more accurate. Therefore both variants are valid and the replacement of one scan with the other has to be based on more than this by voters and screeners.

Personally I don't contribute images anymore (unless it's a new profile) because I find this whole "Must be an improvement" rule completely counter produtive, I've seen much nicer images being voted NO and rejected because of people who feel they are not better.  For that rule to make sense we would need all users of DVDP to have the same video card, the same screen, the same RGB, Gamma, Contrast and Brightness settings.  We would also have to make sure that everybody has their computer in a room where the windows face the same direction and that all our screens have the same angle.  Of course perfection would still not be achieved unless we all bought power regulators to make sure that all our monitors work with the very same efficiency.  Now this was only to explain why I don't contribute images anymore.

Back to the topic, I voted "Cropped" because I think the gain in appearance outweighs the loss of image.  I crop all my images, very tightly and I never felt I lost part of the images.  I prefer a square images to round corner even if it means losing a little bit.  I think "Filling" alters the original image just as much as "Cropping" so in my opinion, they should either both be allowed or banned but I don't believe one is acceptable if the other is not.

Quoting Touti:

Quote:
...we would need all users of DVDP to have the same video card, the same screen, the same RGB, Gamma, Contrast and Brightness...

Touti,
I believe you are missing the obivious here.  If 10, 20 or however many think it better on their screen and 1 doesn't, shouldn't it be replaced?  The one has the choice not to update and lock his/her images and the 10, 20 or however many get the opportunity to improve (in their opinion) collection.

Fredrick

Oh, I know that all to well.  I submitted "the practice" it got no votes and was declined.  It was obivious that no one looked at it because it was more complete with actual images. 

Looking through other post, I just saw one from Gerri, something about laying down the hammer on source and declining those without.  I am now sure that's why it was declined.

If they chose to be that hard, they need to tell why. 

I've already resubmitted.  Let's see what happens and see if there is any consistency.