help:tags
Tags are keywords used to describe posts, allowing you to easily search and explore posts based on their content. Consult the cheat sheet for a full guide on searching posts. See the tag groups for existing tags.
Tagging guidelines
When you're tagging a post, use the following guidelines:
Replace spaces with underscores
For example, maria-sama ga miteru becomes maria-sama_ga_miteru. Spaces are used to separate tags.
Character names
In general, use whatever order the source material uses. Failing this, use the ordering the character's nationality suggests. This typically means LastName FirstName order for Asian names, and FirstName LastName order for Western names (except for Hungarians in many cases). Subaru Nakajima is a good example of this rule - in all official promotional artwork FirstName LastName order is used.
Some characters have a mixture of Asian and Western names. Refer to the source material for these cases. Failing that, the general rule is, use whatever ordering the character's last name suggests. Asuka Langley Souryuu has a Japanese last name, so it would become Souryuu Asuka Langley. Akira Ferrari has an Italian last name, so it becomes Akira Ferrari. But again, there are exceptions to this, like Setsuna F. Seiei.
Use the full names of characters whenever possible. Using full names reduces the chances of collisions.
Tag name restrictions
- Must not be blank, i.e. must contain at least one character
- Cannot contain any asterisks ( * ) or commas ( , )
- Cannot begin with a tilde ( ~ ) or dash ( - )
- Cannot begin or end with an underscore ( _ ), or contain consecutive underscores
- Must contain only printable characters
!"#$%&'()+-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~- Cannot begin with a metatag and ":"
- Example:
pool:test - See List of available metatags
- "new" and "search" are reserved and cannot be used
- *_(cosplay) tags must have an existing character tag
- E.g. chen_(cosplay) must have a chen tag
Ask
If you're not sure whether a tag is right or wrong, then ask for help in topic #12251 ("How do I tag this?").
Tag categories
There are five types of tags: artist, character, copyright, general, and meta. Artist tags are red, characters are green, copyrights are purple, general tags are blue, and meta tags are yellow.
Artist
Artist tags identify the creator of a post. This means the creator of the individual artwork, not the author of the copyright the post belongs to.
Artist names should follow the guidelines in howto:romanize. Ask in topic #8199 ("Artist tagging help") if you need help creating an artist tag.
Character
Character tags identify the characters in the post. Remember that Danbooru uses LastName_FirstName ordering.
Copyright
Copyright tags identify the anime, manga, game, or novel that the post is associated with. More generally, copyright tags identify the source material that the characters are from.
Copyright tags should not be used for trademarks or brand names. A rule of thumb: if something doesn't have characters, it probably shouldn't be a copyright tag.
Meta
Meta tags generally describe things beyond the content of the image itself. Examples include translated, copyright request, duplicate, image sample, and bad id.
General
General tags are used for everything else. General tags should objectively describe the contents of the post.
- Tag what you see, not what you know: only tag things you can see in the individual image, not what you know. For example, you wouldn't tag skirt on a portrait post of a character just because their canon outfit includes a skirt.
- There exist a few exceptions to this, such as relationship tags e.g. siblings.
- Don't use subjective tags which can be biased by personal preferences (e.g. cute or sexy)
Changing tag categories
You can change the category of the tag by prefixing it with artist:, character:, copyright:, meta:, or general: when tagging a post. For example, tagging a post with artist:sakura would change the sakura tag to an artist tag.
art:, char:, copy: are shortcuts for these prefixes.
You can also search the Tags listing and use the "edit" link next to the tag to change its category.
Tags with between 50 and 1000 posts can only have their category changed by Builders. Category changes for above 1000 posts can be done by Admins, though any large changes should be discussed on the forum first. Make a bulk update request to create a forum topic requesting that a tag category be changed.