For future reference; wondering if there are limits on what constitutes cover art?
tray: Edit #38750244 - Add cover art
How would I look at Edit #38750244
?
Not sure if I understand your question, but https://musicbrainz.org/edit/38750244 definitely looks useful to me.
After all, we have a âtrayâ cover type 
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http://musicbrainz.org/edit/38750244
It is of a CD tray and that is a valid type so what is the problem.
A lot of the time there is art or text under the tray so it is useful to have it.
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If thatâs what the release looks like, then the cover art is fine, even if itâs not very pretty or useful in itself. After all, if we didnât have that image, we wouldnât know whether we were missing anything.
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Agreed!
Iâve uploaded many a blank tray or completely white/blank scan⌠nobodyâs complained yet, but itâs only a matter of time! 
Seems legit to me.
Given all the variations in packaging including this images is better than not having it.
I donât think uploading a basically content-free image is useful. We are called editors, we should apply some editorial judgement.
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It seems like there needs to be a way to note that thereâs no information or images on a certain area without having to upload an âemptyâ image.
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I donât see any problem with a content free piece of the artwork. It shows part of the releaseâs packaging, and even if this has just a single color that is an information and in many cases an artistic choice by the graphic designer.
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Iâve definitely no problem with that. Itâs not like itâs a standard grey jewel case insert (though, even then, if someone wanted to upload it I wouldnât mind).
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True enough, but I think of us more as archivists and (to a lesser degree) curators. 
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If someone went to the trouble of scanning it, I donât have a problem uploading it.
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(I get it that Iâm in the minority here â just let me argue my case a little bit longer.)
Yep, though Iâd rather s/he had scanned a more useful piece of another release first. We have a lot of releases lacking all art, and a very high percentage only have a front cover.
Second, as a part-time systems administrator I feel for the people having to care about the storage & backup of all this data. Letâs not make their job harder for relatively little gain.
Maybe the IA with their god-like archival prowess does not care⌠But I think itâs always a trade-off â and I would choose differently in this case.
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But this is a volunteer driven operation and none of us get to dictate what kinds of edits other editors do or do not do. If they really like to scan âemptyâ cover art and thatâs what works for/triggers them (and it doesnât harm anyone or the database), then that is their prerogative. Just like some people just really want other people to not use âcomprised ofâ.
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[quote=âsparkinson, post:8, topic:55817, full:trueâ]
I donât think uploading a basically content-free image is useful. We are called editors, we should apply some editorial judgement.
[/quote]Sorry if it sounds condescending, but does your argument go further than âI donât find it useful so itâs not usefulâ?
If Iâve uploaded it, at least one person finds it useful (eg me!)
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I took no offence, and I certainly didnât mean to offend the uploader.
While I still consider empty tray images not very useful to MBâs general userbase, I cannot substantiate that intuition with any concrete evidence. On the contrary, in this thread the general mood is one of affirmation or indifference.
Whatâs your motivation to have it uploaded? Completeness?
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Sure thing. Still, some actions are valued higher than others. If something is not well received, pushback can be applied.
But clearly, this is not the case here!
Partly that, partly because that ensures that if a second version exists that is the same except for the tray, now we can see the difference. Which sure, is unlikely, but it still makes it more likely to be useful than not. For all we know, a future researcher might want to analyse the amount of plain grey trays in US vs UK releases or something 
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This reminds me of a predicament I had scanning some 35mm slides. I would come across a roll with a few black images (lense cap on? lol). I decided it was important for me to scan it so that I knew there wasnât a missing image. I suppose a plain CD tray is like that, but not as important as a possible missing photo.
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