Tagging Guidelines
Tagging is the primary discovery method on imageboards, and tagging images properly is very important. By tagging an image with keywords which describe the content, users are able to search for images featuring a specific character or theme. Detailed and specialized tagging is what makes imageboards art databases, rather than an unsorted collection of artwork.
Tagging sometimes feels more like an art than a science, but these guidelines should help with maintaining consistent and easily searchable tags.
Tag what you see, not what you know:
A picture of a character with green eyes should be tagged with the green_eyes tag, of course. A picture of that same character with their eyes closed should not be given the green_eyes tag, however, since the eyes are not visible and that tag does not accurately describe the art. Your knowledge of the character or franchise should be put aside, and you should only tag what you see in the image.
Tag objectively
Tastes vary between people, so subjective tags like "cute", "sexy", etc. should be avoided.
Put tags in the correct namespace
Some tags have a category or "namespace" prepended to them for organizational purposes. Make sure tags are added to the correct namespace. The currently available namespaces are:
- artist: for artists and creators
- series: for series or copyrights
- character: for character names
- meta: for miscellaneous administrative tags
- No prefix for general tags, as any non-prefixed tag is considered to be a general tag
Be specific
Particularly for characters, names can become ambiguous if two characters from different franchises share the same name. Rather than canonizing one of them, be specific when tagging franchise-specific characters and objects. For example, tag character:sayo_hikawa_(bang_dream!) rather than just character:sayo_hikawa.
Use well-known terms
Fewer people than you think know what series:mirai_nikki is, and a lot more people know series:future_diary. As a rule, if an official localization exists, it should be used as the primary tag. In cases where there is no official localization, there is usually a consensus on what the most correct localized name is. Only in cases where the unlocalized title is the most well-known one should it be used as the tag.
This is a primarily English-speaking imageboard run by an American administrator. As such, names should be localized in the American naming order (given name, surname) rather than the Japanese naming order (surname, given name). The only exception is if the alternate naming order is widely used in official localizations. For example, character:hatsune_miku_(vocaloid) would be the correct tag.
Tagging sometimes feels more like an art than a science, but these guidelines should help with maintaining consistent and easily searchable tags.
Tag what you see, not what you know:
A picture of a character with green eyes should be tagged with the green_eyes tag, of course. A picture of that same character with their eyes closed should not be given the green_eyes tag, however, since the eyes are not visible and that tag does not accurately describe the art. Your knowledge of the character or franchise should be put aside, and you should only tag what you see in the image.
Tag objectively
Tastes vary between people, so subjective tags like "cute", "sexy", etc. should be avoided.
Put tags in the correct namespace
Some tags have a category or "namespace" prepended to them for organizational purposes. Make sure tags are added to the correct namespace. The currently available namespaces are:
- artist: for artists and creators
- series: for series or copyrights
- character: for character names
- meta: for miscellaneous administrative tags
- No prefix for general tags, as any non-prefixed tag is considered to be a general tag
Be specific
Particularly for characters, names can become ambiguous if two characters from different franchises share the same name. Rather than canonizing one of them, be specific when tagging franchise-specific characters and objects. For example, tag character:sayo_hikawa_(bang_dream!) rather than just character:sayo_hikawa.
Use well-known terms
Fewer people than you think know what series:mirai_nikki is, and a lot more people know series:future_diary. As a rule, if an official localization exists, it should be used as the primary tag. In cases where there is no official localization, there is usually a consensus on what the most correct localized name is. Only in cases where the unlocalized title is the most well-known one should it be used as the tag.
The name order debate
This is a primarily English-speaking imageboard run by an American administrator. As such, names should be localized in the American naming order (given name, surname) rather than the Japanese naming order (surname, given name). The only exception is if the alternate naming order is widely used in official localizations. For example, character:hatsune_miku_(vocaloid) would be the correct tag.