AI image notice: how pictures on Home & Away are made and labelled

Two kinds of pictures on the site

The guide uses two kinds of images. Eleven are real photographs taken by Wikimedia Commons contributors and used under Creative Commons or public domain licences: the Saddledome, Rogers Place, 17th Avenue, Whyte Ave, 124 Street and a few more. Everything else is an illustration generated with an image model.

The illustrations exist because there is no honest way to photograph a typical wing night or a typical patio without picking one real bar and its customers. An illustration can show the kind of place a page talks about without pretending to be any one of them.

How each AI picture is labelled

Every AI-generated picture carries a visible "AI" badge on the image itself. The caption below it says it is an AI image, and the alternative text read out by screen readers says the same. You should never have to guess.

Captions on these pictures describe a kind of scene, such as a pub of the sort found on 17th Avenue or empty arena seats after a game. They never name a real bar as the place shown. If a caption reads like a specific venue, that is a mistake worth reporting.

What is never generated

Some things are off limits for the image model, and every picture is checked against this list before it is published.

Real people are never generated: no player, coach, bartender, owner or recognisable fan appears in an AI picture, and faces in crowd scenes are kept anonymous. Real named venues are excluded too, inside or out, and that includes the former Home & Away bar. The same goes for team logos, crests, jerseys with real marks, league marks or sponsor brands. Betting screens, odds displays and operator branding are left out as well.

Real places appear only in the real photographs, and those are labelled with their source.

How an illustration gets onto a page

An editor writes a short description of the scene the page needs, the image model produces options, and an editor reviews the result before it goes anywhere. Pictures with odd hands, invented signage, unreadable text that looks like a brand or anything that resembles a real venue are rejected. The picture then gets its badge, caption and alt text.

This is slower than grabbing stock photos, which is fine. A picture that needs a long explanation of what it is not showing gets thrown out.

Real photos and where they come from

Each Wikimedia Commons photo is listed in the credit table on the about page with its file name and licence, such as CC BY 2.0, CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC0. The licence terms of each file are followed as published on Commons. You can see two of them on the Rogers Place visitor guide.

Reporting a concern

If you think a picture is missing its label, looks like a real person or a real venue, or uses a photo without proper credit, email [email protected] with the page address and a short description. The picture will be checked and, if needed, replaced or removed. The contact page explains what else the desk can help with.